The Battle Without and Within: The Psychology of Sin and Salvation in the Desert Fathers and Mothers

We know the desert fathers and mothers as ascetic masters who withdrew into the desert to subdue the flesh, fight the devil and find God. But they were also insightful psychologists, especially in the case of one the masters, who served as a leading intellectual of the movement. His name was Evagrius Ponticus. This paper explores the insights of these masters, especially Evagrius, as it applied to how sin ravages the soul and how God provides a way out.

The Battle of the Heart: The Desert Fathers as Psychologists (2013)

Scandrette Lecture Series at Wheaton College delivered on March 27, 2013.

The Catechumenate and the Rise of Christianity

The early Christian movement faced difficult challenges as it moved outside the orbit of Judaism and into the urban heart of the Roman world. The pressure on the movement to accommodate or isolate in order to survive was huge. But the movement did neither. Instead, for over 250 years it persisted in winning Romans without compromising its unique message and way of life. It succeeded in part because it created a long on-ramp, known as the catechumenate, that allowed the followers of traditional religion to move very slowly from traditional Roman religion into the Christian fold. This article tells that story.

The Long and Deep Memory of Evangelicalism

The word ‘evangelical’ is an adjective. It has served as a modifier to help define, refine, and renew traditions within the Christian family of life with longer histories and deeper root systems. When the word becomes a noun instead of an adjective, it becomes too thin, and vulnerable to cultural compromise. The prosperity gospel comes to mind as one example. When it remains an adjective and serves to modify other movements, it draws them into practices—like evangelism, personal Bible, and small groups—that both renew them and strengthen them.

Protestant Missionary Biography as Written Icon

The creation and use of icons within the Eastern Orthodox tradition goes back over a millennium, which has endured to this day. Far from being a mere work of art, which is what it might appear to most Protestants, an icon embodies a concrete form of Christian belief and practice. Protestants have their own counterpart to the Eastern Orthodox icon. It is as rich with symbolism as the icon is. That Protestant icon is the missionary biography. But while icons depict the results of sanctity, the missionary biography describes the process that leads to sanctity. They are not merely intended to ‘tell the facts’ of the story, though they certainly do that, but to inspire the faithful to live in the same way. This paper explains how it works.