Extracts from Christian Literature

Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Extracts from Christian Literature’

25
The Last Commandment Cynewulf

Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf imagines the farewell between Jesus and his Apostles, forty days after his resurrection.

Cynewulf (possibly the 8th century bishop Cynewulf of Lindisfarne) imagines Christ’s last words to his Apostles, before a cloud came and took him from their sight, never to be seen again – and yet, somehow, never to leave them.

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26
Undoubting Thomas Elfric of Eynsham

Abbot Elfric praised St Thomas for demanding hard evidence for the resurrection.

The Apostle St Thomas refused to believe reports of the resurrection of Jesus unless he saw and touched the risen Christ for himself. Some scold him for his ‘doubt’, but the English Abbot Elfric (955-1010) warmly thanked him for demanding such clear proof, and noted that Jesus was evidently expecting it.

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27
Tamed by Wisdom, Freed by Grace Elfric of Eynsham

Abbot Elfric expounds a Palm Sunday text to explain how Christianity combines orderly behaviour with intelligent and genuine liberty.

In a sermon for Palm Sunday, Abbot Elfric (955-1010) of the monastery in Eynsham in Oxfordshire drew on the Biblical account of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem to show that Christianity tames the wildness of man not by the bridle of coercion and law, but by the wisdom of reason and freewill.

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28
Breaking Death Elfric of Eynsham

For Jesus Christ to step down alive from his cross would have been a mighty miracle, but not the mightiest.

In a sermon for Easter Day, Abbot Elfric (955-1010) reminded his congregation that the people of Jerusalem thought it would be a miracle worthy of God for Jesus to step down alive from his cross. A miracle, yes; but not so worthy of God as the one he then performed.

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29
At Heaven’s Gate Cynewulf

The eighth-century English bishop and poet Cynewulf takes us to the threshold of God’s holy city, and gives us a choice.

Cynewulf (possibly the 8th century bishop Cynewulf of Lindisfarne) presents the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as a choice given to all mankind: what kind of life do we want in the hereafter, and what are we prepared to do in order to obtain it?

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30
The Six Leaps of Faith Cynewulf

The eighth-century English bishop and poet Cynewulf explores a prophecy from the Song of Solomon.

In these lines from ‘Christ’ by Cynewulf (possibly the 8th century bishop Cynewulf of Lindisfarne), the poet reflects upon some beautiful words from the Song of Solomon, which he understands as a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

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