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Anamnesis
I wander the darkened halls of my shuttered certainty searching for a memory to point me back towards home. * * * “How often” muses Faulkner* “have I lain beneath the rain” careful here, watch the comma “on a strange roof, thinking of home?” * * * The memory of ancient things or so Tolkien Continue reading
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Epiphany
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. Today the church celebrates the arrival of the magi from the east to the cradle of our Lord. The wise men followed an abnormal, to say the least, astronomical phenomenon all the way to a manger in Bethlehem. An epiphany is a sudden realization–one immediately taken for truth. Continue reading
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First Week of Advent: Hope
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to Continue reading
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My Faith and my Doubt: an Attempted Description
My mind has been circling the big questions again. As usual. And, as usual, I don’t know anything for certain. I don’t have much to say today that I haven’t said before, but perhaps re-framing it will help remind me of my choice. * * * I believe in the God of the philosophers. I Continue reading
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Incarnation: The Nicence Creed Part 3
(you can read part one here and part two here) Who, for us people for our salvation, came down from heaven,The impulse is to make it about us, you know. That old narcissistic soteriology. Unless, of course, our salvation is about more than us. Unless our salvation is more about restoring all things. Making new Continue reading
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Shutting Up
I’ve always needed to shut up. All my life. I’m a know-it-all. A corrector. And that is a good trait much of the time. But it has frequently gotten me into trouble (John Mayer can relate). I’ve, in the past, tried making myself shut-up. Sometimes I retreat within myself. Sometimes I make rules. But, in Continue reading
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A Simple Revolution
I’ve been experiencing a lot change recently. I got married four months ago. I began my master’s program a year ago. I will be applying for PhD programs in the next couple of months. I left Beltway and joined Highland 15 months ago. But far more than my material circumstances or local contexts have changed: Continue reading
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Breath
This wind in my chest swirls among the outcroppings of my heart. It scatters the gritty sandstone among the few cactus that still grow. It carries the golden eagle among the lingering cloud wisps. * * * It is said that God breathed and Adam began to live. And was alone. Until she kissed him Continue reading
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Logos: The Nicene Creed Part 2
(the first post can be found here) And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; If Jesus is Lord then Caesar is not. The rulers of this world have been toppled by the Jewish messiah, the King who came. And he is the only begotten son Continue reading
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Candle Light Devo: a reflection
As many of you are aware, the Fall 2013 is just beginning. This past week, ACU hosted Welcome Week for all of the incoming students. Those of us in faculty/staff roles have been here all summer and are glad to welcome the new students. The rest of the student body will return over the weekend Continue reading
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Five Thoughts for New Students (Year 3)
This is now the third year in a row that I have written a blog post directed at new students. Like last year, these five thoughts will be different than before. The first year I focused on spiritual goods. The second year I focused on academic goods. This time I want to address personal goods. Continue reading
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Creation: The Nicene Creed Part 1
I believe in one God Ethical monotheism is a late development. I’ve written, elsewhere, about my doubts. One of them being that the connection between morality and religion is new. Sure, obey the gods so the crops will grow or your enemies will fall in battle. But, obey the gods because the gods are the Continue reading
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Praying Part Three: The Divine Hours
This is the third post I have written explicitly about prayer. The first two posts were written about a year ago and were in direct response to When God Talks Back, an ethnographic account of prayer among charismatic evangelicals. To Dr. Lurhman (who wrote the book), the people she studied were purveyors of something very Continue reading
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Goodbye for Now
I haven’t been writing much. Not this summer. And it’s not for lack of trying. It’s just that my mind has been otherwise occupied, I guess. I’ve been reading. A lot. I’m currently reading, concurrently, a systematic theology, a book on composition pedagogy, and a cheap fantasy novel. I’m also reading The New York Times Continue reading
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Thankful Tuesday: Yesterday (a reprise on rain)
Yesterday was blanketed shadow. And quiet murmuring, the quiet of black-out blinds against the angry sun. And yesterday was a glimpse of September in July, an invasion of coffee and sweaters and pumpkin. And yesterday was fluffy blankets and long movies; it was classrooms filled with new students and old teachers. And yesterday was a Continue reading
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taking an old friend for a walk in the rain
the water droplets had gathered in every crack; every mini ocean was overflowing its banks while a dove cooed aimlessly in the way that only a lover can, lost and forgotten on the edge of the world. but my old friend kept walking in that former way, her gait a prance, and her nose calibrated Continue reading
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At the End of the Road
At the end of the road there will be a sense of homecoming, although the journey has been from A to B. ‘We shall not cease from exploration,’ wrote T. S. Eliot, ‘and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’ That’s Continue reading
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Prayers for the Social Order
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the people of this land], that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Continue reading
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The Compassion of God: a recording
This is a recording I have made of a section of Thomas Oden’s Classic Christianity. The third chapter is called “The Character of God.” This is the final section of that chapter, called “The Compassion of God.” I have set the recording to an original piano piece called “Journey” by Drew Dixon. This is what Continue reading
About Me
Gregory C. Jeffers
Anglican Christian | Husband | Father | Teacher | Scholar | Poet
G. C. Jeffers 