• About Us
    • Mission
    • Contributors
    • Comment Policy
    • Privacy policy
  • Churches
    • ACNA
    • Anglican Church of Canada
    • Church in Wales
    • Church of England
    • Iglesia Española Reformada Episcopal
    • The Episcopal Church
    • Roman Catholic Church
  • Commentary
  • Liturgy
  • Reviews & Culture
  • Podcast
  • The Living Church
Search
Covenant logo
  • About Us
    • Mission
    • Contributors
    • Comment Policy
    • Privacy policy
  • Churches
    Random

    • Lambeth 2020 and African Anglicanism

      The Rev. Dr. David Goodhew
      February 21, 2018
      Church of England, Commentary
    Recent

    • Ten Theological Theses on COVID-19 and the Providence of God

      Cole Hartin
      July 3, 2020

    • On Viruses and Judgment

      Joey Royal
      July 2, 2020

    • The Color of the Godhead

      Guest Contributor
      July 1, 2020
    • ACNA
    • Anglican Church of Canada
    • Church in Wales
    • Church of England
    • Iglesia Española Reformada Episcopal
    • The Episcopal Church
    • Roman Catholic Church
  • Commentary
    Random

    • Theology at prayer

      Jordan Hillebert
      September 8, 2016
      Commentary
    Recent

    • Ten Theological Theses on COVID-19 and the Providence of God

      Cole Hartin
      July 3, 2020

    • On Viruses and Judgment

      Joey Royal
      July 2, 2020

    • The Color of the Godhead

      Guest Contributor
      July 1, 2020

    • St. Benedict’s Guide to Surviving the Lockdown

      Guest Contributor
      June 30, 2020

    • Blood of the Black Christ, Shed for All

      Christopher Wells
      June 29, 2020

    • Cultivating Hope

      Bishop Daniel Martins
      June 26, 2020
  • Liturgy
    Featured

    • Are we done with the '79 prayer book?

      Mark Michael
      November 27, 2015
      Liturgy, Necessary or Expedient?
    Recent

    • Five Suggestions for Reopening Your Church

      Zac Koons
      June 2, 2020

    • Learning Again to Sing in a Foreign Land: The BCP and Domestic Prayer

      Guest Contributor
      May 8, 2020

    • The Questions that Remain

      The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner
      May 6, 2020

    • On Live-Streaming, Maternity, and Infantilization: Responses to Ephraim Radner

      Guest Contributor
      May 5, 2020

    • Of Literal Resurrection and Spiritual Communion

      Guest Contributor
      May 4, 2020

    • Against Virtual Communion

      George Sumner
      April 14, 2020
  • Reviews & Culture
    Random

    • The Joy Of Salvation: On Bob Ross As Evangelist

      Guest Contributor
      July 31, 2019
      Art, Commentary, Reviews & Culture, The Episcopal Church
    Recent

    • The Color of the Godhead

      Guest Contributor
      July 1, 2020

    • Caregivers

      Guest Contributor
      June 22, 2020

    • Why We Should Beatify Jane Austen

      The Rev. Dr. David Goodhew
      May 28, 2020

    • The Blessed Virgin: The Air we Breathe

      Mac Stewart
      May 19, 2020

    • Recovering the Magic in Onward

      Sam Keyes
      May 14, 2020

    • Life Without Mark or Measure

      Guest Contributor
      May 11, 2020
  • Podcast
  • The Living Church

Contributors Eugene Schlesinger

Eugene Schlesinger

Eugene Schlesinger is Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University. The author of Sacrificing the Church: Mass, Mission, and Ecumenism (Fortress Academic, 2019) and Missa Est! A Missional Liturgical Ecclesiology (Fortress Press, 2017), and the editor of Covenant, he understands his vocation to be an Episcopalian who does Catholic theology. He is a systematic theologian by training and, works primarily at the intersection of ecclesiology and sacramental theology. Since discovering Augustine of Hippo, much of his intellectual energy has been devoted to recovering the relevance of a theology of sacrifice for understanding “God, the universe, and everything,” which will be the subject matter of his next book (currently in progress). He is a committed Thomist insofar as he believes that understanding is good, and that being is intelligible, and he strives to belong to what Bernard Lonergan described as a “perhaps not numerous center.”

