Beaches, Barbecues, and Books: Your Guide to Summer Reading
by Gail Marincovich
…ent genres prompted me several years ago to keep journals, documenting and reviewing each book I completed. It is from these journals that I draw my suggestions for your summer reading enjoyment. So whether you are a die-hard reader like myself – carrying a book wherever you go – or an occasional reader looking for a welcome distraction during these lazy summer days, I hope the following list of ideas will offer you the perfect escape! The Storied…
by Dave Schelhaas
…what he wanted to say, but it’s more likely that knowing seven represents completeness, he uses that number in his title to suggest the completion of Christ’s work in his resurrection. And why that irksome if in line one? Is Updike revealing his doubt that the resurrection occurred? I don’t think so. More likely he recognizes he is writing in a secular age where many clerics and church members are explaining away the supernatural elements of thei…
Weathering Storms in Marriage
by Nicole Baart
…any given situation is not just different, it’s wrong. We want someone to commiserate with. Someone who “gets us” (sometimes going as far as to try and match compatible personalities on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and put our faith in “armchair philosophy” instead of the infinite knowledge of a loving God). We often long for someone to sit in the corner and pout with us, but God in his wisdom put people in our lives to temper us. Our spouse m…
Challenge and Opportunity: Abraham Kuyper’s Evaluation of Islam
by Jordan Ballor
…still live in the spirit of Islam,” writes Kuyper. For Kuyper, Islam is a comprehensive and all-encompassing world- and life-view, with coherence and vitality that rivals Christianity: “That rule over all of life for the faithful comes from Allah is a firmly fixed notion for every Muslim. This gives all of life under Islam an all-encompassing unity and, consequently, the power of constancy. To worship Allah and to be bound to his will in all thin…
Why Should Ecology Matter to a Christian?
by Derek Buteyn
…perfectly responsible steward of creation. However, I try to keep my eyes open to opportunities that allow me to live as a steward, and examine ways I am living environmentally irresponsibly. I’ve taken advantage of opportunities to live environmentally on a small scale, which adds up to have a larger impact. These are only a few suggestions of the things that I make an effort to do; there are certainly more concrete ways we are able to live resp…
Faith, Politics, and Social Media
by Dave Mulder
…mes even less respite from this. Dave Mulder Thanks for taking the time to comment, Greg. I definitely sympathize with your perspective; I too am frustrated by current state of American politics. My perception: it’s a constant shouting from the far wings of the two major parties with very few real attempts to meet in the middle. I wonder if there are real alternatives to our two-party system that could be a better way? And whether Christians could…
Technology and Mindful Evaluation
by Nick Breems
…tions, and a vision of how we wish to engage with others, we can be prepared to make careful choices about which technologies we use, and how we employ them. This need not always be the case. In the example of computer games, the concept of efficiency is murky at best, since use of the word “utility” to describe what we get from these games seems a bit of a stretch. ↩…
Common Home: Pope Francis and John Calvin on Creation
by Monica Schaap Pierce
…cis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ (24 May 2015): 217, 158. ↩ John Calvin, Commentary on Psalm 104:29. ↩ www.greenfaith.org ↩ John Calvin, Commentary on Psalm 104:31. ↩ Speaking of the importance of contemplating the value of non-human creation, Calvin urged his readers, “While we contemplate in creatures, as in mirrors, those immense riches of his wisdom, justice, goodness, and power, we should not merely run over them cursorily, and so to spea…
Dual Citizenship: What Does It Mean to be a Christian and a Citizen of the United States?
by Scott Culpepper
…n the freedom to hold our leaders and ourselves accountable when necessary. American Christians get to live in a society in which we have the ability to do significant good in public life. At the very least, we can shine some little lights where we are. Unfortunately, we spend too much time complaining about the freedoms we fear we may lose, and neglect to practice those freedoms while we have them. Exercise your rights and responsibilities this y…
Retelling the Story of the Church: Jehu Hanciles and the Importance of Migration
by Myles Werntz
…make of the “Nestorian” controversies of the 5th century will serve as an example. The Chalcedonian definition of the faith (AD 451) was articulated in part to respond to teachings of the Constantopolitan bishop Nestorius. But what was decided in by predominately Western bishops (i.e. bishops from the Western part of the Roman empire) had little effect on the development of churches in Syria, Persia, and India: their affirmations of Christ’s na…
Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Keeping the Faith
by Josh Larsen
…r to be wielded (as Kylo Ren sees it), but a space to be inhabited. And to enter that space, a Jedi apprentice must give up control. (Recall Luke wearing those blinders while training in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, an image that The Last Jedi nods to near its end.) The term “faithful presence” comes from James Davison Hunter’s influential To Change the World. More pertinent to The Last Jedi, however, is a critique of that book by Greg Fors…
Podcast: SHOUTING – Feature Conversation: DantĂ© Stewart
by Justin Bailey, Howard Schaap, Danté Stewart
…, and how Danté found his writing voice. Here is a link to Howard Schaap’s review at our online journal. As mentioned in the intro, Danté mentions no less than 30 authors, and we have pulled together a list below: Books mentioned by Danté: Jesmyn Ward, Men We Reaped Kiese Laymon, Heavy Imani Perry, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons Sarah Broom, The Yellow House Darnell L. Moore, No Ashes in the Fire Viet Thanh Nguyen, Nothing Ever Dies Shawn Copeland,…
Our Favorite Podcasts from 2017
by Liz Moss
…ear? What podcasts would you recommend to the readers of iAt? Leave your recommendations in the comments. 99% Invisible–“all about the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about” Slate’s Culture Gabfest–Listen to Slate’s critics Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner, plus their guests, discuss what’s happening in movies, books, TV, and more. Embedded–Host Kelly McEvers takes a story from the news and goes deep. Filmspotting–“…
Can Christians Believe in the Big Bang?
