Another story of a hymn 'improved' by hymnal editors. John Newton, of 'Amazing Grace' fame, wrote another well-known, and a far better, hymn on the name of Jesus. It was published as part of Olney Hymns, a collaboration between Newton and William Cowper. The original text of this hymn is given below. I have put…
Healthy Church Growth
… or how to shrink your church. This blog post by Tim Suttle on Huffington Post has spread like wildfire amongst my Facebook friends—and quite right, too! I would not phrase everything quite the same way, but the basic point is spot-on: The church's task is to be faithful, not to grow—to be, not to…
On being one in Christ
A paper presented to the Fareham Clergy Fraternal at St. Dominic's Priory, Sway, Hampshire 11 May 2011 Ubi Christus, ibi ecclesia Where Christ is, there is the Church. Whether we have thought about it or not, whether we would phrase it like that or not, we can’t get away from the simple truth: where Christ…
Adam and His Wife
Peter Leithart writes: Yahweh put Adam into deep-sleep, death-sleep, in the garden. When he woke he found Eve waiting for him. So too the last Adam, who does into death-sleep, and whose first sight after waking are the women come to minister to Him. But there is more: Yahweh put the last Adam into death-sleep…
Revelation, knowledge and the Church
The concept of a contingent revelation of God in Christ denies in principle the possibility of the self-understanding of the I apart from the reference to revelation (Christian transcendentalism). The concept of revelation must, therefore, yield an epistemology of its own. But inasmuch as an interpretation of revelation in terms of act or in terms…
United they stand
From whence comes this unifying effect of the great confessions? It is explained by the fact that in the churches which still take their confession seriously something of that great earnestness is still alive with which the Word of God requires us to give consideration to questions of doctrine. This is the case also tehre,…
Et unam sanctam …
If the church were constituted by our faith, then a series of churches would be conceivable, because there are varying views regarding Christ. Luther's faith in Christ is something different than [sic] that of the modern American Protestant. But if Christ, the present Lord, constitutes the church, then there can be only one church, because…
Why is the Church Apostolic?
I am working on my eternal project, a Master's Thesis on the Porvoo Common Statement (PCS). On re-reading the Statement, I noticed anew the following definition of the Church's apostolicity: Apostolic tradition in the Church means continuity in the permanent characteristics of the Church of the apostles: witness to the apostolic faith, proclamation and fresh…
SimonPotamos 