Seminary Grads: Christianity Doesn’t Need You. The (Local) Church Does

May 31, 2012 By Kyle Roberts

If I could give a parting word to seminary graduates, that’s what I’d say. We American evangelicals love to speak in grandiose ways: transforming society, changing culture, or making a difference in the world. Graduation ceremonies are easy targets for big ideals. And there’s certainly a place for lofty visions and goals. But there’s also a time to get realistic and focused. Too often, ministry is perceived as a way to achieve personal success–to unleash one’s potential as a creative... Read more

The Comfort of a Colonoscopy

May 30, 2012 By Daniel Harrell

Among the most emailed articles in the New York Times this week is about colonoscopies. Apparently, people underwent the procedure thinking they were covered, only to wake up to huge anesthesiology bills that their insurance wouldn’t pay. It turned out that their gastroenterologists chose to use general anesthesia (and anesthesiologists) when a more moderate sedation would have sufficed. Talk about getting (insert associated verb here). Having had my own 50-year recommended intestinal probe, I can only say I was glad for... Read more

The Final Word on Thomas Kinkade

May 29, 2012 By Daniel A. Siedell

Thomas Kinkade My theological analysis of Thomas Kinkade’s work (“The Dark Light of Thomas Kinkade”) was an attempt to make sense of my abiding discomfort with his work as well as respond to my dissatisfaction with the commentary it has generated over the years. Neither his supporters nor his critics have offered compelling arguments. In fact, a virtue of Kinkade’s work is that it poses a stiff challenge to those advocating “Christian art” and those defending a purely secular... Read more

Memorial Day

May 28, 2012 By Wyndy Corbin Reuschling

I confess to being one of many who see Memorial Day as the official start of summer, and a chance for a much needed three-day week-end during the final week of the academic year. I often find myself squirming in the pew during church services that fall on or “celebrate” national holidays. Patriotism and Christian faith are not holy alliances, nor is Memorial Day or the Fourth of July part of the church’s liturgical calendar. We can be grateful for... Read more

Seminaries and Science

May 25, 2012 By Kyle Roberts

A lot of people are talking about the relation between science and theology lately. Questions about the nature of human persons, the relation between the body and soul, and the always contentious debates around “origins” are popping up with renewed fervor on blogs, in conferences, and in book publishing. Creation science, intelligent design or theistic evolution? How ought Christians think of Adam and Eve and “the Fall”? What’s the relation between divine providence, creation and natural suffering? I approach these... Read more

Selling Your V-Card? The Reality Show that Might Have Been

May 24, 2012 By Kyle Roberts

MTV made a splash recently with a online casting call for a provocative reality show about young, sexy people (I’m venturing a guess) on a quest to lose their virginity. But who wouldn’t want to follow the existential journeys of post-adolescents as they attempt to experience humanity’s most intimate and society’s most glorified act? Here’s that casting call (as noted on breitbart.com and the Christian Post) “DO YOU WANT TO TAKE THINGS TO THE NEXT LEVEL? LIKE, ARE YOU READY... Read more

Should Pot Luck Suppers Go Organic?

May 23, 2012 By Daniel Harrell

Here in southwest Minneapolis, where locavores and Lutherans proliferate, the suggestion that church pot luck suppers go organic gets greeted with the greenest of relish. What better way to be faithful stewards of creation than to encourage the provision of local sustainable hotdish? The problem, according to a recent Loyola University study, is that eating organic foods can make people more judgmental–which is the last thing that any Christian needs. According to The Atlantic, Dr. Kendall Eskine, an associate professor of... Read more

The Dark Light of Thomas Kinkade

May 22, 2012 By Daniel A. Siedell

Hans Holbein the Younger, The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, 1520-22, oil on panel, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel. In The Idiot (1869), Dostoyevsky’s Prince Mishkin notices a reproduction of Holbein’s Dead Christ on the wall in Rogozhin’s house, and observes that it has the power to make one lose their Christian faith. The painting is unusual because Holbein painted it in the form of a predella, which forms the base of an altarpiece, featuring Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.... Read more

Gratitude to Ada María Isasi-Díaz

May 21, 2012 By Wyndy Corbin Reuschling

I learned earlier this week that one of my professors from graduate school passed away. Dr. Ada María Isasi-Díaz was Professor of Theology and Ethics at Drew University where I earned my PhD. She taught the first class in my doctoral program in Christian Social Ethics, and I had her for my last class. I remember my interactions with her like they were yesterday: she was warm, gracious, humorous, always thinking, and one whose scholarship served the cause of justice... Read more

Ultra-Orthodox Jews and the Internet

May 20, 2012 By Kyle Roberts

Today, some 40,000 ultra-Orthodox, male Jews (women not allowed) are packing out Mets Stadium to learn how to harness the internet for good rather than for evil. This was according to this Washington Post article which ran yesterday. One can’t help but admire the collective concern for the real dangers of the internet and the ways in which it continues to alter our lives, for good and for ill. All of us, evangelical Christians included, could use some intensive thought and... Read more