Deepening our Christianity

the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins

Edition #2 · 24 April 2023

Blessings Reader,

Welcome to the third week of Eastertide. Our third week of new creation. Of the old passing away and the new being created out of the old. There can be a temptation to turn the radical new realities of Easter into simple metaphors.

The new creation in Christ is being birthed painfully and slowly across all creation. It comes to us in the meaningful and continual work within the life of the Church. It is not tame, it is not simple, and it is above our comprehension. When I think of stepping into this new life, I feel a mounting fear and anxiety within me. The gulf between knowing this truth and living this truth is often too much.

Yet, we are loved and cherished my the Lord for one simple reason: God has always loved and cherished you.

Until Next Week

Posted this Week

A Prayer for the Recently Deceased

A prayer for when a sibling in Christ has passed on. Words that might help us be present in this time of grief and loss. I wrote these words after my father-in-law passed during the pandemic in fall 2021.
~5 Minutes

Read/Listen to this Essay & Prayer

Unpublished Photo of the Week

I snuck away to the Religious Book Fair held this Saturday in our old neighborhood. This meant we got to cross the river Seine. I love the water and the way it attracts and creates life.
**Catpured:** 22 April 2023

Curated Goods from the Week

Sharing what I've come across from around the internet that may encourage or help you.

7 Hermeneutical Concepts with Dr Moritz PhD (Cambridge) ~9 Minutes
In this 9 minute tiktok video, Thorsten lays out 7 key hermeneutical concepts that we should be using as we interpret anything (including the bible). This overview is a helpful refresher or introduction to these concepts. They are Speech Act theory, hermeneutical geography, difference of implied and empirical audience/author, storied hermeneutic, role of imagination in interpretation, open vs closed text, and interdisciplinary possibilities.
Twitter 🧵 on Bias in Natural Law & Gender Differences ~6 Minutes
Dr Laura Robinson (PhD New Testament, Duke) has a very well articulated and thoughtful thread. She talks through the bias behind the questions being asked, and the folly of attempts to distinguish roles based on differences between biological sex.

A Prayer for the Week to Come

May you feel and know the love our heavenly Father has for you this week. A love unmoored by productivity, and doing. A love undeserved and other worldly. In a passing moment of time between things - I pray to our God that you would remember this simple truth. You will never become enough, because you already are enough in God's sight.