En ChristoEn Christo is a journal produced by Holy Trinity Theological College and Seminary. For the name of our journal we have chosen St. Paul's favorite Greek phrase which he uses to describe the spiritual life of the Christian. To be "in Christ" is to experience in this life all the wonders of our union with Christ and the treasures of His Kingdom. For St. Paul this union is not only a reality that is true of every Christian but is also a dynamic process by which we gradually awaken to the reality of who we already are. In some mysterious way we are already in union with Christ by virtue of our baptism, but we also acknowledge that union is the great goal of the spiritual life of the Christian, an ascent in which we are transformed from "glory to glory." The central goal of this journal is to unpack this fundamental idea to clergy and laymen who are interested in the Anglican Church in America. As a seminary journal, the articles will be written on a more scholarly than popular level. The reason for this is that for a communion such as ours to grow and succeed in disseminating its ideals and values in our culture, it must have a vibrant intellectual life. Christian movements that out of fear, arrogance, or sheer laziness neglect or disdain Christ's command to love God with our minds are doomed to failure, or, at best, to being marginal in society. This journal is therefore a venue for extending our minds in integration with our passions and wills—our whole persons—to the task of discovering who we are in Christ. In addition, En Christo is meant to be a forum for the development of the theological identity of the Anglican Church in America. True, we have been birthed out of some very definite theological ideals and commitments that have given us a unique shape and to which we are indebted. However, there is a dynamic element to "doing theology" during which we grow more deeply into the truths that have formed us. So much of who we are has to be "fleshed out," so to speak, and this journal, which desires in all things to be under the authority of the Church, provides direction and opportunity to do this on an ongoing basis. The name of our journal, En Christo, also places the center of our identity and theological reflections on Jesus Christ Himself. So often we define ourselves by one or more expressions or manifestations of the Christian experience. We are Word-centered Evangelicals, Spirit-centered Charismatics or Pentecostals, or liturgically-centered Sacramentalists. We can be sincerely any one of these or all three but still miss the relational core of our true identity of being "in Christ." Indeed, it is only with a profound, intentional, existential, and, yes, even mystical grasp of this grand and splendid doctrine, that these other valid aspects of our Christian experience can meld together into an organic whole. Below are links to four articles that have appeared in En Christo. "Worship and Feasting on Sacrifice" by the Reverend John E. Worgul, Ph.D. "Job in His Perfection; God in His" by the Reverend John E. Worgul, Ph.D. |