Canter Bridge

Wisdom is no pauper.

To the contrary, the proverbialist portrays this elegant lady as possessed of—indeed of having built—a very fine house. Her table is laden with the weight of good stuff. Wisdom is no party animal. Neither is she a prude. (more…)

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The biblical proverbs are framed in didactic summonses and calls to subjection. One is asked to endure the discipline of instruction, to prefer a rod on the back to the false freedom of the streets. It all sounds very hard and self-denying, and it is. (more…)

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When one’s goal is the wider celebration of God’s glory in creation and society, how does one measure success?

What are the proper metrics? How does one arrive at the decision to keep going or, alternatively, to throw in the towel and try something else? What credentials does one accrue? (more…)

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It is extraordinary that we should stand at a distance of two millennia and still retain insight into the drama that the apostle Paul delineates in these terms:

So I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice; for I am confident about all of you, that my joy would be the joy of all of you. For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. But if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but to some extent—not to exaggerate it—to all of you. This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person; so now instead you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ.

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It is famously dangerous to attempt an articulation of what suffering is for. It is by contrast an easy thing to observe what suffering in fact accomplishes in the lives of those who know its whip.

Purpose is one thing, ethereal and elusive. Result is quite another, lying there on the table, open to inspection. (more…)

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It is common for modern-day Christians to suppose that ease and wellbeing are signals of God’s favor. Even indications that one is ‘doing the right thing’ are often assumed, primarily, to depend upon one’s ‘peace’ or at least upon unopposed forward progress.

The apostle Paul would not have recognized this convenient correlation. (more…)

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