The Wycliffe Blog - Vestigia Dei
Vestigia Dei – is a Latin term meaning “traces of God.” As a theological term it is associated with natural theology – that is, the view that there are vestiges of God within creation. We’ve chosen this term as the title of the Wycliffe College blog because our hope is that through these writings, readers might glimpse evidences for God as our writers interact with the wider world.
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A Call to Prayer in Times like TheseBy Peter Robinson In the midst of this present crisis one of the greatest gifts the church has for the world is prayer. Not prayer as a way of retreating from, or turning away from, the world, but prayer as means of being more present to the world in the midst of this crisis. In prayer, in worship, we begin with who we are; God’s people seeking to understand how to live out of God’s... |
Mon, March 30, 2020 |
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A Christian Response and Witness in the time of COVID-19By Annette Brownlee On Friday, March 13, 2020—just before the University sent out its directive moving all classes online—several students said to me over the course of the day, “I’ve never been through something like this.” The current global pandemic is unprecedented in the experience of almost everyone living. There have been, to date, greater death tolls (the 1918 flu pandemic killed 50 million worldwide, the 2009 swine flu pandemic killed 150,000 to 575,400 worldwide).... |
Wed, March 18, 2020 |
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“I, Patrick, A Sinner”By Thomas Power Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Who was St. Patrick, and what example does his life and mission have for us today? First, a few pertinent facts. We know that Patrick was born in the late fourth century in Roman Britain, the son of a deacon, and grandson of a priest. We glean most about him from his Confession (access it www.ccel.org), a work he wrote late in life. The Confession... |
Mon, March 16, 2020 |
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Who should we listen to?By Ephraim Radner Who should you listen to? Who do you trust to learn something from? These are important questions for students, obviously. But they are important for everyone in a society like ours that is torn between hyper-criticism and the gullible consumption of what we now call “fake news.” We are taught to mistrust teachers and experts because most of their views are driven by self-serving bias; yet we gravitate to a... |
Mon, March 09, 2020 |
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How by doing what churches told them to do -- they failed their kids.By Judy Paulsen Esther was one of many gracious life-long members of our church. A real salt-of-the-earth type, who with her husband had raised three kids to be successful, fully-launched adults. She was now thoroughly enjoying a bunch of grandkids, most of whom were already teenagers. But Esther was troubled by something. The focus of the sermon that week had been on God’s call to teach the faith to the next generation. I... |
Mon, March 02, 2020 |
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What is the Best Bible Translation?By Glen Taylor "What is the best Bible translation?" As a biblical scholar, I am asked this question more than any other. To start, I have bad news and good news. The bad news is that every translation is an interpretation. There’s no getting around it: almost every clause in the original calls for a decision about translation that affects meaning in some way. The good news is that no intentionally devious translator lies... |
Mon, February 24, 2020 |
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Does the Church Need Clergy?By Stephen Andrews We are in a season of ordinations. In January, we witnessed the ordinations of Logan Hurst, Alison Hari-Singh and Alexandra Pohlod, to mention three Wycliffe students. And soon Philip Gearing and Orvin Lao will present themselves to the bishop for the laying on of hands. There are more to come. We are expecting as many as seventeen MDiv graduates to cross the convocation stage in May. This season especially Wycliffe... |
Mon, February 10, 2020 |
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On Not Getting Anything Out of SermonsBy Joseph Mangina This blog post is adapted and abbreviated from an article by Prof. Mangina that appeared in The Living Church, Jan. 1, 2012 Some years ago I had an interesting email exchange with a theologian friend at another institution, someone I’ve known since our days together in graduate school. We got to talking about the state of contemporary preaching. My friend asked the arresting question: “How do we get... |
Mon, February 03, 2020 |
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Abide with Me: Thoughts on Christian UnityBy Catherine Sider-Hamilton What can be said about Christian unity in a month that has seen yet another church propose to split? (See: "The Methodist Church will probably split in two over homosexuality, and that's bad for all of us" ) I think about this question with increasing difficulty because there is a weight of sorrow in my heart. But it is upon us, intractably and practically, in deep divisions over marriage... |
Mon, January 27, 2020 |
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On Returning to the New WorldBy Chris Seitz Europeans generally think of Americans as very religious. They see things like a public swearing-in with a hand on the Bible and read a lot into that—even as it is somewhat of a formality that may have no obvious religious significance for those taking an oath. “So help me God”—this is less a final declaration freighted with Christian significance than a necessary legal obligation. To be sure churches dot the... |
Mon, January 20, 2020 |
