2019 Top Articles

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at iAt!

As we enter a new year, we want to say thanks to you, our readers. We are grateful for the consistent and growing readership around the continent and the world. Here is a list of the top ten most read articles on iAt in 2019. We are looking forward to 2020 with more cultural commentary, book and podcast reviews, and articles from a regular set of contributors.  We want to hear from you! What were your favorite articles from this past year?  And, what topics would you like iAt to explore this coming year? Comment with your thoughts and ideas.

1. Making Nothing of Evil, and Everything of God: A Review of That All Shall Be Saved, Part 1 & Part 2 by Myles Werntz

“When David Bentley Hart burst on the scene in 2004 with The Beauty of the Infinite, two things became immediately clear: this was a scholar who was erudite as he was pugnacious… Simultaneously wide-sweeping and combative, Hart has one intent with this volume: laying to rest any sense that the message of the Scripture—and not just one reading of Scripture—is that of God’s universal reconciliation of all humanity.”

2. The Enneagram Issue: Reactive or Reflective? by Chuck DeGroat

“The Enneagram isn’t a personality test. There is no quiz that can tell you who you are. It’s a wisdom tool. And thus, it’s best used by wise teachers who know it, who are slow to categorize or label, and who are most interested in the deeper issues of the heart—what we long for, what motivates us, how we cope with the brokenness of the world. Christ calls us all out of hiding and into light and love, and at its best the Enneagram can help with this.”

3. Bridge-Building in Sioux County by Mary Beth Pollema

“Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Alex Vasquez, director of Young Life in Sioux County, about his work in the community. He is speaking from several platforms that allow him to serve as a “bridge builder” between cultures within Sioux Center.…He believes God has placed him in the ministry of reconciliation through the message of the Gospel and the forming of relational partnerships within the community. The following are excerpts of the conversation that I had with Vasquez about his vision for this work, as well as the joys and challenges he is experiencing and ways that the campus community can partner with him.”

4. Is the Gospel Thriving in Postmodern Europe? by Sacha Walicord

“As a Christian professor and pastor who now works in the US after many years in Austria, I sometimes find myself in conversations with Americans who are interested to know about the health of the Christian church in Europe. The question posed to me as I was invited to write this article is a version of a question that I am asked more often: ‘Is the Gospel thriving in postmodern Europe?’”

5. Fairness for All: Using Civil Rights Law to Protect Distinctively Christian Higher Education by Stanley Carlson-Thies

“The root issue is not government funding; rather, it is about whether institutions in our society will be able to exist and flourish that do not conform to the cultural consensus about marriage and sexuality… So, then the clash can best be framed as an issue of pluralism: now that our society harbors these opposed views about marriage and sexuality, will—should—the freedom of religion protect the dissenting view?”

6. Strengths and Shadows: Using the Enneagram in the Classroom by Justin Bailey

“I teach classes in spiritual formation and discipleship; when we talk about the desert fathers and the deadly sins, I usually introduce my students to the Enneagram. I introduce it as a form of cultural wisdom, the kind pursued and celebrated in the book of Proverbs and a result of careful observation of a world that belongs to God.”

7. Cultivating Fruit of the Spirit in the Modern Age by April Fiet

“Pulling the weeds in our lives so that fruit can grow can mean weeding out obviously troublesome things from our lives, but sometimes it also means weeding out helpful things that have planted themselves in the wrong place. After you’ve done a soil check, it’s time to investigate for weeds. What is choking out the growth you want to see?”

8. Empathy is Unreasonable: A Review of Against Empathy by Donald Roth

“In these fractured and partisan days, we could fix the world if we all had a bit more empathy, right? Some even say that orienting our entire worldview around empathy is necessary for thriving in a global society. At some point, empathy sounds like an absolute good. You can never have enough empathy.  Unless you listen to voices like Paul Bloom, a Yale Psychologist who is among a number of prominent researchers questioning our cultural assumptions about empathy. In fact, Bloom goes so far as to say that empathy actually does more harm than good, and I think he’s probably right.”

9. Watering Hope by Katie Kooiman

“In the cross of Christ, we find the most profound tension of opposites: life and death. And yet, although opposites, neither the life nor the death of Christ can be separated from the other. Just as we cannot comprehend the meaning of life—of anything—without its end, we cannot comprehend the impact of Christ’s death without the supreme impact of his life.”

10. More Than Work by Erik Hoekstra

“I’m worried about losing work—not for the money, but for deeper reasons. Yes, I admit that I too often allow my “Protestant Work Ethic” to go awry as I attempt to earn my right to salvation through what I can accomplish for God. And that is an idolatry, too. However, my greater concern in the modern era is that we have simply framed ‘work’ as something to be avoided. And, as we race into a future that will, in all likelihood, needless of our work, I am concerned that our current theology of work won’t support us well.”