This post is not going to be one that covers the few prooftexts in Scripture that generally tend to be the focus in discussions on the topic of original sin. I wanted to make sure at the outset that nobody reading this post did so with the wrong expectations. I will look at those specific [...]
Thomas Howard’s fifth chapter is titled: Hail, Blessed Virgin Mary: What Did the Angel Mean? Oddly, to my mind, he uses that introduction to explore how marriage is both a spiritual and physical union in a way that is intertwined and inseparable. He then builds on that to show how the foundation of Christian faith, [...]
Next I reflect on section 3 of the fourth chapter of For the Life of the World. Here is the link to Deacon Michael Hyatt’s first podcast on chapter four.
For the Life of the World: Part Nine
Baptism proper begins with the blessing of the water. To understand, however, the meaning of water here, one [...]
Now we will move forward several decades and reflect on Justin Martyr’s First Apology. This places us right in the middle of the second century. There are few left alive at this point who personally encountered any of the apostles, but there are still those few. There are now many who have been taught by [...]
This series is reflecting on the Didache if you want to read it separately.
Do not remove your hand from your son or daughter; rather, teach them the fear of God from their youth. Do not enjoin anything in your bitterness upon your bondman or maidservant, who hope in the same God, lest [...]
This series is reflecting on the Didache if you want to read it separately.
If someone strikes your right cheek, turn to him the other also, and you shall be perfect.
This line of the teaching haunts me. It echos Jesus in its call for us to live the way of love and by so doing [...]
This series is reflecting on the Didache if you want to read it separately.
The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you.
What lies at the heart [...]
This series is reflecting on the Didache if you want to read it separately.
There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways.
I’m not the sort to separate the crunchy physicality of the Christian story from its spirituality. Yet, as I’ve read this opening line [...]