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Great Christian Thinkers - 18 St. Eusebius of Vercelli
Great Christian Thinkers - 18 St. Eusebius of Vercelli
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Eusebius of Vercelli I invite you to reflect on St. Eusebius of Vercelli, the first bishop of northern Italy of whom we have reliable information. Born in Sardinia at the beginning of the fourth century, he moved to Rome with his family at a tender age. Later, he was institut…
Great Christian Thinkers - 65 St. Thomas Aquinas
Great Christian Thinkers - 65 St. Thomas Aquinas
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Thomas Aquinas His Life and Context We continue our meditation on some of the great thinkers of the Middle Ages. We recently looked at the great figure of St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan, and here I discuss the one whom the Church calls the Doctor Communis, namely, St. Thomas A…
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 4 Prelude
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 4 Prelude
by SPCK-Kenneth E. Bailey
Prelude To begin this topic, a brief overview of the history of “rhetorical criticism” may be helpful. In 1969, in his presidential address to the Society of Biblical Literature, James Muilenburg issued a call for moving beyond form criticism to what he titled “rhetorical critici…
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 15 Three Roadblocks
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 15 Three Roadblocks
by SPCK-Kenneth E. Bailey
Essay 2 Sex Three Roadblocks In the previous section of the essay (2.1) Paul cut the Gordian knot. He told the Corinthians to remove the offender from the fellowship of the church. Here he discusses head-on three aspects of this case of incest that must be dealt with. These are n…
Lectio Divina the Sacred Art - 5 “GIVE ME A WORD”
Lectio Divina the Sacred Art - 5 “GIVE ME A WORD”
by Christine Valters Painter
“GIVE ME A WORD” What is a sacred text? Traditionally it comes from a collection of authorized religious writings, such as the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. The desert mothers and fathers believed that God spoke to them directly and intimately through the words of the Bible, w…
Mark The People's Commentary - Mark 4
Mark The People's Commentary - Mark 4
by BRF - Dick France
Mark 4 In the middle of both the first and third acts of Mark’s drama (see study 2 for the three acts) we find what seems like an interlude, where we are offered a concentrated collection of Jesus’ teaching before the story resumes at its previous breathless pace. In chapter 13 t…
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and the Poor
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and the Poor
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
11 Jesus and the Poor It’s striking, isn’t it, that God often comes to us in times of deprivation and loss, at times when we’re most down and depressed, at our weakest and most vulnerable, and perhaps feeling least religious? It’s true, of course, that we feel God’s presence at t…
Hymn: The troubles of the age
Hymn: The troubles of the age
by Michael Docker
The troubles of the age, from fear to endless war, As wealth flows to the rich While walls surround the poor, Are by God's power Promised to be Destroyed by He Whose love is sure. The landscapes of the mind, from lower thoughts to high ; From cold indifference to every hurt we cr…
Simply Good News - Resurrection as the Beginning of a New World
Simply Good News - Resurrection as the Beginning of a New World
by SPCK - N T Wright
Saving the World How do we know all this? How can we know all this? How is all this not simply a pious dream, a fantasy, a utopia that we all enjoy but know is a mirage? The answer is simple. Jesus was raised from the dead. This is, of course, the second half of the classic summa…
Simply Good News - Getting the Balance Right
Simply Good News - Getting the Balance Right
by SPCK - N T Wright
Getting the Balance Right The good news, then, is good news about the present as well as the past and the future. Despite the secular claim that all real advances in the world are the result of secular modernism, and despite the barrage of hostility launched against the church by…
Scripture and the Authority of God - Scripture within the Christian-People,BC
Scripture and the Authority of God - Scripture within the Christian-People,BC
by SPCK - N T Wright
Scripture within the Kingdom-People, BC ‘God’s Kingdom’, in Old Testament and Judaism, Affirms God’s Victory over Evil The question of God’s ‘kingdom’ or ‘kingship’ is raised, in the Old Testament and in subsequent Judaism, by the presence of radical evil within the good creation…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Entertaining Unawares
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Entertaining Unawares
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Entertaining Angels Unawares Genesis 18: 1-15 One of my friends thinks she may once have met an angel. She was driving to work along a stretch of road surrounded by open land in a well-to-do part of the Los Angeles area, and she passed someone who looked rather like a homeless ma…
Imagining the Lectionary: Facing the danger of freeing the self (Lent 1C)
Imagining the Lectionary: Facing the danger of freeing the self (Lent 1C)
by David Perry
Imagining the Lectionary: Facing the danger of freeing the self (Lent 1C) Reflection accompanying images: “Dangerous site” and “Piece of berlin wall change your life outside imperial war museum” Another Lent begins, and once more we have the precious opportunity mindfully to let…
Hymn: The power of three surrounds us
Hymn: The power of three surrounds us
by Michael Docker
The power of three surrounds us; In story, joke and song - The three-legged chair most stable; The three-strand rope most strong; The independent witness Adds weight when two agree; The worlds of science and nature Affirm the power of three - And so we sing the story Of God the T…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - God's Patience