Leroy Huizenga

As the West goes ever faster through the process of de-Christianization, the Church approximates ever more the situation of the Church before Constantine, God’s people on earth challenging and converting the pagan culture and empire with which it was often at odds. Indeed, although we often think too romantically about it, the Church before Constantine endured persecutions great and small, official and unofficial, sporadic and sustained, local and universal… . Continue Reading »

U.S. District Judge Robert L. Miller Jr., a Reagan appointee, has dismissed Notre Dame’s lawsuit regarding the HHS mandate requiring coverage of abortifacients, contraceptives, and sterilizations on the grounds of timing, as Notre Dame finds itself in “safe harbor” while awaiting . . . . Continue Reading »

There is nothing new under the sun. True enough when the pessimistic author of Ecclesiastes penned the phrase, and true enough today. Except for one thing: the Incarnation, the Christian claim that God became man in Jesus Christ. The Incarnation really is something new. Prior to the conception of Jesus, God was not a human being. With the conception of Jesus, God was and remains for all time a human being… . Continue Reading »

Pope Benedict made the annual papal Christmas address to his Curia today, in which popes reveal their thoughts on the state of the Church and the world. Benedict focused his remarks on the family, the nature of interreligious dialogue, and the new evangelization. Of particular interest are his . . . . Continue Reading »

Technology changes things. Perhaps that seems obvious; one need think only of the advances made in areas such as medicine and agriculture in the last century. But when it comes to modern media like radio, television, and the internet, we can be guilty of a certain level of naiveté about the effects of technology on our lives, especially as people of faith… . Continue Reading »

Some days ago, Kate Blanchard, a friend of mine from our days in graduate school at Duke who is trained in theological ethics, wrote a piece for the Huffington Post entitled ” My Two Abortions ,” in which she related her experiences of an ectopic pregnancy and a fetus which (who?) died . . . . Continue Reading »

Growing up in the 1980s, it seemed there were a few basic Bible translations different Christians in my circles used. My Evangelical friends had the New International Version (NIV), we Lutherans had the Revised Standard Version (RSV), and my fundamentalist friends had the King James (KJV). My Catholic friends had their own various translations, either the official New American Bible (NAB), the Jerusalem Bible, or the Douay-Rheims. Many people also had the paraphrase The Living Bible on hand… . Continue Reading »

Having studied at Princeton, Duke, and Frankfurt, and having taught for several years at Wheaton College, I read Rusty Reno’s OTS piece today with great interest. I’d also want to second a comment calling for more attention to Wheaton and Trinity. Wheaton’s young doctoral program . . . . Continue Reading »

My thanks to J. Mark Bertrand for his article on the homepage today offering Bible-buying recommendations. I’d also mention for Catholics the Ignatius Bible: Second Catholic Edition . It’s a Catholic revision of the RSV first done in the 1960s and recently revised again in light of . . . . Continue Reading »

I think the RSV — in whatever edition, including Ignatius’ 2nd Catholic Edition — is better than MBD gives it credit for. It stands in the grand tradition of English Bibles, beginning with Tyndale, it’s accurate and readable and dignified. The ESV is based on the RSV, but it has . . . . Continue Reading »