Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 257
April 6, 2015
Keeping Easter going
It’s still Easter, that season lasting for the 40 days in which Christ was with His disciples again, culminating in His Ascension, and then adding the next 10 days that take us to Pentecost. So we should keep Easter going, by continuing to contemplate Christ’s resurrection and what it means for each of us. We’ve [Read More...]
Admit to be a Christian and be killed
At last count, 147 Kenyan university students were killed by al-Qaeda-linked Islamic terrorists. Most of them were killed because they were Christians. I wondered how the terrorists could tell. I heard that they asked if potential victims could recite a Muslim prayer and that they could tell by their dress. Christian women would not be [Read More...]
A new biography of Frederick the Wise
Concordia Publishing House has just published a new biography of Frederick the Wise, the powerful Duke of Saxony who was Luther’s protector. I was able to read an advance copy, and it is excellent. The book, by the multi-faceted biographer Sam Wellman, puts the reader in the middle of the life and times of late [Read More...]
April 5, 2015
Christ’s resurrection and yours
Have a joyous Easter, everybody! Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might [Read More...]
April 3, 2015
Nailing down God
Great Holy Week meditation from LCMS President Matthew Harrison: The world must surely think we’ve lost our marbles when, in the liturgy for Good Friday, the words ring out: “We adore You, O Lord, and we praise and glorify Your resurrection. For behold, by the wood of the cross joy has come into all the [Read More...]
Scientists look at Crucifixion
Scientists have been studying the mechanics, physiology, and history of crucifixion. They have learned that it was more horrible than people had assumed. The National Geographic Channel is airing a documentary on the subject on Easter Sunday. Details and a link to some of the findings after the jump.From Science Replays the Crucifixion, NBC [Read More...]
“Everything is groundless and gratuitous”
More from Oswald Bayer, who shows the connection between justification and creation, as underscored in Luther’s Small Catechism: The world was called into being without any worldly condition, in pure freedom and pure goodness. Creation out of nothing means that everything that is exists out of sheer gratuity, out of pure goodness. “All this is [Read More...]
April 2, 2015
Herbert’s Maundy Thursday poem
I’ve posted this poem before, since it’s maybe my favorite poem by George Herbert. But I realized that this is his Maundy Thursday poem. It’s all here: love, the agony in the garden, the Sacrament, the leadup to the Crucifixion. And in this poem, Herbert shows how all of those are linked. Read it after [Read More...]
Maundy Thursday and the search for the real Jesus
Anthony Sacramone discusses all of the magazine cover stories about “the search for the real Jesus” that get published during Lent, generally concluding that we can’t really know much about Him, the assumption being that the Gospels aren’t reliable. Well, Mr. Sacramone gives a very Lutheran answer to those in search of a tangible Jesus, [Read More...]
Weird matter
Dark matter constitutes 85% of the universe. New research shows how weird this stuff is. Not only is dark matter invisible, it can pass through not only ordinary matter, but also other dark matter. From Dark Matter Just Got Darker (and Weirder) : Discovery News: Observations by two powerful space telescopes have revealed that the [Read More...]
