Some time ago I read a blog post identifying the degradation of American Christianity into what was termed Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. It's given me much pause for thought and the analysis seems to me to be spot on. Today's post is a further speculation on this analysis with a long contribution from a regular reader to [...]
My combox this week has been filled this week with self righteous, negative and sour comments from a certain type of Catholic. How some people love to throw anathemas at the heretics, condemn people and take a lofty tone correcting everyone in sight. If you don't believe me just jump over to the combox and browse [...]
When I resigned from my position as an Anglican priest one of the ladies in the parish was very upset. She couldn't figure out the point of my decision. "Surely!" she cried, "All that really matters is how much we love Jesus?" This is the response from many non-Catholics when faced with the doctrinal claims of [...]
After meeting with a group of Pentecostal Evangelicals Pope Francis reportedly wants to preach in a Protestant church in Rome. This article reports on the meeting held in Rome with Pope Francis and TV Evangelist Kenneth Copeland and other Evangelical leaders including theologian Brian Stiller and Anglican bishop Tony Palmer. The Pope wants to go to [...]
...or call me Catholic. One of my life slogans is the dictum by F.D.Maurce that "A man is most often right in what he affirms and wrong in what he denies." I realize that my own prejudices and background incline me towards what seems to be a more conservative viewpoint, but I reject the title and [...]
An earlier post this week with a similar title evoked the most passionate comments I've had on a post for a long time. I suggested that one of the reasons why Catholic kids leave the church is that our catechism and worship styles and preaching for the past fifty years did not prepare them for the [...]
Guest blogger, The Rev’d Humphrey Blytherington is Vicar of St Hilda’s, Little Snoring with All Saints, Great Snoring. He is a graduate of Plymouth University. He completed his studies for the ministry at Latimer Hall, Durham. He is married to Daphne and enjoys home brewing, model railroading and is an avid member of the Great [...]
In reading Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet's Jesus A Theography I enjoyed the second chapter the most. Frank and Leonard aim to show how Jesus Christ is echoed and reflected in every part of the Scriptures. They build up a full picture of Christ the Lord--not just by trying to reconstruct the "historical Jesus" (that exercise usually [...]
Yesterday I posted an explanation of the complex relationships within the Church of England. I explained here about Anglo Catholic, Evangelicals and Liberals. However, this is not the full story. As usual, there is a story behind the story. The divisions between Liberal, Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical are, in many respects, only superficial and historical. The real [...]
Do you need to understand the Church of England? Here are some explanations from this former Anglican: The Church of England is the Mother Church of the churches of the Worldwide Anglican Communion. Each of these churches are national churches and are independent. So, for example, the Anglican Church in Nigeria is independent from the Church [...]