Probably just because I’m spending the summertime in England, I’ve been listening to Van Morrison’s song by that name lately. This is not the song I’d send somebody to if they wanted to understand what some people find so fascinating about Van Morrison; there are too many problems with it. But if it catches you, it won’t let go. It’s got everything. It was a twelve-minute monster of a studio song on Morrison’s 1980 album Common One, and critics immediately... Read more
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the literary giant behind Rasselas and the first truly great English dictionary, had a cat. He actually had several cats over the course of his life, actually, but the only one we have information about is a black cat named Hodge. Johnson’s biographer, Boswell, hated cats, but grudgingly reported on Johnson’s fondness for Hodge. I learned about Hodge serendipitously last week when my family was in London. We were making our way down the famous Fleet Street,... Read more
This is the book list, with short annotations, for a class I teach on the Trinity from time to time here at Biola. There’s more to a class than just the book list, of course: our classroom work is all Socratic discussion, and during the semester we spend some time on supplementary topics like the Trinity in art, music, teaching children, and understanding anti-trinitarian groups. Still, the book list is the heart of this readings course, and I love the... Read more
Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. 1 Peter 4:19 No sensible man would insist that these things are as I have described them, but I think it is fitting for a man to risk the belief—for the risk is a noble one—that this, or something like this, is true about our souls and their dwelling places, since the soul... Read more
Today was Trinity Sunday, as observed by churches who follow the western liturgical calendar. There wasn’t always a Trinity Sunday, and even when (well into the middle ages) it was proposed, some popes argued against it on the grounds that (a) feast days are supposed to commemorate events, not doctrines, and (b) every Sunday is Trinity Sunday. Those are pretty good arguments. But eventually both objections were overturned by the recognition that it’s a good idea to have a... Read more
When you hear the word “mystery” in a sermon or in the Bible, what do you do? What do you expect to happen next? In a sermon on 1 Timothy 3:16 (“great is the mystery of Godliness”), John Calvin said that we should have two responses: When we hear this word, mystery, let us remember two things; first, that we learn to keep under our senses, and flatter not ourselves that we have sufficient knowledge and ability to comprehend so vast a matter.... Read more
First you’re justified, then you become sanctified, and finally you’ll be glorified. To make progress as a disciple is to grow in sanctification. Right? Yes, this is how we talk. And when we talk this way, we know what we’re talking about. The word “sanctification” points to a process of development, a growing “in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18). But when we take that kind of language and turn to the Bible, we... Read more
I can still recall the day, seventeen years ago. We were introduced one Sunday by a mutual mentor of ours, the late, much lamented Fr. Michael E. Trigg. After the morning liturgy, we three talked for quite an extended time in the parish hall during the coffee hour, talking books, ideas, and Socratic pedagogy. By the end of our conversation, I knew that I had made a friend for life. Little did I know that this meeting would change the... Read more
(For Torrey graduation, May 25, 2012) Father God, we bring these seniors, this class of 2012, to you today. We lift them up before you, and call their names in your presence, and call on your name in their presence. Because this is the moment of the handoff. We are passing them on to you. Here. Take them. Just four years ago their parents handed them off to us when they arrived at Biola, and we came to know and... Read more
Today Biola held a special farewell reception for John Mark Reynolds, who is becoming provost of Houston Baptist University after 18 years as director of the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola. The Dean of Humanities emceed the university-wide event, at which the president gave Reynolds a genuine Jim Rice homerun baseball that he caught himself (!), Torrey prof Joe Henderson sang “All the Way My Savior Leads Me,” and incoming Torrey director Paul Spears unveiled the Founder’s Award, which will... Read more
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