Through a circuitous route, Gene has “come home” to the Anglican fold. Raised Catholic by Yankee parents in the Protestant South, he experienced an evangelical conversion in a Baptist setting, and began a sojourn among them. His undergraduate degree in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina Greensboro enriched what would otherwise be a bare Protestantism with essential texts and figures from throughout the Christian tradition. After M.Div. studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological seminary, Gene spent the next five years in pastoral ministry, most of it in church plant contexts.

Near the end of seminary, he experienced a sacramental and liturgical reawakening when he discovered Orthodoxy (both Eastern and Radical). Ever the eclecticist, he turned to John Calvin to help him reconcile these sacramental tendencies with his otherwise Evangelical outlook. After some flirtation with Presbyterianism, Gene found what he was looking for in the Anglican tradition. During doctoral studies at Marquette University, he learned and appropriated Catholic theology in a variety of forms (especially Patristic and contemporary instantiations), and is happy to belong to a tradition where all of his Evangelical and Catholic commitments are at home.

Gene peaked early, marrying his wife, Loren in 2002. Together they have two daughters, Joann, and Evelyn, whom they homeschool. The family loves camping, games (the nerdy variety), cooking (including forays into making cheese and mead) reading, and (to Gene’s chagrin) show tunes. He and his family attend St. Francis Episcopal Church in Willow Glen, California.

In the Midst of Life We are in Death: Eastertide and the Pandemic

Eugene Schlesinger
April 13, 2020
Commentary, Liturgy, The Episcopal Church
Here we are in Easter, yet it feels more like an extended Holy Saturday.

“Hell is Other People,” but Heaven Can’t Be: The Good Place’s Unintentionally Augustinian Outcome

Eugene Schlesinger
February 6, 2020
Ethics, Reviews & Culture, The Episcopal Church, TV
With its final door, The Good Place proves useful for our journey once more: we cannot stop here, we must journey on.

Mystery of Mysteries

Eugene Schlesinger
December 25, 2019
Commentary, Contributors, The Episcopal Church
By Eugene R. Schlesinger What is man that you should be mindful of him? the son of man that you should seek him out? (Psalm 8:5) There is a wonder in being small and recognizing your smallness. Living ... Read More...

Dialogue among Presbyterians

Eugene Schlesinger
June 18, 2019
Books, Reviews & Culture, The Episcopal Church
Review: Flawed Church, Faithful God: A Reformed Ecclesiology for the Real World By Joseph D. Small. Eerdmans. Pp. 242. $35 Church in Ordinary Time: A Wisdom Ecclesiology By Amy Plantinga Pauw. Eerdm... Read More...

‘And Now Our Watch Has Ended’: Game of Thrones and Disappointing Endings

Eugene Schlesinger
May 24, 2019
Movies, Reviews & Culture, The Episcopal Church
The dissatisfying conclusion of Game of Thrones may well be the triumph of its artistic vision.

The Chilling Contradictions of Sabrina

Eugene Schlesinger
April 26, 2019
Commentary, TV

Sabrina is beset with contradictions that cry out for a resolution within the Christian faith.

We Need More Moral Ambiguity

Eugene Schlesinger
March 19, 2019
Commentary, The Episcopal Church
In online outrage, often forgotten is the biblical counsel: “Let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness” (James 1:19–20).

Against Anglican Myopia: GAFCON, Canterbury, and Lambeth

Eugene Schlesinger
January 23, 2019
ACNA, Church of England, Commentary, Ecclesiology, The Episcopal Church
Anglicanism is good, but it is not ultimate, only provisional. Only Jesus Christ is ultimate, and one day, even if only on the Last Day, all denominational identities will give way to the creedal and confessed one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3

Contact Us

1-800-211-2771
gene@livingchurch.org

Subscriptions to other TLC products

  • Order The Living Church
  • Order The Episcopal Musician’s Handbook
  • Order Illuminations