Theology update for the week of December 4

Dear friends in Christ,

The sweet scroll and the seventh seal.The Sunday exploration of the Revelation of Saint John the Divine continues on December 4 at 10am. In the tenth chapter of Revelation a “mighty angel” comes down from heaven (you can see Blake’s representation of him here) and a voice tells John to eat the “little book” that the angel is holding. This eucharistic moment is followed by two parables of the Church and, finally, the opening of the seventh seal.

Christians in the Middle East. On Sunday, December 11, Saint Thomas welcomes the Rt. Rev. Michael Lewis, Bishop of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf. Bishop Lewis talks about the kaleidoscopic life of the Church in that region in a special lecture titled No Abiding City: The Surprising Realities of Christian Presence in the Middle East. These communities are some of the most ancient in the Christian world, yet they are anything but uniform; their diversity of gifts makes for vibrant, if struggling, churches in a region where politics and religion are inseparable. This special lecture is held at 10 a.m. on the fifth floor.

Benedictine spirituality. The Very Rev. Dr. Steven Peay, Dean and President of Nashotah House Theological Seminary, returns to Saint Thomas on January 8, 2017. Following up on a lecture he gave to the parish last year, Dean Peay offers reflections on Saint Benedict of Nursia (480-550), as well as the Rule of Saint Benedict, which the abbot penned for the monks in his charge. Dean Peay is uniquely qualified to offer such reflections, having himself lived as a Benedictine monastic for 18 years.

How December 25 became Christmas. The date December 25, or its Roman equivalent, is not found in the Gospels. Yet, according to the Very Rev. Dr. Andrew McGowan, Dean and President of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, neither is it solely an appropriation of pagan celebrations. Instead, he writes, “strange as it may seem, the key to dating Jesus’ birth may lie in the dating of Jesus’ death at Passover.” McGowan’s article on the subject was published in Bible Review in 2002, and is a perennial resource for lagging conversations at holiday cocktail parties.

Yours in Christ,
Joel