Spirituality

Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich: A Study Guide for Adventists

22 August 2012 | Delcy Kuhlman

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This guide is one of a column series that invites Adventist readers to reflect on important classics of the Christian spiritual tradition. Each guide provides a brief biography of the classic’s author, a section on historical context, a short outline of the classic under discussion, reflection and analysis, and questions for personal spiritual reflection.

Biography of Julian

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Observation: Transfiguration

6 August 2012 | Joelle Chase

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One day in January my husband Peter and I drive to the top of the Sandia Mountains near our home, 10,500 feet close to sky. Albuquerque is a warm 58 degrees Fahrenheit, but 5,000 feet higher the snow is deep in and out of shadows. Our snowshoes leave claw marks on the icy, crusted path where other hikers have walked, but sink in the woods where only squirrels and other light-footed creatures scamper. It is impossible to lose Peter in the firs and spruce trees. His neon yellow snow-pants (reversible to neon pink) shine between straight trunks and thick evergreen boughs.

Spiritual Formation: A Rose by Any Other Name

2 August 2012 | Ron Reece

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“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Gal 5:22-23 NAS)

C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed: A Study Guide

16 July 2012 | Alden Thompson

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Saint Thomas: An Appreciation of an Apostolic Outlier

3 July 2012 | John McLarty

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I belong to a secret fellowship called The Friends of Saint Thomas. We have to be a secret society because in the church—not just the Adventist Church but in the larger Christian Church—Thomas' faith is regarded as defective. Nevertheless, Thomas is our patron saint, or to be more precise, our inspiration and model.

Thomas' defect is well known: he would not believe unless he saw the evidence for himself. This putative defect was rooted in his twin virtues of loyalty and hardheadedness.

Irenaeus: Reminding Us Who We Are

28 June 2012 | Joelle Chase

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Today, June 28, the Christian world remembers Irenaeus of Lyons, an early church father from the 2^nd century AD. We do well to remember him, as we have Irenaeus to thank for much, including the ordering of our four canonical gospels, his contribution to the establishment of scripture’s authority and a theology of the unity and goodness of God within the Trinity.

The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius: A Study Guide for Adventists

4 June 2012 | Rich Hannon

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This guide is one of a column series that invites Adventist readers to reflect on classics important to the Christian spiritual tradition. Each guide provides 1) A brief biography of the classic’s author and a section on historical context 2) A short outline of the classic 3) Reflection and analysis of the classic 4) Questions for personal spiritual reflection.

1) Biography of Boethius & Historical Context for the Book

Bede the Venerable

25 May 2012 | Gregory Dodds

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The story of English Christianity begins with a man who was being called “the Venerable” within a generation of his passing. That story and even the very concept of “the English people” began with a monk who toiled for years writing one of the great historical works in early European history. While monasteries originated with a desire to withdraw from the world to worship God, Bede embodied the great civilizing aspect of the medieval monastery—the production and transmission of knowledge. He helped set the standard for learning and scholarship and demonstrated the importan

Ascension and Pentecost: Between the Ups and Downs

15 May 2012 | Scott Arany

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"While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” [...] Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

Easter's Residue

4 May 2012 | Dave Thomas

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Last month, Christians gathered together in unusually large numbers on account of a singular event that transpired outside the walls of Jerusalem some 2,000 yrs ago. We are among those who continue to gather, drawn by the story of a resurrection— the coming back to life of a person once dead.