On the Square Today

Peter J. Leithart on what the Bible is for :

Evangelicals like to quote Paul’s letter to Timothy: “All Scripture is God-breathed, and profitable for teaching, correction, training in righteousness, that the man of God may be equipped for every good work.” Paul affirms that God is the author of the written text, a sine qua non of Evangelicalism. Paul also stresses the usefulness of Scripture, an equally favored Evangelical theme.

Also today, Patrick J. Deneen on Georgetown’s inclusion of Health and Human Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Georgetown University as part of its graduation exercises :

The presence and display of faculty in this manner at these events—with all attendant academic “pomp and circumstance”—is intended to send a strong signal of approval, blessing, and witness upon such events. We pay honor and respect to our students who have successfully completed their course of education, conferring upon them our collective blessing and congratulation by our presence. Our presence denotes the university’s blessing (indeed, on these occasions we take out the colored robes that reflect that once we were actually “professors”—of the faith).

And in our third article, Matt Emerson on the gift and grace of doubt :

When we doubt, we are reminded that we are the creatures and not the creator. While this sounds like a truism, the consequences are huge. To have the certainty we crave, to truly know everything about the mysteries that leave us on edge, this would impose a burden and responsibility that would crush our psyche. It’s a fair assumption that doubt often arises because we don’t have answers to certain hard questions, questions like “Does God exist?”; “How did the universe come about?”; “How can a loving God allow evil?”