During the Sundays of Advent this year, the Emerging Scholars Network will be posting works by Christina Rossetti. As a thoughtful poet who engaged deeply with faith, Rossetti wrote a number of poems about the church calendar. In the Advent poems we share here, she engages with the traditional idea of Advent as both remembering Christ’s first coming and waiting for His second. Her imagery is rich and thoughtful, and we hope this poetry helps you to reflect on what it means to wait for Christ. We can only share part of this piece here, but we encourage you to read the whole poem elsewhere. For material from our archives on Advent click here. To God be the glory! – Hannah [Read more…] about Earth Grown Old: Third Week of Advent
Advent
This Advent Moon: Second Week of Advent
During the Sundays of Advent this year, the Emerging Scholars Network will be posting works by Christina Rossetti. As a thoughtful poet who engaged deeply with faith, Rossetti wrote a number of poems about the church calendar. In the Advent poems we share here, she engages with the traditional idea of Advent as both remembering Christ’s first coming and waiting for His second. Her imagery is rich and thoughtful, and we hope this poetry helps you to reflect on what it means to wait for Christ. We can only share part of this piece here, but we encourage you to read the whole poem elsewhere. For material from our archives on Advent click here. To God be the glory! – Hannah [Read more…] about This Advent Moon: Second Week of Advent
Come: First Week of Advent
During the Sundays of Advent this year, the Emerging Scholars Network will be posting works by Christina Rossetti. As a thoughtful poet who engaged deeply with faith, Rossetti wrote a number of poems about the church calendar. In the Advent poems we share here, she engages with the traditional idea of Advent as both remembering Christ’s first coming and waiting for His second. Her imagery is rich and thoughtful, and we hope this poetry helps you to reflect on what it means to wait for Christ. For material from our archives on Advent click here. To God be the glory! – Hannah [Read more…] about Come: First Week of Advent
Theotokos – Mary as the Mother of God. An Advent Devotional
In the history of theology, there have been many issues which for those who are not “professional†theologians seem rather abstract. I know that there are times when I drive my wife crazy talking about some minutia of theological detail which has no connection to her world as a pre-school teacher, and she has never had a taste for the kind of hypothetical speculation which makes systematic theologians so excited. She is, however, very patient and tolerant, and I can even get her to do final proof-reading of manuscripts before I send them out. I think that most people are like my wife and as I have grown older, I try to think more about the work of the theologian as a service to the Church. I try to think from the perspective of how the issues which occupy so much of my time can be brought into the larger conversation of the Church and the people who are my brothers and sisters in the mission of God. As the recent survey of the theological opinions of American evangelicals demonstrated, there is work to be done to make these doctrinal truths more well-known as well as why these issues are important for people to know and to get right in their theological thinking. [Read more…] about Theotokos – Mary as the Mother of God. An Advent Devotional
Scholar’s Compass: Learning From Father Christmas
In today’s Advent post, David Russell Mosley reflects on the figure of Father Christmas. Drawing on Tolkien’s argument in On Fairy Stories, that fairy tales and mythical figures point beyond themselves to the truth of the Gospel, Mosley describes how he sees the Good News in Father Christmas. David will share more about Faerie and the Gospel in future Scholar’s Compass posts.
Quotation
Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn.
Lewis, C. S. (2008-10-29). The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: The Chronicles of Narnia (p. 107). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. [Read more…] about Scholar’s Compass: Learning From Father Christmas