Blogs

As of this morning, it looks like everything for Anglican Compass has been successfully moved over from our HostGator shared hosting to Bluehost VPS hosting. I’m hoping that this new arrangement works well for us! Although, to be honest, it’s still an open question in my mind whether or not managed WordPress hosting with WPEngine would be a better fit. I just can’t quite tell whether or not it would be worth the extra cost, given our current traffic and budget. ...

I’m reading my way through the new (4th) edition of Robert Bly’s classic The Copywriter’s Handbook (paid link). On pages 33–36, Bly offers “38 Model Headlines for Your ‘Swipe File.’” Here are some headlines ideas that came to mind, all geared to an Anglican context (due to my work at AnglicanCompass.com). Why are Anglicans so angry? How do I use the Book of Common Prayer? How can I become an Anglican? What do Anglicans believe? Why “Clarity & Charity” is the best way forward for the Church in a pluralistic age Announcing an ancient way to reclaim your days and years for God Don’t become an Anglican! You can now do the Daily Office with just this booklet and a Bible The 5 Anglican books you should own NOW Using the BCP—Once difficult, now easy A feast for the senses: The richness of Anglican worship “I was about to give up on the Church when I was introduced to the Anglican tradition” FREE booklet helps you pray How to avoid the biggest mistakes you can make when visiting an Anglican church The WORST Article in the Thirty-Nine Articles. Hint: It’s NOT what you think! Anglican clergy’s best-kept secret We’re looking for people who want to leave Anglicanism better than they found it It’s never too late to start doing the Daily Office Sick of iChurch and McChurch? Give Anglicanism a try Will your church pass the Word & Sacrament test? 3 reasons why you should NOT become an Anglican Christian Why most people leave the Church—and what you can do about it Crazy as it sounds, the Daily Office could save your marriage 5 reasons why written prayers are better than extemporaneous prayers 7 questions to ask when you visit an Anglican church Now you can create a personalized discipleship plan—for FREE Where’s #27? Read the title for this piece.

What does “religion” mean? Great question! I’m writing my dissertation on Barth, Bonhoeffer, the Bible, and “religion.” However, getting clear on just what Barth and Bonhoeffer meant by “religion” is a huge challenge. It’s what I devoted my entire writing sample to examining, and I plan to devote an entire chapter of my dissertation to the topic. Neither Barth nor Bonhoeffer used the word “religion” in the way that we’re prone to use the word in everyday speech today. According to Merriam-Webster, “religion” means: ...

I’m trying to parse out the relevance of Barth’s and Bonhoeffer’s engagement with Scripture for making sense of the “Barth-Bonhoeffer relationship.” Specifically, I’m trying to, at the very least, add some biblical content and context to the ongoing debate over the relationship between Barth’s and Bonhoeffer’s theological critiques of religion. As I put it in the “elevator pitch” for my dissertation proposal: Why does Bonhoeffer in prison, after adopting Barth’s theological critique of religion as idolatrous unbelief… ...

Perhaps it’s just the global COVID–19 pandemic, but I’ve been really discouraged about my dissertation lately. My normal reading/writing workflow has ground to a halt because (1) we are temporarily without childcare and (2) my wife, a Family Nurse Practitioner is still working full-time from the office. That leaves me home alone with our 1.5-year-old during the week and, while she is a wonderful child, she’s not really jazzed about dad sitting quietly in a corner getting some reading and writing done during the day. ...

The “Occasional Prayers” section of the Book of Common Prayer is a goldmine, particularly when the going gets tough. The following prayers come from the Anglican Church in North America’s 2019 Book of Common Prayer. You can view the text of the 2019 BCP here. And you can download a Word document containing all of the Occasional Prayers here. 58. FOR A PERSON IN TROUBLE OR BEREAVEMENT O merciful Father, you have taught us in your holy Word that you do not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men: Look with pity on the sorrows of your servant N. Remember him, O Lord, in mercy; nourish his soul with patience; comfort him with a sense of your goodness; lift up your countenance upon him; and give him peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ...

