Search Results
Great Christian Thinkers - 8 St. Cyprian
Great Christian Thinkers - 8 St. Cyprian
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Cyprian We come now to an excellent African bishop of the third century, St. Cyprian, “the first bishop in Africa to obtain the crown of martyrdom.” His fame, Pontius the Deacon, his first biographer, attests, is also linked to his literary corpus and pastoral activity during…
Lectio Divina the Sacred Art - 9 THE GIFT OF BEING
Lectio Divina the Sacred Art - 9 THE GIFT OF BEING
by Christine Valters Painter
THE GIFT OF BEING The fourth movement of lectio is called contemplatio, which is Latin for “contemplation.” While the whole process of lectio divina is considered contemplative prayer, contemplatio is the culmination of the previous three movements and the time when we enter more…
Great Christian Thinkers - 9 Eusebius of Caesarea
Great Christian Thinkers - 9 Eusebius of Caesarea
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Eusebius of Caesarea In the history of early Christianity, there is a fundamental distinction between the first three centuries and those that followed the Council of Nicaea in 325, the First Ecumenical Council… Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by Pope Benedict XVI
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 8 “Habitually”
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 8 “Habitually”
by SPCK - Michael Volland
“Habitually” Bolton and Thompson tell us that ‘habit’ is the characteristic that distinguishes entrepreneurs from owner-managers in business. They explain, as noted above, that ‘the true entrepreneur just cannot stop being an entrepreneur’… Taken from The Minister as Entrepreneur…
The Monastery Of The Heart - 9 Equality
The Monastery Of The Heart - 9 Equality
by SPCK - Joan Chittister
Equality “Monastics keep their rank in the monastery according to the date of their entry and the virtue of their lives.” We like to think that equality is the basic characteristic of this—our—period of history. Ironically, inequality is the great sign of our time. Today, everyon…
Simply Good News - Rethinking Heaven
Simply Good News - Rethinking Heaven
by SPCK - N T Wright
Rethinking Heaven If Jesus’s first followers spoke about the good news of what had just happened, what did they think would happen in the future as a result? Here we face a major problem. For many generations in the modern church, followers of Jesus in many parts of the world hav…
Simply Good News - The Competing Gospel of the Modern World
Simply Good News - The Competing Gospel of the Modern World
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Competing Gospel of the Modern World The first problem, we recall, is that the church has colluded with the legacy of the Middle Ages, proposing going to heaven as the ultimate goal and an angry God as the problem to get around. The second is that modern culture has operated …
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 - Wrong Future, Wrong Present
Simply Good News - Wrong Future, Wrong Present
by SPCK - N T Wright
Wrong Future, Wrong Present Like the good news about what has happened in the past, the good news about what will happen in the future has proved hard to grasp. There is a powerful reason for this, which I shall come to in a moment. For now, let’s just note some of the other less…
Simply Good News - Saving the World
Simply Good News - Saving the World
by SPCK - N T Wright
Saving the World But how does the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus and the good news that this was for our sins and in accordance with the scriptures turn out to be the good news of the new creation? How are these things joined together? The answer is simple – and…
Simply Good News - What the Resurrection Reveals
Simply Good News - What the Resurrection Reveals
by SPCK - N T Wright
What the Resurrection Reveals If that had been the end, however, it wouldn’t have been good news at all. It would only have meant one more failed messiah. The only reason the death of Jesus was ever thought of as good news was because of what happened next…
Simply Good News - A Different Kind of King
Simply Good News - A Different Kind of King
by SPCK - N T Wright
A Different Kind of King That is why, throughout Jesus’s public career, he talked about the good news of God’s kingdom, redefining the idea of God’s kingdom as he went along. God was coming back to take charge, he said. But it didn’t look like what people had imagined…
Simply Good News - The Power of Love
Simply Good News - The Power of Love
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Power of Love The clash between Jesus and the powers of the world – between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of humans – was never about God simply having a bit more power than humans, so that he could manage to beat them at their own game. It isn’t that God has stronger ta…
Simply Good News - Surprised by King Jesus
Simply Good News - Surprised by King Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Surprised by King Jesus It’s time now to home in on the central figure of the story. Jesus himself remains one of the most compelling figures in all human history. No matter what your worldview, your beliefs, or your culture, you will find Jesus haunting, disturbing, and attracti…
Simply Good News - The Back Story
Simply Good News - The Back Story
by SPCK - N T Wright
2 part c The Back Story In particular, Paul was saying that they didn’t need the old gods any more. At this point he was presenting to the world an essentially Jewish message. The Jewish people cherished their ancient scriptures, in which, across many centuries, prophets, scribes…
Simply Good News - Foolish, Scandalous or Good
Simply Good News - Foolish, Scandalous or Good
by SPCK - N T Wright
2 Foolish, Scandalous or Good? The man was a Jew, born and bred in what is now south-eastern Turkey. He was called Saul, a Hebrew name that, in his Jewish culture, had ancient royal associations. In Greek, however (Greek was the standard language around the Mediterranean world, l…
Simply Good News - The King's Herald