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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.
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Have you got what it takes to interpret Scripture?By 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). Winchester was well-qualified to write about what it takes to interpret Scripture. She had an undergraduate degree in Semitic languages from Radcliffe Ladies College, a college associated with Harvard (1902); a Bachelor of... |
Mon, December 02, 2019 |
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Lessons on the World Day of the Poor: Pope Francis and the anonymous JesusBy David Kupp I found Jesus a seven-minute walk from Wycliffe College. At first, I could not quite recognize him. Lying on a park bench, thickly covered with an old blanket, he was layered with snow. As I sat down on the bench beside him, though, I noticed his feet. The gaping instep wounds gave me pause, and then the crucifixion “aha.” Though hard and bronzed, the life-sized sculpture invites a rest on... |
Mon, November 25, 2019 |
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Advice for combining study with employmentBy 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. Besides which, students have to live, provide for their families, pay back loans. That is, having a job... |
Mon, November 18, 2019 |
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The hard work of forgiveness and reconciliationBy Wanda Malcolm We are a people who have been made right in our relationship with God through the sacrificial life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The path we’ve travelled in being made right is the path of forgiveness and reconciliation; it’s what it means to be Christians. We are loved by God who longs to forgive and be reconciled with us. This marks us indelibly as a forgiven people. How odd... |
Mon, November 11, 2019 |
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The call to ministry: some eighteenth century adviceBy Thomas Power You may be familiar with Rev. John Newton (1725-1807) as the author of the famous hymn, Amazing Grace. What you may not know is that he came to have an important ministry as a spiritual director, primarily through letter writing. Many people wrote to him for advice and he replied giving counsel and direction on a variety of matters, such as grace, temptation, evil, Christian character, vanity, sin, and sorrow.... |
Mon, November 04, 2019 |
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ProvidenceBy Mark Elliot “Providence” sounds such a heavy word. Portentous. If someone uses it a lot in conversation, we might think of them as self-important and smug, as if they are claiming that God is on their side. But the first appearance in Scripture of the idea that the word providence conveys is as early as Genesis 22 when Abraham assures Isaac (with trembling voice and faith, I think we may safely assume)... |
Mon, October 28, 2019 |
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On being awarded the Brother Jeffrey Gros Memorial Student PrizeBy Charles Meeks Wycliffe College PhD student Charles Meeks reflects on being awarded the Brother Jeffrey Gros Memorial Student Prize. I was fortunate enough to be one of the winners of the Brother Jeffrey Gros Memorial Student Prize for the North American Academy of Ecumenists’ (NAAE) annual conference that took place in Montreal this year. I was especially delighted because I had never reckoned my work to be particularly Ecumenical, in... |
Mon, October 21, 2019 |
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God is in the details: further thoughts on theological interpretation of ScriptureBy Joseph Mangina In a recent post on this blog (September 17), my colleague Peter Robinson set forth a basic explanation of the theological interpretation of Scripture, often referred to as TIS. In that article, he made some crucial points. The theological interpreter approaches the text not from a neutral perspective, but from a standpoint of engagement, honouring Scripture as God’s living Word. She reads the Bible as a coherent story centred on... |
Mon, October 14, 2019 |
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The optimism of EcclesiastesBy Chris Seitz My wife and I live in a small village—a hamlet—in rural France, and as in all the villages around us, we have an ancient parish church, with its strong bells regulating life. The painting “The Angelus” shows peasants with heads lowered in a field. They are our neighbours. We live in the rectory of the village, amidst vast fields, and the bells lift themselves and sound forth just next door. John... |
Mon, October 07, 2019 |
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My Journey with Jesus: A Symphony in Five MovementsBy Judy Paulsen It began in my childhood home in northwest India. My father was a Canadian Anglican priest who, after serving as a padre during the horrors of the Second World War, went to minister to a leper colony and small Anglican parish in the foothills of the Himalayas. My mother was an Australian Methodist obstetrical nurse from Melbourne. They met in language school, and together they served in northwest India for... |
Mon, September 30, 2019 |