I’m still very much in the weeds, taking a closer look at how Bonhoeffer and Barth read the Sermon on the Mount. Given the importance of the Sermon on Mount for Bonhoeffer’s life and work, I’m persuaded that there’s something important to be found here—something that will hopefully shed some light on the Barth-Bonhoeffer relationship re:their theological critiques of religion. Additionally, there are at least two other tidbits that have me interested in how Barth and Bonhoeffer read the Sermon on the Mount. ...

For a research project, I’m looking for examples of the reasoning that goes into what’s been called, among other things “theological triage,” “doctrinal taxonomy,” or “dogmatic rank.” I’m referring to the process of distinguishing between various levels of importance when it comes to theological statements/positions. So, for example, the Trinity would usually be considered a “first-order” or “primary” doctrine—a “dogma,” if you will. But a specific view of the end times would usually be considered a “second-order,” “secondary,” or “tertiary” doctrine—AKA “adiaphora.” ...

In Discipleship (DBWE 4), Dietrich Bonhoeffer frames all of the Beatitudes in terms of Jesus’ disciples living in renunciation (Verzicht) and want (Mangel). Interestingly, for Bonhoeffer, Jesus is only speaking to his disciples in the Beatitudes (he makes this argument on the basis of Luke 6:20ff.). And the disciples’ renunciation and want are caused by Jesus’s call to discipleship. Jesus sees: his disciples are over there. They have visibly left the people to join him. He has called each individual one. They have given up everything in response to his call. Now they are living in renunciation and want; they are the poorest of the poor, the most tempted of the tempted, the hungriest of the hungry. They have only him. Yes, and with him they have nothing in the world, nothing at all, but everything, everything with God. (DBWE 4:101). ...

Yesterday, I wrote just a bit about interpretive approaches to the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. I’m trying to get a better handle on how Barth and Bonhoeffer treat the Sermon on the Mount, and I’m starting with the Beatitudes. However, it’s pretty challenging to situate Barth and Bonhoeffer in light of the “standard” approaches to both the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. A case in point: yesterday, I felt pretty confident that Bonhoeffer does not take the standard “entrance requirements” approach to the Beatitudes. ...

I’m a husband to Rachel and a father to Eva. I’m also: An Anglican Priest (serving/volunteering without pay) A Ph.D. Student at Wheaton College (full-time, including a fellowship as a Teaching/Research Assistant) Managing Editor of AnglicanPastor.com (part-time) In May 2020, my full-time residential obligations to Wheaton’s Ph.D. program will come to an end. I’ll still need to finish my dissertation in the following 1-2 years (the sooner, the better!), but I will no longer have to work on campus as a teaching/research assistant. ...

As I said in my previous post, “Interpretive Approaches to the Sermon on the Mount,” I’m working on how Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer read the Sermon on the Mount. Of course, when interpreting the Sermon on the Mount, the best place to start is at the beginning! This means beginning with the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1–12. The Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1–12) 1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: ...

I’m working on how Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer read the Sermon on the Mount. In order to help situate my discussion of Barth’s and Bonhoeffer’s readings, I’m trying to get a better grasp of the various interpretive approaches to the Sermon on the Mount. So far, the most exhaustive Sermon on the Mount “interpretive taxonomy” that I’ve found has been from Grant Osborne’s Matthew (paid link) (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 159. ...

This code of conduct very much relates to Rapoport’s Rules, Adler’s advice, and Alan Jacobs’s “The Thinking Person’s Checklist.” SOURCE: T. Edward Damer, Attacking Faulty Reasoning: A Practical Guide to Fallacy-Free Arguments, 6th ed (Australia ; Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2009), 7–8. 1. The Fallibility Principle Each participant in a discussion of a disputed issue should be willing to accept the fact that he or she is fallible, which means that one must acknowledge that one’s own initial view may not be the most defensible position on the question. ...

Editor’s Note: Thank you to the Rev. Dr. Emily McGowin for writing this rejoinder to Fr. Blake Johnson’s and Fr. Lee Nelson’s responses to her original blog post about the in persona Christi argument against women’s ordination. While we invite this conversation (about McGowin’s original blog post) to continue in our comments section and elsewhere—and we plan to publish more about women’s ordination in the future—we will not be adding surrejoinder blog posts. ...