Archive for April 2025
Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 8, 1897, the third child of Grace and John Day. Her nominally religious family moved to the San Franciso Bay area and then to Chicago where she was baptized in the Episcopal Church. She attended the University of Illinois at Urbana and became interested in…
Read MoreDorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was born at Oxford on 13th June 1893, the only child of the Rev. Henry Sayers, of Anglo-Irish descent. Her father was at the time headmaster of Christ Church Cathedral School, and she was born in the headmaster’s house. She was brought up at Bluntisham Rectory, Cambridgeshire, and went to the Godolphin School,…
Read MoreJ.R.R. Tolkien
Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, a brilliant philologist, and a self-described “hobbit,” J.R.R. Tolkien created two of the best-loved stories of the 20th century, “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”, recently made into a multiple award-winning movie by the director Peter Jackson for New Line Cinema. Early Life John Ronald Reuel Tolkien…
Read MoreCorrie ten Boom
THE TEN BOOM FAMILY In 1837, Willem ten Boom opened a watch shop in this house. He lived with his family in the rooms above the shop. The home was later passed down to Willem’s son Casper, and then to Casper’s daughter, Corrie. The Ten Boom family were devoted Christians who dedicated their lives in…
Read MoreReinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was born 21 June 1892 in Wright City, Missouri, to Lydia Hosto and Gustav Niebuhr, a minister of the German Evangelical Synod of North America. At age fifteen Niebuhr entered the Synod’s proseminary, Elmhurst College. Three years later he enrolled at Eden Theological Seminary, where he received his B.Div. and was…
Read MoreWilliam F. Albright
SEPTEMBER 19, 1971, William Foxwell Albright died at the age of 80. With his passing the world of Biblical and archeological scholarship lost one of the greatest minds of recent times and probably the greatest orientalist who ever lived. In an era of specialization he had the rare gift of competence in practically the whole…
Read MoreT.S. Eliot
In 1931, T.S. Eliot wrote in his essay, “Thoughts After Lambeth,” “The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark…
Read MoreLillian Hunt Trasher
Lillian Hunt Trasher served as a Christian missionary in Assiout, Egypt, where she founded the country’s first orphanage; over a period of 50 years, she cared for approximately 10,000 needy children. Because of her contributions, she earned the nickname of “Mother” Thrasher. Lillian was born on September 27, 1887 in Jacksonville, Florida. She grew up…
Read MorePaul Tillich
Paul Tillich was born 20 August 1886 in Starzeddel then a province of Brandenberg Germany (now part of Poland). His family moved to Berlin in 1900 when his father was called to a position as a Lutheran pastor. After graduating from the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium in 1904 Tillich attended the universities of Berlin Tübingen and…
Read MoreCharles E. Fuller
Charles Fuller’s call to Gospel ministry began with hearing Ephesians 1:8, preached by Paul Rader in 1917. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,” Paul writes, “in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.” After that day…
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