Theology, especially Soteriology

Athanasius’s On the Incarnation 

Cyril of Jerusalem’s Catechetical Lectures

Norman Russell’s The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition helped me shift my soteriological thought toward sacramental theosis. 

Augustine of Hippo’s On Teaching Christianity 

Sacramental Theology

Cyril of Jerusalem’s  Mystagogical Lectures 

Hugh of Saint Victor’s On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith 

Bonaventure’s Commentary on the Sentences, Book 4

Hans Boersma’s Heavenly Participation:  the Weaving of a  Sacramental Tapestry 

Thomas Rattray’s Some Particular Instructions about the Christian Covenant 

Ecclesiology

Augustine of Hippo’s On the City of God against the Pagans 

Richard Valantasis’s The Making of the Self and Dazzling Bodies   

Epistemology

Michael Polanyi’s Personal Knowledge and The Tacit Dimension 

Esther Meek’s Longing to Know

Other

Not all of my formational texts are books–I have been formed by pilgrimages to English Cathedrals and parish churches as well as time in front of Irish scripture crosses.  I am fascinated by the use of carvings and paintings to focus attention and to teach biblical texts and theological themes.  Maybe most important in these explorations of sacred art within medieval worship spaces is what I have experienced as an invitation from God through these artisans to recover a sense of awe, delight, playfulness, and humor in my theological endeavors.

Lincoln Cathedral provided a welcoming space for me to experience and reflect upon how theological space and liturgy work together to form Christians through the centuries.  It was at Lincoln Cathedral that I began to ponder the theologically-informed art of baptismal fonts and the intersections between the wrestling griffons and dragons, Ephesians 6:10-17, and 4th-century baptismal theology.  My understanding of Christ as merciful Judge has been shaped by gazing upon the magnificent Dean’s Eye window and the depiction of Christ in Majesty in its tympanum.  

St. Mary and St. Bartholomew’s in Cranborne, Dorsett, provides a provocative catechetical text through its depiction of the seven deadly sins and the seven works of mercy visually framing the baptismal font.  Here I see lex orandi, lex credendi, and lex vivendi worked out in practical ways within the theological space.

St John the Baptist, Clayton, provides a striking example of a mystagogical text (Christ in Majesty and the Last Judgment on the chancel arch) that depicts a pre-Reformation Eucharistic theology that I see recovered in the work of the Usagers, especially Thomas Rattray’s eucharistic theology.

The Church of St Mary and St David, Kilpeck, Herefordshire is an amazing example of the work of the masons of Herefordshire and their blending of Celtic, Anglo Saxon, and Norman motifs that I consider to be an artistic foreshadowing of the Anglican via media.

Muiredoch’s High Cross at Monasterboise, especially its  tender depiction of the angels ministering to Jesus while he is being crucified, challenged the remaining vestiges of a Reformed penal substitutionary atonement theory that was once my default atonement theory.

Both the Scripture Cross at Clonmacnoise and at Durrow continue to invite me to contemplate the active role of the Father and the Spirit in the crucifixion and resurrection, supporting the continuity of a robust Trinitarian theology in this historical moment of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.