Theology Update for the Week of April 26

Dear friends in Christ,

Last week’s lecture by Nigel Biggar was received with remarkable engagement by those present. And basically none of us wanted the conversation to end. If you missed the lecture, you can listen to it on our website. The audio is posted on this page.

In the coming week we will have these classes:

  • The death of Abraham is preceded by a few verses that tell us he married again after the death of Sarah. Who are these other descendants of Abraham? Join me on Monday at 12:40pm for the end of Genesis chapter 24 and the beginning of chapter 25. The Sunday class is on the 5th floor; the Monday class, on the 2nd.
  • The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O’Connor’s second and final novel, will be discussed on Monday evening, April 27, in Andrew Hall from 6:15 to 7:45pm. We will try to keep the discussion nonviolent! The books is wrenching and strange-as we expect from O’Connor. I am very much looking forward to the discussion. If you’ve read the book, you’re welcome to join us.
  • As it comes towards the end, the Rector’s Christian Doctrine Class looks to The End. This week’s topic is “Christian Hope: Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven – Mary and the Communion of Saints.” Anyone interested in the topic is welcome. We will be back in Andrew Hall: Tuesday, April 28, from 6:30 to 7:30pm.

Finally, a few words from the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, the Episcopal monastic community in Cambridge, Massachusetts: “As the flint stone, clarified into glass, no longer impedes the faculty of sight, but helps it, so the material particles raised in glory no longer confine, but seem to transmit and communicate the forces of the glorified Body to which they belong. . . . Now in His resurrection He is His own true self, both in Body and Soul.” That’s from their founder, Richard Meux Benson (1824-1915).

Peace,

Father Austin