Chris shares his gratitude for the students, parents, and colleagues who make possible his work. Read more
Chris shares his gratitude for the students, parents, and colleagues who make possible his work. Read more
Not having seen the big production new film of Mary Magdalene (Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Chiwetel Ejiofor), I can’t comment on it. And for interesting reasons I will explain, don’t expect to see it in the US any time soon. But I will respond to the latest wave of comments that this film has drawn forth about the widespread and powerful myth concerning Mary Magdalene herself – and myth it assuredly is. In the British Daily Telegraph, Peter Staniford writes... Read more
From the Anxious Bench archives: When I ask students to read and generate questions about the Gospel of Mark, someone always asks about the beheading of John the Baptist? What sort of mother asks her daughter to ask her father for a prophet’s head? (I can also count on a question about Jesus cursing the fig tree, for which I never have an adequate answer). According to Mark, John the Baptist criticized Herod Antipas for having married Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife.... Read more
If Madeleine L’Engle’s portrayal of communism as the evil "other" was not unusual, her antidote certainly was. A Wrinkle in Time points to a third way of creative resistance to evil. Read more
The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is planning to eliminate its arts, humanities, and social science majors. Here's why Christian colleges need to beware heading down that path... Read more
Marilynne Robinson, writer of beautiful novels and perspicacious essays, turns some attention to New England Puritans in an American Scholar article drawn from her most recent book, What Are We Doing Here? She characterizes Puritans as progressive contenders for a society shaped by grace rather than harsh punishment. “What do we lose when we ignore early American history and, to the extent that we notice it, mischaracterize it? The stigmatizing word that makes the North fall out of sight is... Read more
I have blogged quite a bit recently on early Christian history, and the further I get into this material, the more interested I become in one particular period – quite a narrow period in fact, of a quarter century or so. I keep coming back to these years as the critical turning point in early Christian history, and it rarely receives the respect it demands. For all the attention paid to the era of the Council of Nicea, about 325,... Read more
A few weeks back, evangelical theologian Richard Mouw explained over at Religion News Service why he declined to sign “prophetic” declarations. (You know, the official statements proliferating about this or that “justice-related matter.”) Since that time, the essay has been reprinted at First Things, and also at The Banner (the magazine of my own denomination, the Christian Reformed Church). Clearly it is resonating with religious audiences. When it comes to his reluctance to sign statements, I don’t blame Mouw. I... Read more
In 1998, the Southern Baptist Convention amended the Baptist Faith and Message for the first time since 1963. They voted to add a four-paragraph statement on the family. The new statement declared that a woman should “submit herself graciously” to the leadership of her husband. She “has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.” Her husband, in turn, has the “God-given responsibility to provide for, to... Read more
In the first decades of the 20th century, many Americans embraced aviation with religious enthusiasm, with some evangelizing for it as a source of social and physical transformation. Read more
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