Archive for April 2025
Eugene Peterson
Eugene Peterson is one of the best known theologians of our time. Most famous for penning The Message, a contemporary rendering of the Bible, he is also author of many popular books such as A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. With the release of his memoir, The Pastor, Peterson has begun reflecting on life and the ways in which…
Read MoreJohnny Cash
On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash, considered by many one of the 20th century’s most influential musicians, performed two shows inside California’s Folsom Prison. It was an appropriate choice for a performer known as a bit of an outlaw, recognized with a fondness for dark clothing that earned him the nickname “The Man in Black.”…
Read MoreJim Elliot
Phillip James “Jim” Elliot (1927-1956), evangelical missionary martyr, was born in Portland, Oregon, one of four children born to a Plymouth Brethren evangelist and his wife, a chiropractor. A pious and forthright Christian from his grade school days onward, he enrolled at Wheaton College in Illinois in 1945. A leader in the school’s missionary league,…
Read MoreIvan Illich
Ivan Illich, who has died of cancer aged 76, was one of the world’s great thinkers, a polymath whose output covered vast terrains. He worked in 10 languages; he was a jet-age ascetic with few possessions; he explored Asia and South America on foot; and his obligations to his many collaborators led to a constant…
Read MoreAllan Sandage
Q. Can the existence of God be proved? I should say not with the same type of certainty that we ascribe to statements such as “the earth is in orbit about the sun at a mean distance of 93 million miles, making a complete journey in 365.25 days,” or “genetic information is coded in long…
Read MoreFlannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor’s biography begins on March 25, 1925, in Savannah, a colonial seaport draped with incomparable beauty. The Savannah chapter of O’Connor’s childhood, spent in a Lafayette Square house just one block over from St. John the Baptist Cathedral, provided the cornerstone of her Catholic faith. She called Savannah “a colony of the Over-Irish” and…
Read MoreJohn Stott
Educated at Cambridge University, Stott was one of the most influential clergymen in the Church of England in the twentieth century. In 1950 he became rector of All Souls Church in London (the parish where he was born), and in 1975 rector emeritus. From 1952 to 1977 he led missions to university students on five…
Read MoreTruett Cathy
Chick-fil-A, Inc., Founder S. Truett Cathy died Sept. 8, 2014, at age 93. Cathy started the business in 1946, when he and his brother, Ben, opened an Atlanta diner known as The Dwarf Grill (later renamed The Dwarf House®). Through the years, that restaurant prospered and led Cathy to further the success of his business. In…
Read MoreP.D. James
“Murder is the unique crime. It is the taking away of something which we as humans haven’t the power to give and cannot possibly restore. Murder is also a contaminating crime. It touches the lives of every character, even the innocent.” Acclaimed British murder mystery writer P.D. James spilt a lot of ink and fictitious…
Read MoreJohn Paul II
KAROL JÓZEF WOJTYŁA, elected Pope on 16 October 1978, was born in Wadowice, Poland, on 18 May 1920. He was the third of three children born to Karol Wojtyła and Emilia Kaczorowska, who died in 1929. His elder brother Edmund, a physician, died in 1932, and his father, Karol, a non-commissioned officer in the army,…
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