November 19, 2025
Podcasts
According to a 2022 American Psychiatric Association poll, almost 40% of Americans report experiencing a decline in mood during the winter months. For help in understanding and ministering to those who might struggle with clinical depression (including yourself), check out this biblically informative, caringly sensitive, and thoughtfully balanced interview with medical professional Kathryn Butler on the Crossway podcast.
Most of the focus over the past decades has been on developing effective ways to treat mental illness. More recently, however, there is a growing interest in preventative approaches and identifying what promotes positive mental health and flourishing. In this episode of Think Biblically, professor, ordained pastor, and clinical psychologist Dr. Chris Adams presents a biblical view of mental health and points out how recent research is showing (not surprisingly) that traditional Christian practices, such as prayer, community connection, and thanksgiving, foster mental well-being.
Articles
Most people appreciated getting an extra hour of sleep earlier this month with the changing of the clocks. But have you ever wondered why God designed us to sleep? The fact that we need sleep actually reveals important spiritual truths. For some of these truths, you can check out my article from the 2020 Mid-America Journal of Theology called “Sleep’s Sermon: What Sleep Tells Us about Ourselves, Our God, and the Gospel.”
With Thanksgiving coming up, you can access an article I wrote for the Alcuin Study Center about how wonder can provoke us to give thanks more deeply called “God of Wonders: Some Reflections for Thanksgiving.”
6W Chronicles: Brief Profiles in Church History
As a way to introduce readers to some influential figures in the church’s past, the 6W Chronicles briefly address six questions: Who? When? Where? What did they do? Why should we know about them? What works can I reference by or about them?
Who? St. Anselm
When? Anselm was born around 1033 and died in 1109.
Where? Anselm was born in Aosta in northwest Italy to a noble family. His father urged him to pursue a career in politics, but Anselm opted to become a monk instead. He served as abbot at Bec in the Normandy region of France from 1078-1093, and was (reluctantly) appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in England in 1093.
What did he do? Anselm is best known for his ontological argument for the existence of God and his satisfaction theory of the atonement. In his Proslogion, Anslem asserted that God is the greatest Being that can be conceived in the mind, and therefore, as the greatest Being, he must exist in reality and not simply in the mind. In Cur Deus Homo? (exploring why God became a man), Anselm rejected the common ransom theories of the atonement (that Jesus was a ransom paid to the devil to free sinful humanity). Instead, he viewed sin as an offense against God's honor that must be paid. Since finite, sinful man could never make satisfaction to an infinite God, the incarnate Jesus satisfied God’s honor through his obedient life and sacrificial death on the cross. This “satisfaction” theory of the atonement would be refined by later theologians as penal substitution, which sees sin more centrally not simply as an offense against God’s honor but as a violation of God's law, with Christ’s atoning work as a vicarious suffering of divine punishment to satisfy divine justice in our place.
Why should we know about him? In addition to the important contributions he made in the areas of atonement theology and philosophical arguments for God’s existence, Anslem is regarded by many as the greatest scholar between St. Augustine (354-430) and Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274). He is also regarded as the father of medieval scholasticism, a theological approach marked by reason and logic for the formulation and defense of Christian doctrine. He is credited as formulating the task of theology as fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding).
Works? If you’re looking for a book about Anselm, you might go to R. W. Southern’s St. Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape. If you’re interested in books by Anselm, Oxford World’s Classics published an affordable edition of his major works edited by Brian Davies and G. R. Evans in 2008. Other published collections of his works can be easily found for purchase online. A volume containing a summary of the life of Anselm, the entirety of Cur Deus Homo?, and some of his selected letters can be accessed for free online.
Quotes
Here’s perhaps the best known quote by Anselm. It is found in his Proslogion.
“I do not endeavor, O Lord, to penetrate thy sublimity, for in no wise do I compare my understanding with that; but I long to understand in some degree thy truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand.”
Appropriate to this (and any) season are these words of thanksgiving found as part of a prayer in the collection of Puritan prayers called The Valley of Vision.
“I thank thee for the temporal blessings of this world – the refreshing air, the light of the sun, the food that renews strength, the raiment that clothes, the dwelling that shelters, the sleep that gives rest ... the happy endearments of family, kindred, friends. Things animate, things inanimate, minister to my comfort. My cup runs over. Suffer me not to be insensible to these daily mercies. Thy hand bestows blessings: thy power averts evil. I bring my tribute of thanks for spiritual graces.”
Final Thought
One last thing to keep in mind for cultivating a heart of gratitude:
Your difficult job is the dream of the unemployed.
Your house is the dream of the homeless.
Your smile is the dream of the depressed.
Your health is the dream of the ill.
Don’t let difficult times make you forget your blessings.
