Showing posts with label Internet Monk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet Monk. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Michael Spencer, 1956-2010
My all-time favorite Christian blogger, Michael Spencer, who called himself the Internet Monk even though he was a Baptist, died last evening in Oneida, Kentucky. He had cancer. He was only 53. Michael was an incredible writer, essayist, teacher, and blogger. The masthead on his blog called his posts “dispatches from the post-evangelical wilderness” and he helped so many of us find our way through it. He is survived by his wife, Denise, their son Clay and their daughter Noel.
But we sorrow not as others who have no hope.
Listen to these words of St. Paul in Second Corinthians, chapter 4:
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
RIP, Michael.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
It’s Sunday. Let’s do something religious.
I thought I would provide you with a few links to some sites I frequent. Inclusion of a site in the list does not in any way imply that I necessarily agree with every last detail of the blogger’s doctrinal stance. Some of the blogs are “all religious, all the time” but some are not. In some cases, the comments are often just as interesting as the original posts. I find all of these blogs to be thought-provoking and well-written. If you’ve never visited any of them, give them a try sometime. Some have more of an “academic” bent than others (hermeneutics, anyone?), but all are interesting. Here’s my list, in no particular order:
1) Jesus Creed is the home of Dr. Scot McKnight, a professor at North Park University in Chicago, Illinois. I believe North Park is affiliated with the Evangelical Free folks, a denomination we don’t encounter much in the South. The posts are always carefully constructed and the comments represent a variety of points of view. A lot of book reviewing goes on here. Dr. McKnight’s closest friends call him “old one-T.”
2) Internet Monk. Michael Spencer, a Southern Baptist who lives in Kentucky, is the internet monk, or iMonk for short. He has a lot to say and is always a very interesting read.
3) Jesus Shaped Spirituality is also by Michael Spencer. Michael has been undergoing quite a religious upheaval personally in the last year or so because his wife, Denise, is in the process of converting to Roman Catholicism.
4) Jesus The Radical Pastor is the blog of John W. Frye out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Challenging and thoughtful. John is the author of a startling book entitled Out of Print, which is about the sudden disappearance of words, then books, from the Bible.
5) The Deacon’s Bench is the place where Roman Catholic deacon Greg Kandra ponders the world. Greg, who is married, lives in Queens, and serves the Diocese of Brooklyn, has been a writer and producer for CBS-TV for 26 years. He became a deacon last year. A Roman Catholic deacon, it turns out, is a bit different from a Baptist one.
6) Credenda Agenda is written mostly by “the Dougs,” Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson. They concentrate on issues affecting classical Reformed Theology, but they once devoted an entire issue of their online magazine to Flannery O’Connor, a favorite of mine.
7) Ben Witherington is a professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury College (Methodist) but that doesn’t make him dry and uninteresting. His last three posts have been about Eric Liddle (of Chariots of Fire fame), Paul Simon (of Simon and Garfunkel fame), and Biblical and Impressionist Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (of Art Institute of Chicago fame). I lose track of time in this blog.
8) Verum Serum bills itself as “An Eclectic Christian Blog Run By Two Guys From O.C.” -- Orange County, California, that is. John and Scott comment on current goings-on in both the secular and sacred arenas.
These sites are where I spend a lot of my time when I’m not blogging or checking out your blogs. Next time you’re sitting around wondering what to do, check one of these out. You might be glad you did. You might also learn new phrases such as “Federal Vision” and “New Pauline Perspective.”
1) Jesus Creed is the home of Dr. Scot McKnight, a professor at North Park University in Chicago, Illinois. I believe North Park is affiliated with the Evangelical Free folks, a denomination we don’t encounter much in the South. The posts are always carefully constructed and the comments represent a variety of points of view. A lot of book reviewing goes on here. Dr. McKnight’s closest friends call him “old one-T.”
2) Internet Monk. Michael Spencer, a Southern Baptist who lives in Kentucky, is the internet monk, or iMonk for short. He has a lot to say and is always a very interesting read.
3) Jesus Shaped Spirituality is also by Michael Spencer. Michael has been undergoing quite a religious upheaval personally in the last year or so because his wife, Denise, is in the process of converting to Roman Catholicism.
4) Jesus The Radical Pastor is the blog of John W. Frye out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Challenging and thoughtful. John is the author of a startling book entitled Out of Print, which is about the sudden disappearance of words, then books, from the Bible.
5) The Deacon’s Bench is the place where Roman Catholic deacon Greg Kandra ponders the world. Greg, who is married, lives in Queens, and serves the Diocese of Brooklyn, has been a writer and producer for CBS-TV for 26 years. He became a deacon last year. A Roman Catholic deacon, it turns out, is a bit different from a Baptist one.
6) Credenda Agenda is written mostly by “the Dougs,” Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson. They concentrate on issues affecting classical Reformed Theology, but they once devoted an entire issue of their online magazine to Flannery O’Connor, a favorite of mine.
7) Ben Witherington is a professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury College (Methodist) but that doesn’t make him dry and uninteresting. His last three posts have been about Eric Liddle (of Chariots of Fire fame), Paul Simon (of Simon and Garfunkel fame), and Biblical and Impressionist Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (of Art Institute of Chicago fame). I lose track of time in this blog.
8) Verum Serum bills itself as “An Eclectic Christian Blog Run By Two Guys From O.C.” -- Orange County, California, that is. John and Scott comment on current goings-on in both the secular and sacred arenas.
These sites are where I spend a lot of my time when I’m not blogging or checking out your blogs. Next time you’re sitting around wondering what to do, check one of these out. You might be glad you did. You might also learn new phrases such as “Federal Vision” and “New Pauline Perspective.”
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