Vestigia Dei
Wycliffe College Blog

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.

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O What a Tangled Web we Weave When First we Practice to Deceive

Peter Robinson
This Holy Week, Professor of Proclamation, Worship and Ministry, Peter Robinson, explores Sir Walter Scot's epic poem and how it collates to the Passion of Christ, and the sobering portrayals of how easily self-justification leads all too quickly to a complex web of deceit. Read more

The Good Thing: Thoughts on the Confession of St. Peter

Catherine Sider-Hamilton

Let me begin with the story of two Rhodes Scholars. One is named William Jefferson Clinton. He went to Georgetown University on scholarship, Oxford on the Rhodes Scholarship, and Yale Law School. He served as the 40th and 42nd Governor of Arkansas and before that was Arkansas’ Attorney General.

Peace like a River

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.

On Saying “Thank You.”

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.

Learning From Successful Churches

Peter Robinson

In Churchland there is a natural tendency to look to churches that appear successful, hoping to learn from or emulate what they are doing in our own communities.

Valentine’s Day

Catherine Sider-Hamilton

When my children were young, Valentine’s Day was hugely exciting. We made cookies with pink icing in heart shapes.

The Church, God’s People on the Way

Peter Robinson

“My soul longs, indeed, it faints for the courts of the Lord”

Psalm 84 is a psalm of longing or lament, and it is also a psalm of pilgrimage. Three times a year the people were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the temple to appear before the Lord (Exodus 23:14–17).

As retirement draws closer, Radner reflects

Ephraim Radner

I’ll be retiring next summer.  People ask me “why now?”.  Lots of reasons, probably: let someone younger have a place at the faculty table; family responsibilities; health; fatigue; out of synch with the culture; “work is done,” “new things to do,” generational stage of life; and so on.

The place of online learning in theological education

Peter Robinson

At the beginning of March, the Angus Reid Institute ran a poll surveying those who were anticipating a return to work. The poll revealed that after two years of working at home many employees aren’t sure that they want to return to the office.

Women in Ministry? Light from Ancient Greek

Catherine Sider-Hamilton

Can a woman preach? Can women lead worship? Does God ordain authority for women in the church? It is a question that matters to me, as a woman and a priest in the Anglican church, now for more than 25 years. Greek points us toward an answer!

In the midst of Omicron discouragement, hope

Ephraim Radner

The following comments were transcribed from opening remarks by Professor Ephraim Radner delivered at Morning Prayer in the Wycliffe College Founder’s Chapel, on Thursday, Dece

The vaccination question: a theologian reflects, part 1

Ephraim Radner

This blog post is the first in a series, in which Wycliffe theology professors consider the COVID vaccination debate. In the following, Ephraim Radner, Professor of Historical Theology asks, “How did the issue of vaccination so divide the church?”

 

God’s Call for your life?

Peter Robinson

“What is God’s call for my life?” That is a question most Christians think about at one time or another and it is certainly one of the questions we have in the back of our minds when we come to a college or seminary like Wycliffe—regardless of whether we are looking towards possible ordination/pa

Deep at the heart of everything

Ephraim Radner

My wife Annette and I own several charcoal and wash drawings by a wonderful artist, Churchill Davenport. We acquired them when we were married in the late 1980’s.

Candlemas

Catherine Sider-Hamilton

Where I grew up, in southern Pennsylvania, Groundhog Day was a big thing. For weeks before February 2, the papers, the broadcasters asked: would the groundhog—who had a name, Punxatawny Phil, from Punxatawny, Penn.—see his shadow?

A New Age of the Spirit

Ephraim Radner

The ventilator may well come to be one of the sorrowful symbols of the time of the Virus. We will associate it, as even now we do, with intense suffering, loss, and even death.

Prayer in the face of fear

Peter Robinson

There is nothing to fear but fear itself.

In his inaugural speech as president of the United States (March 4, 1933) Franklin Roosevelt began by saying “let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is ... fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror…” 

A Call to Prayer in Times like These

Peter Robinson

In the midst of this present crisis one of the greatest gifts the church has for the world is prayer. Not prayer as a way of retreating from, or turning away from, the world, but prayer as means of being more present to the world in the midst of this crisis. In prayer, in worship, we begin with w

Who should we listen to?

Ephraim Radner

Who should you listen to?  Who do you trust to learn something from?  These are important questions for students, obviously.

Abide with Me: Thoughts on Christian Unity

Catherine Sider-Hamilton

What can be said about Christian unity in a month that has seen yet another church propose to split?