Here I go again after another of my long lapses. I’m not going to become king of the blogosphere at this rate, but that’s OK. An online acquaintance of mine, Tim Enloe, asked me a few weeks ago to expand a remark I once made to the effect that the Church is not “semper reformanda” (always to be reformed) but rather “semper renovanda” (always to be renewed). Here’s what I mean by this. “Semper reformanda” asserts that one must, from... Read more

In my last post I referred briefly to the medieval courtly romance “Erec et Enide,” which I read this past year. I had intended to write a response to it on this blog some time ago, but never got around to doing so. Since I’ve brought it up, I might as well describe it in somewhat more detail, for those who were mystified by my brief reference to it yesterday. Erec, the hero of the poem, is a young knight... Read more

A more interesting critique of Narnia than Toynbee’s (not focused on the movie, BTW) is the article “Prisoner of Narnia” by Adam Gopnik. Gopnik is himself a children’s writer (his books sound interesting and I’d like to read one of them). He appreciates Lewis’s imagination, but he clearly resents the fact that Lewis insisted on trying to “imprison” his marvellous fantasies within the “straitened and punitive morality of organized worship.” The power of Lewis’s fantasy, Gopnik argues, is that his... Read more

It’s been a long while since I’ve blogged, as happens from time to time. I keep intending to blog more regularly, but it’s probably best not to make promises! I have been meaning to post a review of the Narnia movie for a while. By now most folks have said their say, and there’ s little to add. There were certainly things one could object to, but the main effect the movie had on me was to remind me just... Read more

++Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, occupies one of the least enviable seats in Christendom at this moment. Arguably even the Pope might not want to trade places with him. When ++Williams was chosen as archbishop, the evangelicals in the C of E wore black armbands in protest. Just a few weeks ago, a poster on another blog denied that ++Williams was a Christian because of his speculation regarding the possible legitimacy of same sex relationships. But the left is no... Read more

One of the central slogans that’s come to be identified with the Reformation is the “priesthood of all believers.” For a long time I found this phrase very off-putting, because I associated it with the radical denial of any hierarchy or sacramentality in the Church. In my experience, Protestants used the slogan to turn the Church into a religious counterpart to modern liberal democracy. And I was (and am) convinced that that’s simply a sell-out to modern culture. Furthermore, as... Read more

“There are no unsacred places;there are only sacred placesand desecrated places.” Thanks to la nouvelle theologie for the quote (the whole poem is over there). Read more

Dave, Here at last is my piece defending the development of Protestant ecclesiology, which I’ve been promising you for several years now. I’ve been sitting on it for nearly two years now–finishing it turned out to be easier and quicker than I’d anticipated. Perhaps I really will get a lot of things done now the dissertation ordeal is drawing to a close . . . . This may not be exactly the kind of dialogue you want to have. That’s... Read more

My defense will take place on Oct. 17. Assuming all goes well, a major phase of my life will be over, and a great burden will be off my shoulders. Now, presumeably, I can do all the things I’ve been putting off till the dissertation was done. I can write novels and poetry and blog every day and argue with Dave Armstrong and keep in touch with all my friends. . . . Of course, I also have to find... Read more

I’ve been carrying on a conversation in the comments section with a poster named Binx, who posed some excellent questions relating to my last post. So I decided to move t into a new blog post (in part because it’s late Sunday night and I haven’t made a new post this weekend). As I have time–probably next weekend–I hope to move on to the priesthood of all believers, and from there to women’s ordination–so stay tuned! Binx initially raised three... Read more