#gavin ortlund

[protestantworkthatethic]

"Protestantism makes sense because it keeps scripture's authority uppermost, and thereby keeps us accountable to the apostolic deposit."

Gavin Ortlund

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

"A worthy goal on Twitter (all Social Media): to be known for kindness more than cleverness, and for building people up more than tearing them down." - Gavin Ortlund

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Why It’s Wrong to Say the Bible Is Pro-Slavery

by Gavin Ortlund | “The Bible is pro-slavery.” It’s a common charge these days. Part of the New Atheist attack on religion, it also comes from various progressive circles in order to defend certain social views (in line with the so-called redemptive-movement hermeneutic).

[curseofmeatthawsmoth]

Joseph Smith may have been influenced by Methodist theologian Adam Clarke's Bible commentary when he undertook his revision (he called it a "translation") of the Bible, though recent scholarship has rendered this much more doubtful. Whether or not there was any direct influence, Clarke rejected allegorical readings of the Song of Songs, and advised young ministers not to preach on it, and Smith left the Song completely out of his Bible revision. Smith wrote "the songs of Solomon are not inspired scripture."

Thinking about this again because I listen to a lot of religious podcasts and Gavin Ortlund, a Baptist, and the Mormon podcast Informed Saints both did videos on the Song this week.

[hypkigoodquotes]

enough light

Pascal … argued explicitly that there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough obscurity for those who don’t. For Pascal, God has arranged things this way because certainty is not our main need, just as ignorance is not our main problem. “God wishes to move the will rather than the mind. Perfect clarity would help the mind and harm the will.” Pascal thus emphasized that the…

[geminiagentgreen]

[hypkigoodquotes]

truth without beauty is powerless

… in the modern world, truth without beauty is powerless and ineffectual … [Hans Urs] von Balthasar claimed that goodness apart from beauty becomes unstable and arbitrary. David Bentley Henry has likewise urged that the Christian gospel addresses the world not primarily as a series of arguments but as a story involving a unique interrelation of truth and beauty: “Making its appeal first to the…

truth without beauty is powerless

[hypkigoodquotes]

every impression of intelligence and beauty

What kind of entity might be responsible for imbuing the world with transcendent meaning? We still cannot yet say, but we can note that many of the features of our world give every impression of intelligence and beauty. Thus, when we consider who or what might be behind space-time, what might be the wraparound Reality that explains why there is anything at all, we get a provocative impression of…

every impression of intelligence and beauty