The Far Green Country

In addition to the last words of Bernard of Clairvaux, the advice of Anselm of Canterbury is also a splendidly evangelical gem of truly catholic theology:
There is an exhortation of Anselm to a dying brother, written in the most comforting words: “When a brother seems to be in his death struggle, it is godly and [...]

When I studied medieval church history, my professor read to our class the dying words of Bernard of Clairvaux. A recent conversation provoked me to seek out the exact citation, which my professor graciously provided to me today. I include it here in full:
When [Bernard] appeared to be drawing his last breath, as his mental [...]

There is a real trouble with celebrating Christmas, but it is not the sort of thing you might expect. The trouble with Christmas is not that society says you have to keep religion to yourself (a statement usually made with a religious conviction all its own). Nor is the trouble with Christmas the fact that [...]

Last weekend I traveled to Philadelphia for a ministerial preparation conference.  At several points along the Pennsylvania turnpike, the road travels directly through the mountains in tunnels.  At one point along my eastward journey, I hit one of these tunnels at the exact time that the song “Big Blue Sky” by Sandra McCracken was playing [...]

I used to be in favor of some sort of theistic evolutionary view of creation. In fact, I’ve written about it on this blog a few times in the past.  However, somewhere in the last two years my mind was changed - yet I don’t think I ever got around to stating this publicly.  So [...]

While reading the back posts from a friend’s blog this morning, I was touched by a bit of stark honesty.  My friend was recounting how he was surprised one night to find his young daughter lying on the floor beside his bed, rather than in her own.  When he asked her why, she said it [...]

There are times in the life of a Christian when we experience a lot of “noise” in our spirits.  We live in a bustling, busy world.  We get distracted.  Or we are tempted.  Myriad indeed are the lusts of our flesh, the things of earth, and the wiles of the devil - and it seems [...]