Today’s post will be unique in this series, Theology from under the Rubble, for it is the only one that engages with a strictly personal, rather than national, calamity. But, our private tragedies are no less serious for the life of faith — and in some ways they can feel worse, since we are in … Continue reading Finding God in Suffering: John Donne’s Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
In 410 AD, Rome was sacked by an army of Visigoths, setting off a crisis — of identity no less than politics — within the Roman Empire. Everything its citizens had believed to be certain and secure now seemed up in the air. It raised big questions about the relationship between God, the Church, traditional … Continue reading This World is Not Our Home: St Augustine and the Sack of Rome
Imitation has a bumpy reputation in Western culture today. In the world of things, imitation is often equivalent to ‘false’ or even ‘substandard’, as in the case of imitation leather or imitation crab. In the world of art, literature, and education, it is at best understood as a lack of unique contribution, and at worst … Continue reading Imitated, Never Duplicated: A Reflection on Philippians 3.17-4.1
In 586 BCE, the Babylonian army laid siege to the city of Jerusalem. Three months later, with the citizens facing starvation, the walls were finally breached. The city was taken, the Temple razed to the ground, and Judah’s ruling classes removed from the Land. (See 2 Kings 25.1-12 for the story.) For the people of … Continue reading Wrestling with Grief and God: Lamentations
The Bible loves to play with contrasts. It confronts the reader with choices, often drawn in stark terms: sometimes these are about good and bad, as in the two ways of Psalm 1 that lead either to fertility or barrenness; but at other times, the contrasts are more nuanced, such as the two holy mountains … Continue reading The Wilderness and the Land: A Reflection on Deuteronomy 26.1-11 and Luke 4.1-13
Matthew Root 