Resources from 2024
If I had to pick a Scripture passage to epitomize the themes of Lydia Jaeger’s new book Ordinary Splendor, it would be Psalm 8:
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens. [...]
The Lord received Dr. John W. Montgomery’s soul Wednesday morning, September the 25th. I can’t help but join my tributes to those of others influenced by this remarkable man. [...]
Over the past few years, I have dabbled in collecting vinyl records, or LPs. Recently, I decided to upgrade my turntable and purchase a system with stereo speakers. I now have one on the right and one on the left, and the sound is warm and inviting. It has been a terrific upgrade [...]
The sound of the trees is breath:
Gallons of air guzzled by
Leaves before they taste fall’s death,
Having one last song to cry— [...]
Early one morning, a man finds himself stuck in Southern California traffic on his way in to work. He lives north of the city but drives to his downtown office every day. Every morning, he finds himself in the heart of rush hour traffic, surrounded by others who commute to their job from outside the city. [...]
I watched a boat split water clear and calm
Across the lake one night at summer’s end;
The ripples, strong and fading fast, bent light
In semi-circles, bright and diamond-edged. [...]
I was blessed with a grandfather who modeled a life that represented an impeccably well-ordered hierarchy of loves. Jasper N. Dorsey (1913–1990), whom we all called “Papa,” was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, friend, churchman, patriot, and public servant. He was the most honorable man I have ever known. [...]
Besides the conversation of the cricket
And distant whirs of passing cars, no voice
Invades this night. The grazers in the thicket,
If not asleep, stay watching, stand with poise. [...]
This essay is a lightly edited version of a speech Dr. Horton gave at the Nixon Library in 2018. Part political history and part historical theology, he traces the influence of Catholic and reformational convictions about the fallenness of human nature on the development of early modern political thinkers [...]
"So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, 'Behold the man!'" (John 19:5) Pilate says more here than he realizes. We can understand when Peter, astonished and overwhelmed at Jesus’ control over the storm, exclaims, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). [...]
The relationship between church and state has generated questions from the start. Although the basic biblical principles seem straightforward, their applications to specific situations have frequently been muddled and perplexing. [...]
In 1629 and 1630, Maximus of Gallipoli sat in a room in the Dutch embassy in Constantinople (today, Istanbul). A learned monk ordained as a priest in the Greek Orthodox Church, he spent his days in the ambassador’s residence overlooking the Golden Horn on the Bosporus Strait, laboring on the first ever translation of the New Testament into the Greek vernacular. [...]
Jesus summarized the law as devotion to God above all and to our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22:34–40). Although some neighbors are naturally closer than others, God makes it plain that we should consider every human being as worthy of our neighborly love. [...]
On December 11, 1516, George Spalatin, secretary to Elector Frederick of Saxony, wrote a letter to Erasmus. Spalatin had been asked to pass on a statement from his friend, “an Augustinian priest, not less famous for the sanctity of his life than for his theological erudition.” [...]
You know you have reached the pinnacle of modern pop culture when you bear a mononym: Cher, Beyoncé, Adele, Madonna. The greatest pop star of the early Reformation has long enjoyed similar treatment. Sometimes he is Desiderius Erasmus or Erasmus of Rotterdam, but in most cases, he is simply Erasmus [...]
