Bishops writing up a storm

Sometimes, just sometimes, the Interwebs surprise us, and the good material out there exceeds our ability to read it. Bishops Matt Gunter of Fond du Lac and Jake Owensby of Western Louisiana have been churning out post after post in the past few weeks, and it seems only right to draw a little attention to it.

(As an aside: is this post-GC, post-vacation energy? Or is God renewing the vocation of the writing bishop? Holy Augustine, pray for us!)

First, Bishop Gunter started an eleven-part series on July 29 for his blog An Odd Work of Grace. The series flows from his Lenten reading of all four Gospels. It reminds me of a series of similar works created in the Middle Ages. With a little more commentary, it would be like The Crown of Monks, a standard spiritual text read by Benedictine monks (about which I’ll say more in another week or two).

Bishop Gunter’s posts are:

• “What Jesus Commanded, Part 1: Repent, Believe, Follow.”
• “What Jesus Commanded, Part 2: Love and Mercy.”
• “What Jesus Commanded, Part 3: Trust, Self-Denial, and Humility.”
• “What Jesus Commanded, Part 4: No Anger, No Judging, but Forgiving.”
• “What Jesus Commanded, Part 5: Church, Baptism, Eucharist, Prayer & Fasting.“
• “What Jesus Commanded, Part 6: Evangelism.”
• “What Jesus Commanded, Part 7: Sex, Marriage & Family.”
• “What Jesus Commanded, Part 8: Money & Possessions.”
• “What Jesus Commanded, Part 9: Peace & Violence.”
• “What Jesus Commanded, Part 10: From the Human Heart, etc.”
• “What Jesus Commanded, Part 11: Stay Awake & Endure, Judgment Day.”

Bishop Gunter has followed that with another post yesterday on “Martin Luther & Scripture as the swaddling clothes in which Christ lies.” We tip our biretta to you, good bishop, for your flurry of writing. May your horn be exalted like that of a wild ox.

Bishop Owensby at Pelican Anglican has been slightly less prolific in the same time period, but his pieces are of a different nature. Among other things, he’s started a series called “Getting your bearings.” He explains:

The posts (so far) are:

• Getting Our Bearings
• How Episcopalians Believe
• Horizons
• Eight Things to Know about Reading the Bible

I’m sure we can expect more in the coming days from Bishops Gunter and Owensby. Or, at least, I hope so.

The featured image is Botticelli’s Saint Augustine in His Study (1480). It is in the public domain. 

Zachary Guiliano

The Rev. Zachary Guiliano, PhD is a Guest Writer. He is rector of Emmanuel Memorial Episcopal Church, Champaign, Illinois. Previous appointments include Priest Vicar of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and Chaplain of St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford. His 2021 book The Homiliary of Paul the Deacon won the 2023 Book Prize of the Ecclesiastical History Society.