Category: Uncategorized
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The Rwandan Surveillance State
I just came across a paper by Dr. Andrea Purdekova called Even if I am not here, there are so many eyes’: surveillance and state reach in Rwanda.’ You can read the paper here. In it she describes the information gathering apparatus of the Rwandan state, for example: Informers are indeed believed to be everywhere, and…
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Modern Anglican Theologians
If Anglicanism is to have a lasting and ongoing impact globally, it surely must move beyond a grateful embrace of the past and engage the Scriptures and the modern world in innovative ways. We rightly venerate Hooker, Donne, Herbert, Cranmer, Jewel and many others, but we need new theologians who do more than simply unpack…
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S.S. Beheadings
In the 1977 book The Nazis and the Occult, Dusty Sklar mentioned a bizarre practice that she maintained the Nazi SS practiced. Sklar said that the SS beheaded young Aryans and used their heads to communicate to the spirit realm (this reminds me of an incident in the C.S. Lewis Space trilogy). Sklar wrote: A…
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Saul Among the Prophets
What was Israel’s worship like outside the Temple? Some intriguing clues are seen in the bands of prophets and their ecstatic worship. I wish we knew more about it. I read a bit on the subject lately, as follows: In the Westminster Theological Journal, 56:2, John W. Hilber writes: The function of prophetic bands is also unclear.…
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Playing an Away Game
Ties to the African Anglican churches have by and large been positive for American Anglicans. Their orthodoxy, fervency for Jesus, and love of Scripture have been a glass of water in a thirsty land of apostasy. With that in mind, it seems to me that we are aligning ourselves with political situations we have little…
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Scrying
This is an interesting addition to the Joseph Smith file: a bit of background on John Dee: In the early 1580s the English scholar and magus John Dee undertook an experiment with his “scryer,” who went by the name of Edward Kelley, to try to acquire otherwise inaccessible knowledge by means of invoking and interrogating…
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The Crusades Effect on the Relic Market
And of course the crusades, particularly the fourth, introduced such a flood of relics of all sorts throughout Europe that the Apostles and the early martyrs could be almost omnipresent through their relics duplicated and scattered all over the West. Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra, page 24.
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Larry Tomczak on the SGM Whitewash
An email revealed today from the co-founder of Sovereign Grace Ministries minced no words with the attempt at whitewashing the behavior of C.J. Mahaney. Tomczak says in part: Addressing the illegal, immoral and documented blackmail plus the reprehensible conduct that shattered our reputation, relationships and family ties (plus our livelihood) was afforded a dismissive SIX…
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The Sociology of the Church
Some unrelated quotes from the book by James Jordan: …the reasons for denominational diversity are deep-seated, complex, and cannot be removed by a wave of a magic wand or anathema. The problem can only be effectively resolved by local communication, cooperation, and prayer. It must be recognized by all parties that there are legitimate strengths…
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Predestination, Policy and Polemic
I have just finished reading Peter White’s book, Predestination, Policy and Polemic, Conflict and consensus in the English Church from the Reformation to the Civil War. It is a masterful summary of the topic throughout a varied landscape of Church politics, belief systems, and changing theologies. …the model of a theological dichotomy between ‘Calvinism’ and…