Deus Misereatur

My youngest son had a paper to complete on Fyodor Dostoevsky, "The Idiot," and the Enlightenment for his AP English Literature class. While we were talking over his content, he was puzzled by the "who" and "what" of the Enlightenment. It just so happened that a new 240 page softback book, "Approaching Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction to Thinkers, Concepts, Methods and Debates" had arrived by post the week before, a work compiled by Anthony C. Thiselton, emeritus professor of Christian theology at the University of Nottingham, England, and fellow of the British Academy. After my teenage son and I perused the volume, examining the installments on the Enlightenment, he borrowed the book and immediately referenced it in his paper. The volume proved to be easily accessible in finding the appropriate topic, and comprehensible by a teenage reader. "Approaching Philosophy of Religion" simply unfolds in four sections. It begins with ...

Prayers on Vocation (Our Jobs): LORD God, you told your people, “ Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places ” (Leviticus 23.3) . You not only tell us how important sacred rest is, but also how valuable our vocations are; that we have callings, jobs, and careers that are good and worth investing into during the vast majority of our week. Thank you for acknowledging our work. We ask your help, direction and focus in our jobs. Honestly, Father, work can grind down our hearts; bosses can grate against our nerves making Monday a sheer drudgery; customers and clients can almost make us pull our hair out with frustration. Therefore help us to recapture and be recaptured by your Scripture’s valuable reminder, “ whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him ” (Colossians 3.17...

With Paul and all of the Apostles, along with the saints and martyrs who have gone before, and with our brothers and sisters world over, we lift our hearts in adoration: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ep...