While most reformers rejected the Roman sacrament of penance, they nevertheless believed confession was still essential the life of the believer. Recognizing its pastoral necessity, they sought in numerous ways to retain the symbolic heart of the practice, taking steps such as making private confession voluntary and emphasizing the use of communal confessions within their…

In Ezekiel 22, the prophet enumerates the sins of Israel before describing the Lord’s search for a righteous hedge, which would stand in the gap so that the land not be destroyed. For English Puritan pastor William Greenhill (1591-1671), this hedge is to be understood metaphorically as representing those things which preserve the people of…

Reading Journal Home << Previous Entry Next entry >> As I prepare this post, it’s snowing outside—cold, white flakes that put me in mind of the flaky fires of the seventh circle of Hell. Today’s post is all about such unlikely juxtapositions of image and idea and our condition of interpretation. The Defiant Soul &…