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.

A Five-Hour Challenge That Could Change Your Life

Marion Taylor
<<ABOUT MARION TAYLOR>>

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Anne Askew and the Dangerous Activity of Reading Scripture

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.

Did Paul Really Intend to Silence Women Everywhere and Always? Sixteenth-Century Female Reformer Said “No.”

Marion Taylor

I was raised in a church and family that encouraged women to be all that they were meant to be.

“The Yeah, Yeah Experience” or “Communion Sweet from Heart to Heart”

Marion Taylor

In my first year of graduate studies at Yale University, I was asked to be a teaching assistant in a course that allowed for “the yeah, yeah experience” to arise.

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.

Marie Dentière: A Voice Long Silenced that Speaks Again

Marion Taylor

In my graduate studies, my professors had me read great books written by great men who had made a difference in the church and academy. They never talked about the great books that women had written and the great things that women had done. Women’s voices had long been silenced.

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

How do you know when you’ve gone too far: Lessons from an American Jezebel

Marion Taylor

Anne Hutchinson (ca. 1591-1643) was a courageous woman who fought for many of the freedoms we now take for granted.

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?”

 

Some pushback to Albert Mohler’s pushback

Marion Taylor

Albert Mohler is blowing up the Internet.

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.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Taking a Stand against Slavery and against Racial Equality

Marion Taylor

I was first introduced to renowned abolitionist, women’s rights activist, and feminist biblical commentator Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) at a birthday party held in her honor at Yale Divinity School.

Why the Lives of Historical Black Women Preachers Matter

Marion Taylor

Early African American women dared to preach and call for personal and societal change. These heroes of faith inspire us and need to be remembered. We stand on their shoulders as we continue to battle over questions of gender, race, and biblical interpretation.

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.

Faith in the Face of Adversity

Marion Taylor

The biblical prophet Habakkuk lived during the troubled last decades of Israel’s southern kingdom. “The Chaldeans [also called Babylonians] that fierce and impetuous nation” threatened to destroy God’s people.

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.

Have you got what it takes to interpret Scripture?

Marion Taylor

Hidden away in the November 1921 edition of Nazarene Messenger, the official paper of the early Church of the Nazarene in Los Angeles, is an article titled “Qualifications of an Interpreter” written by Olive May Winchester (1879-1947).

Advice for combining study with employment

Ephraim Radner

I often tell my doctoral students that if they have an outside job of more than 10 to 15 hours per week, the chances are that their dissertation will be the worse for it, or that it might not get done at all. Experience seems to confirm this advice. But not always.

On Christian Marriage

Ephraim Radner

Life is hard for most people. Not just for a moment, or in moments—an illness, a lost job, a death of someone we love. Rather, life is hard in a continuous way, as a kind of passage over time. To get from birth to death is difficult. 

Three Women from history who might change your thinking about women preaching

Marion Taylor

Paul’s words to the Corinthians—that women should keep silent in the churches—have traditionally been understood as prohibiting women from preaching, speaking, and teaching in church.