Matthew Burden's Blog, page 17

Church History: The Age of Reason and Awakenings, Part 1 (17th-18th centuries)

(Click here for the church history series page)

Lecture audio: The Age of Reason and Awakenings, Part 1 (click here to listen or right-click to download)

Lecture Notes Outline

-       The Puritans in England

-   Discontentment with the Anglican settlement

-   Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil War

-   The Westminster Confession

-   The Act of Conformity (1662)

-       Stagnation: Religious Wars & Nominal Faith

-   The Wars of Religion & the Peace ofWestphalia (1648)

-   State religion

-   Life in the parish system

-   Sacraments vs. personal faith

-       Stirrings on the Continent: Quietism &Pietism

-   Madame Guyon, Francois Fenelon, and CatholicQuietism

-   Philip Spener & Lutheran Pietism

-   Zinzendorf & the Moravians

The Evangeliad

(Click here for an introduction and previous installments of the Evangeliad)
Section 28, extended (corresponding to John 8:8-11)
Jesus stooped again to write on the groundWhile the men, astonished, looked all around.Astonishment then turned quickly to shame,For Jesus had shifted to them the blame.
Then one by one the men drifted away,With the older ones first to leave the place.The group had dispersed before very long;The men--and their accusations--were gone.
Jesus looked at the woman; gently he said,"Woman, where are they who wanted you dead?Has no one condemned you for your misdeeds?""No one, my Lord--they've all gone," she breathed.
"Then neither do I condemn you," said he."Go on your way, daughter--go and be free,Free from the chains that bound you before--Go now in peace; go and sin no more."

Photo of the Week

Thou hidden source of calm repose,Thou all-sufficient love divine,My help and refuge from my foes,Secure I am, if Thou art mine;From sin and grief and shame I hide me,Jesus, in Thy name.
- from a hymn by Charles Wesley

Quote of the Week

"Science in the modern world has many uses; its chief use, however, is to provide long words to cover the errors of the rich."

- G. K. Chesterton, from Heretics

Thanksgiving Break

I'm taking a one-week break from the blog for Thanksgiving. Normal posts will resume on Monday, Nov. 27.

A Prayer from the Odes of Solomon (1st-2nd century)

I praise you, O Lord,Because I love you.O Most High, abandon me not,For you are my hope.Freely did I receive your grace;May I live by it. [...]Indeed my hope is in the Lord,And I shall not fear.
- Ode 5

Church History: The Catholic Counter-Reformation

(Click here for the church history series page)

Lecture audio: The Catholic Counter-Reformation (click here to listen or right-click to download)

Lecture Notes Outline

-     Revival of Catholic Devotion

-   Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Jesuits) &The Spiritual Exercises

-   John of the Cross & The Dark Night of theSoul

-   Teresa of Avila & The Interior Castle

-   Francis de Sales & Introduction to theDevout Life

-   Pushing Back the Reformation

-   Jesuit ministry in Europe

-   The Council of Trent

-   Global Expansion

-   Bartolomé de las Casas & the Catholic churchin the Americas

-   Francis Xavier & the mission to the Far East

-   Jesuit, Franciscan, and Dominican missions

A Thanksgiving Poem

I don't have a new installment of the Evangeliad quite ready to post yet, and for that reason (as well as because I'm planning to take a little break from the blog next week), I thought I'd post a classic Thanksgiving poem here. The following is by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919), an American poet who, although unfortunately dabbling in a few occult ideas later in her life, nonetheless was able to reflect the high theological literacy of her day in her Thanksgiving poem:

Thanksgiving, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

We walk on starry fields of white
And do not see the daisies;
For blessings common in our sight
We rarely offer praises.
We sigh for some supreme delight
To crown our lives with splendor,
And quite ignore our daily store
Of pleasures sweet and tender.

Our cares are bold and push their way
Upon our thought and feeling.
They hang about us all the day,
Our time from pleasure stealing.
So unobtrusive many a joy
We pass by and forget it,
But worry strives to own our lives
And conquers if we let it.

There's not a day in all the year
But holds some hidden pleasure,
And looking back, joys oft appear
To brim the past's wide measure.
But blessings are like friends, I hold,
Who love and labor near us.
We ought to raise our notes of praise
While living hearts can hear us.

Full many a blessing wears the guise
Of worry or of trouble.
Farseeing is the soul and wise
Who knows the mask is double.
But he who has the faith and strength
To thank his God for sorrow
Has found a joy without alloy
To gladden every morrow.

We ought to make the moments notes
Of happy, glad Thanksgiving;
The hours and days a silent phrase
Of music we are living.
And so the theme should swell and grow
As weeks and months pass o'er us,
And rise sublime at this good time,
A grand Thanksgiving chorus.

Photo of the Week

Take up, take up thy burden, why weary should’st thou be?Far greater were the trials thy Saviour bore for thee.Lean thou on him for comfort, whose gentle voice will say,There’s rest beside the fountain; go, rest thee by the way.
- from a hymn by Fanny Crosby

Quote of the Week

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."
- Abraham Lincoln