There’s an interesting discussion going on over the blog Connexions about atonement theory. I think Richard is right to point out that penal substitution should be considered one theory among several and not as an essential Christian belief as some evangelicals insist. The universal church has never deemed one account of Christ’s work to be…

I don’t know if it has to do with being away from electronic media for over a week and out of touch with the varied gyrations and conniptions of the ‘blogosphere,’ but I just can’t muster the wherewithal to comment on the latest bad news out of Iraq, the GOP’s cynical resurrection of the anti-gay-marriage…

Another big highlight of the visit to Florence were trips to the Uffizi and Academia Galleries, which house some of the most important works of late Medieval and Renaissance art. The Uffizi is full of works by Giotto, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Caravaggio. It was truly…

After four days in Rome we took the train up to Florence. Here’s the train station in Rome: On the streets of Florence (apparently with a car about to run me down!): First stop in Florence was the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral or Duomo as it’s called. The Duomo was constructed…

On Sunday we went to the Catacombs of St. Callixtus which are south of the center of Rome, down the old Via Appia and out in the countryside a bit. This particular network of catacombs, one among several in the area, is around 12 miles long and contains the tombs of over 500,000 Christians, about…

Dear Blog-Friends, Discuss: Can one ever have too many books? Lee is packing box number 7 as we speak and is not half-way done. He did allow me to give away a couple of William F. Buckley’s spy novels and a few George Will books, but that’s about it. Abby

As I mentioned, my friend Patrick lives in Berlin and knows his way around Rome pretty well. Here we are outside of his favorite trattoria near the Colosseum: Here’s the Colosseum at night: Rome is for … romance! Enjoying a late-night beer at an outdoor cafe:

Saturday it was off to the Vatican! First we went to the Vatican museum and saw, among other things, the Sistine Chapel. No picture can do it justice, so it’s probably just as well you couldn’t take pictures in there. You are allowed to take photos elsewhere in the museum, though: Here’s a view of…

On Friday we took a guided tour of some of the highlights of ancient Rome, including the Colosseum, the Forum and other central areas of the ancient city. A view of part of the Colosseum where the outer wall is missing. Contrary to what I used to think, Christians were not killed in the Colosseum,…

Let’s split this into a few posts. First, pics from Rome. Keep in mind that this was our first trip to Italy, so this is Italy 101. Your scribe arriving in Rome last Thursday morning on roughly one hour of sleep. This day consisted of a lot of bleary-eyed wandering around the area near our…