Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 330–390), one of the most celebrated theologians of the early church, really didn’t want to be a preacher. In fact, after being ordained against his will at Epiphany 362, he couldn’t get away fast enough. Naturally, by the time he made his way back to Nazianzus a few months later, his […]
Friday, 11 November, 2022 by Sarah White
I have struggled with assurance for pretty much the whole of my Christian life. When I became a Presbyterian, I took comfort in the belief that, as Westminster Confession, Chapter XIV puts it, “The grace of faith […] is the work of the Spirit of Christ” in my soul, not my work; and that a […]
Monday, 13 June, 2022 by Sarah White
I’m not a very successful gardener, but I love spring. I’ve discovered that there are beauties to be found within the several-block radius my Basset Hound and I plod along daily. I love spotting Siberian squill, crocus, daffodil, forsythia, and magnolia trees in these mercurial late-March days of wind, timid sunshine, and the odd snow […]
Monday, 04 April, 2022 by Sarah White
In its second volume, The Wife, the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy takes an unexpected turn—to politics, of all things. Readers are caught up in Kristin’s husband’s involvement in a plot to depose a king, while being introduced to historical figures most will never hear about elsewhere, like Norway’s regent Erling Vidkunsson. I’ll admit that for a […]
Monday, 21 February, 2022 by Sarah White
I’m always surprised how few people have heard of Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter. To be fair, though, I hadn’t heard of it until I stumbled on an article in a Catholic blog a decade ago and then, with some disappointment, trudged through the stilted thees-and-thous translation I found in the library. But even after returning […]
Wednesday, 05 January, 2022 by Sarah White
I had Cause to say, It is the voice of my Beloved, Behold he commeth–Skipping over the Mountains & leaping over the Hills: And I believe he never leapt over higher hills. […] Mean while there was a Scripture brought to my mind with irresistible power, I Sam. 1.18: The woman went away & did […]
Wednesday, 20 October, 2021 by Sarah White
In his recent book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Dr. Carl Trueman traces the emergence of “a notion of selfhood that places self-expression […] at the heart of what it means to be human” (336). As he points out, it’s not that such a notion is inherently bad—especially where it serves to […]
Wednesday, 18 August, 2021 by Sarah White
Admirers of Simonetta Carr’s Christian Biographies for Young Readers series will be delighted to know that Carr has written an equally engaging, edifying book for readers not so young. In Questions Women Asked, Carr profiles 31 Christian women “who have either posed or examined a variety of puzzling questions, striving to find biblical answers.” While […]
Monday, 26 April, 2021 by Sarah White
Recently I read Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations for the first time—a bracing read in a weighty and contentious season. Likely written around the 170s, the material later published as Meditations probably wasn’t meant for public consumption. Marcus Aurelius (Roman Emperor from 161–180 A.D.) kept the journal, a collection of short mental exercises, while leading his armies […]
Monday, 22 February, 2021 by Sarah White
Imagine being stuck in an unfamiliar city during a plague, threatened with religious persecution, and knowing you would likely die within the year. What sort of care package would you want? Olympia Morata asked for more books. “There is a great lack of good authors here,”[1] Olympia complained to a correspondent while living as a […]
Wednesday, 25 November, 2020 by Sarah White
As detailed in Part I of this series, Olympia Morata (c. 1526–1555) grew up in Ferrara, Italy, in the court of Protestant sympathizer Renèe de France, where she became proficient in Greek and Latin classics alongside Renèe’s daughter, Anna. After Anna’s marriage and Olympia’s subsequent estrangement from court, Olympia found joy in her marriage to […]
Wednesday, 23 September, 2020 by Sarah White
“If Sappho is the tenth of the singing Muses / then most divine Olympia is inscribed as the eleventh,” reads a Greek epitaph in honor of “a most learned woman.”[1] This “divine Olympia” was Olympia Morata Grunthler (c. 1526–1555)—one of the earliest female scholars in the Reformed tradition, and among the most accomplished in early […]
Monday, 27 July, 2020 by Sarah White