The Wycliffe Blog - Vestigia Dei
Vestigia Dei – is a Latin term meaning “traces of God.” As a theological term it is associated with natural theology – that is, the view that there are vestiges of God within creation. We’ve chosen this term as the title of the Wycliffe College blog because our hope is that through these writings, readers might glimpse evidences for God as our writers interact with the wider world.
Subscribe by RSS
 |
Peace like a RiverBy Peter Robinson On the second Sunday of Advent we anticipate and celebrate the promise that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, has come to bring peace into the world. In the face of so much hubris, greed, polarization, division, and war around the globe, the promise of peace might seem a distant and elusive dream. The suffering of so many people in too many places awakens deep sorrow (and at times anger) in... |
Thu, November 30, 2023 |
 |
Blood, heart, and data: An imperfect reflection on what’s realBy Scott Mealey “And behold [David], you are caught in your own evil, for you are a man of bloodshed!” (from II Samuel 16:8)[1] “…‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My heart…’” (from Acts 13:22) When I was a young man working in my first church in Bangor, Maine, I spent a long season reading through I and II Samuel, reflecting on the life of David. At the... |
Tue, November 28, 2023 |
 |
Home: The Family of AbrahamBy Stephen Chester It is often emphasized how radical the apostle Paul was in proclaiming that, through faith in Christ, Gentiles can enter into the people of God without first becoming Jewish and taking on obedience to the Mosaic Law: “those who believe are the children of Abraham” (Gal 3:7). What is less often noticed is that Paul is here simultaneously at his most traditional. It simply never occurs to him to say... |
Mon, November 13, 2023 |
 |
Homesickness: Where Is My True Home?By Boram Lee Seventeen years ago, I embarked on a life-altering journey. I departed from my homeland, leaving behind my family and friends in South Korea, where I was born, raised, and spent the most significant portion of my life. This move was in response to Christ’s call to ordained ministry in the pastoral care of those in suffering and pain. My destination was New York, where I undertook an MDiv programme. My... |
Thu, October 26, 2023 |
 |
Faculty Book Suggestions for New Theological StudentsBy Wycliffe Faculty We surveyed the faculty members at Wycliffe College for recommendations of books and resources that new theological students (or those considering further theological study) ought to read, and here is a list of them by category!
Biblical Studies1. Mark S. Gignilliat, Reading Scripture Canonically (Baker Academic, 2019). "It's meant to be a basic introduction by a veteran teacher . . ." (Professor Chris Seitz) 2. Bruce Longenecker, The... |
Tue, October 24, 2023 |
 |
A Memorable Summer in the ArcticBy Grace Park My name is Grace, and I am in my third year of the MDiv program. During my undergraduate years, I was involved in campus ministry and that was when I became interested in theological studies and enrolled at Wycliffe College. After two years of working with a ministry that seemed unfruitful – and a mismatch for me – I felt discouraged. As I looked for summer internship placement opportunities to... |
Thu, October 19, 2023 |
 |
Thoughts on Collecting ArtBy Sandra Bowden I just returned from a trip to England visiting towns northeast of London – where my mother’s relatives lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries – searching for churches where they had worshiped before their immigration to the New World. Some of the churches were in small villages, while others had to be ferreted out by driving down miles of narrow hedged roads and past fields of spring hay and... |
Tue, October 10, 2023 |
 |
On Saying “Thank You.”By Catherine Sider-Hamilton Outside my office window there is a stunning tree. Burnt-red, tall and thick, deep blue sky behind it, and on either side trees still bright green. A plane, a silver arrow, flies across the face of the half-moon clearly visible in the sky, and it is all so beautiful I can almost ignore Robarts Library hulking behind. Thanksgiving! It is a good time of year for it: when the trees... |
Wed, October 04, 2023 |
 |
Seeking an Ethic of EngagementBy Mark Elliot I recall as an undergraduate being asked to read H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture (1951).Niebuhr had set out five options of how one should understand this relationship, with “Christ versus culture” and “Christ in culture” as the two opposite extremes, the former representing a critical approach to culture from a distance, the latter an all-inclusive one. Apart from the fact that it seemed like trying to relate two very different... |
Wed, September 27, 2023 |
 |
Anne Askew and the Dangerous Activity of Reading ScriptureBy Marion Taylor Twenty-five-year-old noblewoman Anne Askew (1521–1546) was accused of heresy, arrested, interrogated at least twice, tortured on the rack, and burned alive at the stake. Her account of her examinations was published together with the comments of exiled reformer and historian John Bale (1495–1563) as The first examinacyon (November 1546) and The Lattre examinacyon of Anne Askew (January 1547). Askew’s journey toward death began during a trip to Lincoln Cathedral where,... |
Mon, September 18, 2023 |
