Jesus Creed
Kris and I walked at the Mall this morning due to the rain. We’re also cheap and have no club membership. To our surprise, look what greeted us at Macy’s. Read more
Kris and I walked at the Mall this morning due to the rain. We’re also cheap and have no club membership. To our surprise, look what greeted us at Macy’s. Read more
This review comes to us from a reader, Josh Rockett. An important topic, and a good introduction to this book. “Telling stories is easy when they’re about heroic people.” -Mark Lutz, UnPoverty We have all heard statistics on poverty. We’ve heard that over 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day. But have we heard their stories? Can we picture them? Can we hear them? Would we change our thoughts and actions if we could? In his book,... Read more
David Neff reports on the recent congress in Columbus OH that formed a new Lutheran body: In summary, the theologians who spoke at Lutheran CORE’s free theological conference saw crisis of authority in the church. The crisis resulted from an abandonment of the combined authority of canon, creed, and church—or less alliteratively, Scripture, a normative set of teaching that guide scriptural interpretation, and authorized leaders charged with faithfully handing on the faith. By looking to the self, to love, to... Read more
We love ya, Mayor Daley! On this day, Sept 11, many innocently lost their lives because of the barbaric, cold-blooded actions of others. Today we pause to remember those who died, their families who will never be the same again, those who were there and those whose lives were impacted by that tragic day. We pray, too, for terrorists around the world that they will come to their senses and learn that the righteousness of God can never be accomplished... Read more
Our Mabanteneni kids, that is, will be showing up on Patheos from time to time. Kris and I are committed to helping orphans in Swaziland at a place called Mabanteneni. The needs, as you may know, are desperate but one thing we can do is offer help fund ministries like those of Hope Chest that work with orphans physically, economically, spiritually and educationally. So, once again, I hope you will ponder and pray over sponsoring a child at only 34... Read more
Alister McGrath, in his new book The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind, explores this theme through the themes about theology in the poetry of George Herbert, and toward the end of the study makes this wonderful statement: Theology makes possible a new of seeing things, throwing open the shutters on a world that cannot be known, experienced or encountered through human wisdom and strength alone. Christian doctrine offers us a subject worth studying in its... Read more
I wrestled with this blog post. I couldn’t decide whether to put it on my blog or on a friend’s blog as an anonymous post. The decision was not an easy one, but I ultimately decided that having the courage to stand behind my words should outweigh my desire to not want to draw attention to myself. I have not sought to boost my readership by signaling anyone out or to be a hypocrite and build my own “persona” (see below). Either way, I knew this was a lose-lose decision, and decided that courage should trump anonymity. Two recent stories have piqued my interest. Read more
The world is God’s, and that’s the standpoint of the entire Bible. For a host of reasons, then, we are summoned to give praise to God, and Psalm 33 — one of the prayers in our common prayerbook — is a great example of how our theological apprehension that the world is God’s can change our perspective and also lead us to praise God. Notice how the psalmist begins Psalm 33:1-3: 33:1 You godly ones, shout for joy because of the Lord! It... Read more
I began a series last week looking at issues in theology and the impact that the evidence for evolution has on our theology. This series is based on a book of essays, Theology After Darwin (available from amazon UK or, as pointed out by a commenter on the last post, a search of Abebooks.com on author = Berry and title = Theology After Darwin will yield a USA-based source for a new copy of the book at a reasonable price.) The second chapter, written by Denis Alexander, carries the provocative title After Darwin: Is Intelligent Design Intelligent? For those wrestling with the ideas, or who want to understand why scientists and scholars are often skeptical of the intelligent design movement, this is a good even-handed source. It is short, clear, and to the point. Denis Alexander is a molecular biologist with a Ph.D. in Neurochemistry. He is the Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge. Since 1992 he has been Editor of the journal Science & Christian Belief and currently serves on the National Committee of Christians in Science and as a member of the International Society for Science and Religion. He has published many scientific articles in the primary literature, something over 50, and has a good overall citation rate (i.e. other professionals read and interact with his professional scientific work). He has also published a book, Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose?, referred to quite often in this short essay that presents his belief in the coherence of evolutionary theory with a biblical doctrine of creation. I have not read his book yet - but intend to get a copy and put it on my (ever growing) list. Key to Alexander's view is a robust understanding of the work of God in creation. Calvin, he notes, had such a view. God's activity in nature, Calvin taught, was continuous and complete. There were no 'gaps' which could be attributed to forces or agents outside of God's immediate control. Nature was not autonomous. The Word or command of God was the only edict required to bring direction or purpose into inanimate matter. (p. 23) The discussions of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century departed from such a robust view, looking for evidence of God in design, in areas where natural mechanisms were demonstrably insufficient. In the face of naturalism and secular materialism concrete evidence for God appeared essential. What do you understand or mean by the term Intelligent Design? Do you think Intelligent Design is a useful pursuit or field of inquiry? Read more
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