Jean Gerson on Theology as Queen of the Sciences
Jean Gerson was chancellor of the University of Paris, and lived 1363-1429. Here is what Gerson said about theology as Queen of the sciences:
"Let them [the other discipline/sciences] yield to Theology and refrain form entering into her schools with importune questions, for it is proper for servants to come into the presence of the queen prepared and equipped."
Quoted in: Erika Rummel, The Humanist-Scholastic Debate in the Renaissance and Reformation, 35.
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- Published: 18 August 2015 18 August 2015
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Auguste Lecerf on "Facts", God, and Knowledge
It is always a joy to discover a theological gem. It is even more fun when the more you read, the better it gets. This is the case with one of my summer reads: Auguste Lecerf's An Introduction to Reformed Dogmatics. Lecerf was a French Reformed theologian, who ended his career teaching on the Protestant Faculty in Paris. He is of interest to me because he is working through a Christian understanding of knowledge. He lived from 1872-1943. He is conversant with the continental philosophical tradition, and is offering a robust Christian engagement with that world of thought. All the more interesting, as a Frenchman he is right in the heart of the world of Descartes, et al. Here is Lecerf on a Christian understanding "facts" (I suspect he would have enjoyed Van Til). At the same time, he appears to have been drawn (to some degree) to the neo-Thomist revival of his era (e.g. Etienne Gilson):
"The relations which exist between facts are thus conceived as pre-existent in the divine intelligence; they are established by God. The facts themselves are his thoughts, realized and manifested in time. From this point of view, the evidence of reason and of the senses must be considered as a revelation of God. 'In his light', cried the psalmist, 'we shall see light.'" (An Introduction to Reformed Dogmatics, 106).
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- Published: 20 June 2015 20 June 2015
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Matt Perman's "What's Best Next"
Matt Perman has written a very good book on using your time well, the nature of work, and all sorts of things that you should think about--if you want to work, think, write, etc., in a way which flows from your Christian commitments. Here is the Foreword and Introductory chapter.
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- Published: 02 May 2015 02 May 2015
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Dallas Willard on Poverty and Christian Spirituality
I have found Dallas Willard's essay "Is Poverty Spiritual" very helpful. Here is the essay.
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- Published: 24 April 2015 24 April 2015
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