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
Two years ago for Ash Wednesday, I wrote about how 2020 was shaping up to be an apocalyptic year. And that was when COVID-19 was still a couple weeks away from becoming the pandemic that has overshadowed pretty much everything else since. Suffice it to say that the news has not gotten any better over … Continue reading From Under the Rubble (Again): A Reflection for Ash Wednesday 2022
Matthew Root 