Can communities, businesses, and other social institutions be “religious”?

If you’ve seen a single interview with Richard Dawkins, I can almost guarantee you’ve heard him fall into a fit of positively religious indignation at the notion of baptizing children, raising children to be Christian or calling a child a “Christian child.” To Dawkins – and a good many other New Atheists – there is [...]

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Lectio divina: rehydrating the words of Scripture in our lives

Spiritual theologian Eugene Peterson: There is a sense in which the Scriptures are the word of God dehydrated, with all the originating context removed – living voices, city sounds, camels carrying spices from Seba and gold from Ophir snorting down in the bazaar, fragrance from lentil stew simmering in the kitchen – all now reduced [...]

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On not wanting to get involved with the God of the Bible

Spiritual theologian Eugene Peterson: It is entirely possible to come to the Bible in total sincerity, responding to the intellectual challenge it gives, or for the moral guidance it offers, or for the spiritual uplift it provides, and not in any way have to deal with a personally revealing God who has personal designs on [...]

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On my dysfunctional relationship with the Bible

One of the loveliest nights during my 15 month sojourn in the Twin Cities came on a Sunday evening as I left church. I had gotten into the habit of walking the mile and a half to church each week, even when temperatures were hovering around zero. It was a habit I enjoyed and often [...]

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MLK Day Videos

First, MLK’s most famous speech, the I Have a Dream speech given in Washington in 1963. Below the jump, another MLK speech as well as some from Malcolm X.

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Martin Bucer and the Question of Christian Unity, Ctd

Continued from part two. As a result of these convictions, Bucer was generally the most ecumenically-minded of the reformers. His emphasis on love and dialogue made him an ideal “champion for protestant unity,” and motivated him to work tirelessly to unify the evangelical movement as a whole. His ecumenism also led him to work to [...]

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Martin Bucer and the Question of Christian Unity, Ctd.

Continued from part one.

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Martin Bucer and the Question of Church Unity

In the spring of 2009 I was fortunate enough to do an independent study on Martin Bucer with Dr. Amy Nelson Burnett. Dr. Burnett is one of the foremost scholars on the South German Reformation as well as a phenomenally-gifted teacher. One of my favorite memories of class with Dr. Burnett was one day when [...]

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The First Things/FPR Battle Royal

A few months ago Joe Carter of First Things said this: Agrarian conservatives are charmingly anachronistic and mostly harmless since even they don’t take their ideas too seriously. (When the agrarian professors give up their tenure at Ivy League U, move back to the farm, and teach at Wendell Berry Community College, I’ll believe they [...]

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The Geography of a Study – Rochefort Trappist 8

On the east wall of our study are two bookcases, roughly six feet by two feet, that hold all Joie and my novels. They’re sorted alphabetically by author, beginning with Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and ending with Zamyatin’s We. The two shelves are about two feet apart with a six foot long board laid across the [...]

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