Title: Pagans and Christians in the City: Culture Wars from the Tiber to the Potomac Author: Steven D. Smith Publisher: Eerdmans Publishing Date: November 15, 2018 Pages: 408 (Hardcover) ISBN: 978-0802876317 We live in rapidly changing and confusing times. Key ideas, concepts, and beliefs of what it means to be human and how we interact with each other in society that would not have …
What are Christians to make of religious liberty? The free exercise of religion is one of the hallmarks of the American Constitution, enshrined alongside speech, assembly, petitioning the government, and freedom of the press, as a way of creating space for religion within American life—however checkered that history of equal protection might be.
If we remain isolated in our churches, mosques, temples, or our own religious communities and/or cultures, we let others speak for us in our silence or passivity.
We embrace cultures not (only) because we need to honor those who look different from us, not (only) to enlarge our own perspectives of this world, but to make ourselves better versions of who God has called us to be.
When I travel, I am certain to face significant moments of discomfort, because the place I’m traveling to is not my home; everything is unfamiliar.
What is the overall view of reality that the Bible is affirming? In recent years, though, I have switched from noun to gerund. I have come to emphasize the need to engage in world-viewing rather than the idea of “having” a worldview. I have come to rely much on the Psalmist’s confession that the Word of God “is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
The Bible is filled with a tapestry of rich imagery, deep doctrine, and sweeping drama, and, ideally, all of these things weave together to drive us to live a vibrant faith which joyfully embraces the freedom that comes from living as sinners saved by grace and called to thanksgiving. However, I believe we sometimes fail to examine the power of imagery in shaping our understanding of what it is to actually live out our response to the Gospel.