Chesterton once described the popular Atheistic rhetoricians of his day who waxed romantic about the size of the universe like a jailor trying to console a prisoner by saying ‘there, there, it is a rather large prison’. I couldn’t help but notice that so little has changed in the 80 odd years since he wrote it. (Last night apparently NASA’s space craft and explorer to Mars … [Read more...]
The Onion, The Middle-Class, and the Suppression of the Spiritual Franciscans
"one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." - Jesus (Lk. 12:15) This post was inspired by a story I read from the Onion today that was incredibly accurate in its satire. Every time I meet someone I know in the streets or see a person at a party, the question that almost immediately arises is "where are you working?" For Anglo-Americans work is a … [Read more...]
The Historic Monergism of W.H. Auden
This weekend I heard of the conversion story of W.H. Auden, one of - if not my favourite poet(s). He was raised in a High Church Anglican parish and apparently held the censer for the priest, enjoying the liturgies and 'magic' of the sacraments. Having walked away from his faith as a young adult, in 1939 Auden moved to the United States after attending Oxford (Christ … [Read more...]
Hymn History: Abide With Me
The first time I heard this hymn was at the funeral of a friend. It instantly became my favourite, to the point that when N.T. Wright criticized it in his "Surprised by Hope" I felt myself turned off from his theology forever (irrational though it might have been). Henry Francis Lyte, the author of this hymn had a fascinating biography. Having studied with the Anglo-Irish … [Read more...]
Hymn History: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
In 1862 George Matheson had a great deal going for him. He had been a successful student in classics, logic, and philosophy from the University of Glasgow, and at the age of 20 he was engaged to marry a young woman he loved. However, that year, he became ill and tragically lost his sight. Rather than be comforted by his betrothed, the story goes that his fiance said that she … [Read more...]