Thoughts on faith, culture, and public life.
Like me, you've probably heard some variation of the phrase, "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity." It's a translation of the Latin phrase, "In necessariis unitas, in dubitas libertas, in omnibus caritas." Nineteenth-century church historian Philip Schaff calls it "the watchword of Christian peacemakers."(1)Â The phrase is often attributed to the theologian …
Continue reading "Origin of the phrase, ‘In necessariis unitas’"
“Most of all, perhaps, we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods and that much which seems …
“Of all scholarly communities, the Christian academy should be marked by the cooperative principle, with its connotations of charity, fellowship, and mutuality. But particularly as I read what we say on the Web and our readiness to ridicule others, I wonder how far our scholarly communities are realty distinguishable from the world’s. We want truthful, …
“When the cause is just, nothing other than the inflated rhetoric of the prophets, it seems, can shock us out of our complacency and shove before our eyes in all their starkness the alternatives we need to face. It forces us to confront them and to take a stand one way or the other, no …
“A person can write about himself from angles that are charmed, fond, delightfully nervy; alter the lens just a little and he crosses over into gloating, pettiness, defensiveness, score settling (which includes self-hate), or whining about his victimisation. The trick is to realize that one is not important, except insofar as one’s example can serve …
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