Almighty and everlasting God, in Christ you have revealed your glory among the nations: Preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more
Did you see this graph about texting? Is it accurate? I’m wondering if you think it is accurate for your teens? How many times do you “text” a month? I would guess that I text about 100x per month. [Yikes, I had 1000; I meant 100x per month.] Read more
This interview is by David Opderbeck … and is the first part of an interview with John Van Sloten, author of The Day Metallica Came to Church. In this book, Pastor Van Sloten talks about finding God in culture — from the “high” culture of Van Gogh’s paintings to the pop culture of the heavy metal band Metallica. This is no manual of seeker techniques. Rather, it’s a delightful and enlightening riff on culture and common grace. If you preach or teach or... Read more
The latest print edition of Books and Culture, the 15th anniversary edition, is the best I’ve read. I read B&C each time it arrives in my mailbox, but I confess to reading only about 70% — some articles just don’t interest me much. But this recent edition raised that percentage significantly. Some of this stuff is online, but not all — and I’d urge you to consider subscribing. Some of you may not even know what B&C is: it is... Read more
Kris and I will be in Perth Australia this August; I will be speaking at Vose Seminary. More details later. Our condolences to one of this blog’s regular contributors, Michael Kruse, on the death of his mother. Nielus Niemandt, a church theologian in South Africa, has a course into which we can enter and participate. Check it out. I often refer in my classes and to colleagues to Aquinas as “The Medieval Guy” (MG, for short). I just saw that... Read more
Yesterday in my 4th Year Seminar, which is devoted to examining “What is the gospel?”, I set out a scenario, generated a very good set of responses, and want to provide the same scenario for the blog this afternoon. It’s the 1st Century and here’s a make-believe event. You enter the room with some other followers of Jesus. At the Table you see Jesus flanked by Peter and Paul. You and your friends ask a question to the Table: “What... Read more
A friend of mine, Jason Micheli, is a pastor in Arlington Virginia at Aldersgate Methodist. Jason is young and gifted; he’s a fine preacher (below) and he’s also wise beyond his years. Recently a local group of Muslims in his community were in need of facility space for their Friday Jummah prayers, and the Muslims asked to use use their church facility for five months, the pastors at Aldersgate met and decided it was the right thing to do …... Read more
This post is from David Opderbeck… Gavin D’Costa, Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions. Here on Jesus Creed, we’ve had many spirited discussions about the “theodicy of soteriology”: the problem of why God’s salvation seems to be restricted to so few people who hear and respond to the gospel. In this book, which I’ll be blogging through over the next few weeks, Gavin D’Costa offers a robust Roman Catholic theology of religions, including, but not... Read more
We are looking into Paul Froese and Christopher Bader, America’s Four Gods: What We Say about God–and What That Says about Us. What this book does is profile what views of God Americans have and how those views of God are related to various other beliefs, and the topic for today is our view of God and our moral beliefs. Your image of God deeply shapes what you think about hot-button moral issues in our culture. The majority of Americans... Read more
I’m having a hard time making sense of this sentence from a CNN.com page. Stubbornly high unemployment — nearly 15% for those ages 20-24 — has made finding a job nearly impossible. First, the sentence is this: “Stubbornly high unemployment … has made finding a job nearly impossible.” Second, 15% of 20-24 yr olds is unemployed. Third, my heart genuinely goes out to the unemployed — of all age groups. A student told me today her father lost her job.... Read more
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