by Deborah Haarsma
…d belt. The asteroids are grouped into families that have similar chemical composition and similar orbits. College students with whom I work have programmed computers to run the orbits back in time under the laws of gravity. The students find the same thing that professionals do: asteroids in the same family have orbits that converge at a certain time in the past, millions of years ago. This was the time when two asteroids collided, breaking off m…
iAt Book Club: “How to Think” Round Table
by Myles Werntz
…cultivation of a friendship with someone with whom you don’t have much in common seems both imprudent and, frankly, a waste of precious time. But, two things come to mind for me when I find myself shrinking from that possibility. First, I’m reminded over and over again of what Bonhoeffer writes in the opening chapter of Life Together, that the worst danger to the church is that of creating a church in our own image, assembled of those with whom w…
by Luke Hawley
…if that makes any sense. Sure. Yeah, that sounds cool. I don’t know. It’s definitely a mysterious process for me and both in seasons of life where I felt very in tune with or had a comfortable name for the source of that inspiration and in other seasons where I haven’t, it still feels like something that comes in from the outside, which is a really strange thing. I read somewhere that you said that when you are attached to Christianity that you “…
by Benjamin Lappenga
…g to St. John: An Introduction with Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text (2d ed.; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978), 149-69. ↩ http://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/creeds/athanasian-creed ↩…
by Bryant Mathews
…er of abstract thought, can take years of careful study to fully grasp. Welcoming others into our mathematical world, then, whether through long and patient apprenticeship in abstraction, or through embodying mathematical theory in the design of something as concrete and accessible as an actual cathedral, requires that we heed the words of Philippians 2:5-7 (NRSV): Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the for…
Windy Weighty Words of Lament
by Rylan Brue
…n the Psalms, trans. Arthur Golding (1571),https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom08/calcom08.vi.html. ↩ In a recent lecture at Calvin Seminary, Dr. Esau McCaulley was asked to comment on the disappointment expressed by many young people making their way toward the exit doors of churches across the United States. His answer was sympathetic but cutting. Disappointment with the church, he said, is nothing new for the Black church. In fact, the failure…
Rock that Touched the Sky
by April Fiet
…ld, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:2). Let us be on the look-out. Let us bear witness to what God has done and is doing. Let’s keep our eyes open, for surely God is in our midst. https://www.nps.gov/scbl/learn/historyculture/chimney-rock.htm ↩…
“Getting Lost” for Our Own Good
by Sue Droog
…d rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.5 I encourage all of us to be intentional this summer and find a few days to just “get lost” and experience the rest and recreation that God designed for us. MacMillian, Amanda. “Insomnia Costs $63 Billion Annually in Lower Productivity.” CNN.com. N.p., 1 Sept. 2011. Web. 20 June 2015. ↩ White paper. “Stress in the…
Crocheting as a Spiritual Discipline
by April Fiet
…anything beyond making long crochet chains, but I always felt a sense of accomplishment that I had made something with my hands. Even though what I had created didn’t serve a functional purpose, I fell in love with crocheting. Crocheting helped me to quiet all the noise inside so that I could focus. Once I could focus, I found it easier to pray and listen. Studies have found that the quieting of distractions and an increase in focus are outcomes o…
A Year-in-Movies: Top 7 Movies of 2017
by Josh Matthews
…a polarizing movie. It has received just three out of five stars on amazon.com—a very poor rating—with over 3,500 ratings, many from reviewers who hate it. Many people I know told me that the movie is boring. For them, it has little plot and character development, and it lacks the necessary excitement that dramatic movies ought to have. I think not only that they are wrong, but that they have also mis-watched a carefully constructed film with rich…
Eco-Pietism vs. Eco-Piety
by Ethan Brue
…ogether different. In my experience, what all Christian traditions hold in common is a propensity for the creation and re-creation of systems of pietism. This recurring habit influences everything, right down to our care for the environment. In many of the church traditions I grew up in, true faith was manifest in abstaining. This included not drinking, not smoking, not watching movies, not playing cards, not using cosmetics, and making sure your…
New Wine into Old Wineskins
by Liz Niehoff
…e it: change and innovation is hard. Switching from the smooth, worn, road-tested wine skin is hard. The “same old, same old” feels good, even comforting. Jesus came to encourage, to heal and to encourage change, both big and small. It is only natural to be afraid of change. Fear of change is the foundation that keeps us grounded and stable – it is the old wineskin. Yes, you know the one I’m talking about, with all the patches, tears that have lov…
