You Can’t Think Your Way To God

May 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Christianity Today has published an interview with my friend James K.A. Smith, the philosopher, editor of Comment, and writer of many books, including two that I use in my classes: Desiring the Kingdom and Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?. The title -- and Jamie's argument -- is that you can't think your way to God. The embodied liturgies and rituals of the Christian life "teach" us in ways that are different from, say, a sermon or lecture. I understand that evangelicals tend to see … [Read More...]

Print Your Lunch

May 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

File this one under "Weird But Possibly Amazing": Relevant magazine reports that 3-D printed food might be at hand (yes, you read that right), and some people think this might be a step toward ending, or at least alleviating, world hunger. You can already print all kinds of things -- including prosthetic  and maybe even organs -- cheaply. Imagine ordering something online, then just printing it right there at your desk. The possibilities seem endless. The potential upsides are clear. … [Read More...]

Image Capture

May 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

My friend Tyler has a post over at Image Journal's Good Letters blog, in which he talks about bringing his camera into Robben Island prison in South Africa. His reflections are wise, and worth reading: And I wonder what is really going on when we point a camera at a home that is not ours, or a church, or a gravesite. I wonder what it means to photograph a foreigner, hang pictures of their children in our coffee shops, to snap unthinkingly at the farmer in the farmer’s market, or shoot the … [Read More...]

Repeating Yourself

May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

There was a great little piece on the NY Times Opinionator blog about "the art of repetition," and about how someone becomes a better writer - by learning to write thank-you notes: Having opened my share of thank-you notes over the years and having watched my kids write their own, I knew that nonwriters treat the process as an exercise in efficiency. Find a nice way to say something, and then copy and paste. The shorter, the better. Get it done and cross one more name off the list. My … [Read More...]

Gatsby, Draper, and Where Freedom Really Lies

May 17, 2013 By 1 Comment

This week I co-wrote and published a piece over at Christianity Today on Jay Gatsby and Don Draper, the protagonists (not quite "heroes") of The Great Gatsby and Mad Men, two hot commodities in pop culture right now. There are some striking similarities between these men, despite the fact that Gatsby "lived" forty years before Draper. After seeing Gatsby at a press screening last week, my co-writer and I felt there was some intuitive link between them, and we pushed it back and forth … [Read More...]

The Catholic Church at the Biennale

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The Venice Biennale is one of the biggest events in the art world, where the exhibitions are arranged around "pavilions" sponsored by people, countries, and galleries. This year, an unlikely candidate is joining them: the Roman Catholic Church, hosting a pavilion with the theme "Creation, De-Creation, and Re-Creation." The New York Times reported on it: Rather than requiring the artists to create liturgical art, Cardinal Ravasi said he had asked them to explore the theme of “Creation, … [Read More...]

Redemption in Angola Prison

May 14, 2013 By 1 Comment

Over at Comment Magazine, John Rottman has an interesting piece on the astounding transformation at Angola Prison in New Orleans---home to hardened criminals and gang members. Here's part of it: The kingdom of God has also brought a sense of vocation in the value of work. Prisoners earn money by making crafts and selling them at the annual rodeo, which draws about 10,000 people a year to the prison. Inmates work in the wood shops or making jewelry and sell what they have made in booths at the … [Read More...]

Boomers, Millennials, and Wisdom

May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

There's a great piece on mentorship in The High Calling this week--an interview with Christine Scheller. Here's an especially useful insight: What advice would you offer to the young and confident group . . .  who do know more than their seniors in certain ways? I would advise them to treat their coworkers with respect, because it won't be long before they are the senior colleagues with ambitious young professionals nipping at their heels. Instead of pushing past senior coworkers, why … [Read More...]

The New Easter Greeting? “He is Risen! Find Us On Facebook”

May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

In the gold 'ol days, we used to say, "He is risen. He is risen, indeed!" Now . . . … [Read More...]

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Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! Let’s Go to Hooters!

May 11, 2013 By 1 Comment

"Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Let's go to Hooters!" At least that's what Hooters hope's you'll be saying to your mom tomorrow. No joke. Hooters is offering a Mother's Day special. Every mom who brings a child to Hooters tomorrow and orders at drink will get a free entrée, up to a ten dollar value. When I first read the article in USA Today that announced this Hooters Mother's Day promotion, I wondered if USA Today had been hacked by someone with a creative and comedic mind. But, after … [Read More...]

“I am the sum of my apps. Maybe I am an app.” – Jeffrey Katzenberg

May 10, 2013 By 1 Comment

In a recent interview with USA Today, Jeffery Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks, talked about some of his favorite "fun apps," including "Talking Tom!" Then, in a reflective moment, he mentioned the apps he uses in less playful times: "So many of them are productivity apps — Notes, Dropbox, Twitter. I am the sum of my apps. Maybe I am an app." Now there's something to think about. … [Read More...]

Remembering Dallas Willard, Part 2

May 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Yesterday, I shared a personal remembrance of Dallas Willard, the beloved and influential Christian thinker and writer. Today, I want to share one more story of Dallas. The event I'm about to describe happened at Serra Retreat Center in Malibu, California. I was a participant in a retreat of Presbyterian pastors from Southern California (Los Ranchos Presbytery). Dallas was the speaker for the two-day retreat. He was focusing on the topic of spirituality for church leaders. In one of … [Read More...]

Remembering Dallas Willard, Part 1

May 8, 2013 By 4 Comments

I just heard the news that Dallas Willard died of cancer. What a loss for us and a gain for Heaven! Dallas' impact on the church – and on my life – has been profound. As much as anybody in the last few decades, he has helped us think deeply about discipleship, spirituality, and what it means to live fully in and for God. In the days to come, there will be many tributes to Dallas, as well as reviews of his seminal thinking. I thought I would add a couple of personal remembrances that speak … [Read More...]

Letting Gravity Do Its Work

May 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Mike Metzger has a terrific reflection over at The High Calling on God's plan for the world---and how that works itself out: Shalom in today’s world means seeking the prosperity of people in everyday businesses and schools and neighborhoods and sports leagues – you know, regular workaday institutions, not just “religious” ones. We build beautiful companies and organizations where people can flourish – experience shalom– in workaday life. This is also how we solve one of our … [Read More...]

Dashing Babies Against the Rocks – An Intriguing Interpretation

May 7, 2013 By 1 Comment

One of the most unsettling passages in all of the Bible is found in Psalm 137. Here, the psalm writer laments the exile of the Jewish people in Babylon. The psalm ends with these chilling verses: Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks (vv. 8-9). How are we to understand this passage from Psalm 137? Dr. Claude Mariottini, Professor of Old … [Read More...]

Running Boston Now

May 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Well worth reading: writer and runner Haruki Murakami's short reflections on the Boston marathon---the marathon itself, and what it means to runners---in the New Yorker: Emotional scars may be similar. In a sense, the real pain begins only after some time has passed, after you’ve overcome the initial shock and things have begun to settle. Only once you’ve climbed the steep slope and emerged onto level ground do you begin to feel how much you’ve been hurting up till then. The bombing in … [Read More...]