Vincent van Gogh on the Christian life I was intrigued to learn that there was a period in van Gogh’s life where he considered becoming a preacher. Here’s an except from one of his sermons (delivered in 1876). His text was Psalm 119:19: “I am a stranger on the earth, hide not thy commandments from me.” It is an […]
Rowan Williams on the work of doctrine the job of doctrine is to hold us still before Jesus. When that slips out of view, we begin instead to use this language to defend ourselves, to denigrate others, to control and correct — and then it becomes a problem. A recognition of this inspired Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s great […]
Rush Rhees on the demands and scope of Wittgenstein’s Investigations Wittgenstein did go through the [Philosophical] Investigations with me – some parts of it several times – before it was published. And although such understanding of it as I have has come more since his death, I should have understood less if I had not heard him […]
Stanley Fish on humanism The idea – the core idea of humanism – is that the act of reading about great deeds will lead you to imitate them, a sequence the young John Milton experiences when he reads Dante and Petrarch, finds himself moved by them to “more love of virtue,” and comes to see […]
David Bentley Hart on theological education theology requires…great…scholarly range. The properly trained Christian theologian should be a proficient linguist, with a mastery of several ancient and modern tongues, should have formation in the subtleties of the whole Christian dogmatic tradition, should possess a considerable knowledge of the liturgies, texts, and arguments produced in every period of […]
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