Deus Misereatur

  The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition Samuel L. Bray and Drew N. Keane (editors) IVP ivpress.com ISBN: 978-0-8308-4192-9; March 2021; $28.00   You either love them, or you hate them. It’s just about that simple. Some feel prayerbooks are constricting, like a bad asthma reaction constricts the airway. Others feel freed up and that they can breathe easier by having the routine and regularity of such a breviary. One either loves them or hates them. Recently Samuel L. Bray, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, as well as a McDonald Distinguished Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, and Drew N. Keane, lecturer in the Department of Writing and Linguistics at Georgia Southern University, teamed up to put forth a new rendition of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (1662-BCP). Actually, this 832-page handy hardback is a lightly touched edition set up for an international audience. It keeps the King’s English...

  I once lived in Mississippi for an extended period, and was struck by the breadth of Christian texture that surfaced in the social nuances and niceties. So, in many ways, "Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause. 1865-1920" penned by Charles Reagan Wilson, professor emeritus of history and southern studies at the University of Mississippi and co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Southern Studies, gave me some colorful background to my experiences. This volume first surfaced in the 1980s and was republished in 2009. The volume's thesis is plainly stated early on, "the Lost cause was a mythic construct that helped white southerners define a cultural identity in the aftermath of Confederate defeat" (x). Since the book has already been around for decades and has received numerous reviews, online and in educational and historical journals, I will simply get down to brass tacks. I'm not sure the author makes a completely convincing case. The material is in...

Dallimore (1911-1998), a Baptist minister, was clearly impressed with Whitefield. And yet, he is willing to address the faults of this phenomenal Church of England cleric. It was easy to read, and helpful in it's historic recountings. But the fact that Dallimore is willing to praise and challenge Whitefield made it even more valuable.  The biographer chronicles Whitefield's upbringing, with all of its sadness and successes. He walks us through the man's conversion, growth, challenges, and launching into the ministry. He shows us the early days of open-air preaching with it's accomplishments, and attendant aberrations. We follow the great preacher across the Atlantic to the colonies where he established an orphanage in Georgia that became his life-long concern. Also how he wrote strongly against the mistreatment by slaveowners he saw in many places, which made him very unpopular for a season. And the friendship he built with Benjamin Franklin and his family that lasted b...

  O LORD, you formed us from the womb, and you make all things. You even stretched out the heavens all alone and spread abroad the earth by yourself. You frustrate the signs of the babblers, driving diviners mad. You turn wise men backward and make their knowledge foolishness. But you confirm the word of your prophets and perform the counsel of your messengers (Isaiah 44:24-25). It is to you that we come and offer up our prayers and petitions. O Lord, hear our prayer.   First, we ask you to be with your Church throughout the world, especially right now in Hong Kong, Myanmar, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and America. Shake us free from the thirst for respectability and the thrashing of restlessness, and by your Spirit fill us with your power, love and sound mindedness. O Lord, hear our prayer.   Our hearts are heavy burdened for those who have never trusted in Jesus Christ and his saving work, as well as those who declared their faith in Jesus but have since wondered away (…). Ge...

  Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! From the highest to the lowest, from the nearest to the furthest, may all come and worship you, submitting to you, praying to you, cherishing you as their greatest good and deepest joy. Therefore, we pray for you to give our missionaries assets and achievements to this end. And we pray that you would reclaim and rescue those who are outside of Christ (…). Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away. We pray for the earth that its vast resources would be replenished and maintained. Bring us fitting quantities of rains and showers. Settle the shifting fault lines and tectonic plates that cause so much dam...