The more I read, the more I realized that most formative authors were not the ones that simply restated the truth. They were the ones who mesmerized me with metaphors, who helped me carve out new connections—the ones who engaged my imagination.
The Presence of The Spirit: A Review of A Profound Ignorance
There are possibly no worse times to read a theologian such as Ephraim Radner than during a pandemic. Radner’s prose is simultaneously penetrating and demanding, bordering on the opaque at times, and for a parent working from home with two children, Radner offers no respite.
Schooling for the Soul: A Review of Theology as a Way of Life
It is no secret that in many places the areas of science and technology are in high demand (or at least perceived by administrations as being so) and become the priorities for Christian universities. But, in the struggle to keep afloat and to offer new programs befitting an increasingly technocratic world, is there a place—even at Christian universities—for theology to be a topic of study for everyone? The opposition to executing this notion well are legion.
Speaking to the Living: A Review of Theology in the Democracy of the Dead
In teaching theology, one of my abiding concerns is not just that students gain a clearer understanding of the grammar of the Christian faith, but that they meet the manifold figures along the way who have shaped their thinking unbeknownst to them.
Prodigal Theology for an Anxious Age: A Review of On the Road with Saint Augustine
In On The Road with Saint Augustine, James K.A. Smith, through the works of Augustine, illustrates how that parable is the story of all of us. Every child of God, believer and nonbeliever, is longing to come home, tohave the Father throw his arms around us and kiss us.
Compact Theology – Hymns for Psalm 28
This reminds me less of complaints I’ve heard from others, and leads me to think more of a confession that I need to make. It is this poetry, nearly 500 years old, which rings in my ears in a new way.
The Shack
What The Shack lacks for in clarity, it makes up for in boldness. It deals head-on with the vexing questions of why a good God allows evil to exist and why people have to suffer.
Stained Forever by a Sanguine Glow
It is National Poetry Month and I want to celebrate the month with a little essay about the poet Richard Wilbur and his poem “October Maples.” At ninety-six years of age, Wilbur is probably our oldest, living, major American poet, and in my opinion, he has been the pre-eminent Christian poet writing in English in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Culture as Divine Gift: The Future of In All Things
We believe that Christ has called us to look for him in the difficult places—places that challenge us. This is how we hope to grow into maturity as Christians, as citizens, and as people who care about the common good of fellowship with God and neighbor.
What is Church?
Church can come in many different forms. It may include a traditional building, it may not own a lick of property. It may have traditional worship services, it may have atypical gatherings in settings not often thought of as sacred.
Two posts that caught our eye this week
Should the doctrine of grace equal humility or elitism? How does good theology get twisted from the inside out? How do we have faith in Jesus in our work and in our lives? How do we find meaning in what we do? Good questions asked by two webpages that caught our attention this week. What caught your eye on the web this week?