[on: "give us this day our daily bread"] "Behold, thus God wishes to indicate to us how He cares for us in all our need, and faithfully provides also for our temporal support. And although He abundantly grants and preserves these things even to the wicked and knaves, yet He wishes that we pray for them, in order that we may recognize that we receive them from His hand, and … [Read more...]
Civic v. Spiritual Righteousness and the Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661-1662
In our society when something tragic or extreme happens – like the shooting in Colorado – it is portrayed as an horrific exception to the rule of the normative goodness of human beings. By comparison, in days gone by, things worked much differently. In a society which confessed the total depravity of man, when things were going well and there was a lack of egregious crimes, … [Read more...]
Work in Eden and Heaven
As I look forward to the prospect of job-hunting this week I've been thinking about the nature of work. I've often heard a sort of Weber-ian account of the virtue and greatness of work, as well as the often-remarked claim that there was even work in the Garden of Eden, and thus work was a part of Paradise for man. I've always felt this to be completely untrue. I hate work … [Read more...]
Vive La Counter-Revolution!
(News of the Christian Revolution spreads more slowly than those of its competitors, but for those of you in need of some, here's a great story of Muslims converting to Christianity in Germany) When the Communists took power in Vietnam the Marxists followed a pattern going back to 1870 when the Communards of Paris shot their city’s archbishop. Most priests and Christian … [Read more...]
South Park's Depiction of Historical Theology
The argument from inconsistent revelations is a common case made by atheists but decreasingly popular, in a less religious culture. In short it says that because so many religions preach different ways to Heaven, then choosing any one of them is mathematically risky and foolish because you could be wrong. Thus it’s better not to choose a religion and be agnostic. However … [Read more...]