Feminine Threads: Reformation Marriages
In Feminine Threads (review still coming!), Diana Lynn Severance gives a profile of the marriages of a number of the reformers of the continental Protestant reformations. Here are the things that struck me:
Learning “Mother” from Mormons
I blogged recently about the Protestant ideal woman, the mother. Luther considered this to be a sacred calling. Cutting across the tendency to see some vocations as ‘holy’ and some as ‘secular’, Luther saw all work as a way of glorifying God. Yet, in today’s world, women “leave” work to […]
Remapping the Reformed drama
Joy Ann McDougall’s article ‘Women’s Work: Feminist Theology for a New Generation” describes the work of Serene Jones, author of Feminist Theory and Christian Theology: Cartographies of Grace: Jones puts secular feminist theory to “church work” using it to remap the core Reformed doctrines of justification and sanctification, sin and […]
Unheroes of the past
I’ve posted recently about the failings of Thomas Cranmer and Jonathan Edwards, asking why we’re reluctant to speak about their shortcomings. I wonder whether we’re scared that this might discredit their ministry. My (anecdotal) argument is motivated by great ‘heroes’ of the Bible who were pretty suspect themselves. Their fallenness […]
More Church History II
Last post, I identified the need for Christians to trust Jesus to build his church. However, the other side of the ‘train track’ in this case is that, of course, God’s church consists of people, their actions and the faith they claim as their own. In the cases of Athanasius […]
More Church History I
I’ve been indulging my history nerd ideals of late with a few books. The highlight has been Mark Noll’s “Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity’. You may know my advocacy of the idea of ‘train tracks’ (more theologically known as ‘compatabilism’) which is the idea that two […]
Meet Jesus at uni 