On our first day in Ireland we were kindly taken by Tony and Lesley Coffey down to Glendalough, an old monastery in Ireland (6th Century). Here is a picture of the small chapels — home for St Kevin.   And here is a picture of Monasterboice’s famous tallest cross, a cross with a “church” as its top and scenes from the Bible up and down. One of the highlights of this visit was the tour guide ahead of us who... Read more

John Mark Hicks, Come to the Table: Revisioning the Lord’s Supper , explores themes of the Eucharist in such a fresh manner. The Table testifies to — tells the story of — the communal ethic of the followers of Jesus. We eat together and we share our food with one another. Hicks stretches us here: he calls for the Table to share food with the poor in the community.  He pushes further: “invite the poor, the disenfranchised and the outsider to share... Read more

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Read more

Christian America and the Kingdom of God By Richard T. Hughes; forward by Brian McLaren. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Cloth, 232 pages. $29.95. ISBN: 978-0-252-03285-1. Reviewed by David C. Cramer, who has graduate degrees in philosophy and divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, currently teaches religion and philosophy at Bethel College (Indiana), has written various articles and book reviews for Philosophia Christi, Priscilla Papers, The Mennonite Quarterly Review, Ethics & Medicine and elsewhere, and is a regular participant in the Jesus Creed community. I.... Read more

Many of you know that the Jesus Creed blog is raising funds for the orphans of Mabanteneni in Swaziland. Well, here’s some good news: four more children have been sponsored in the last two or three weeks and we are thrilled! Thank you to those who are sponsoring these incredibly needy children.  So, once again, I hope you will ponder and pray over sponsoring a child at only 34 dollars per month. Our hope is to use this blog space to... Read more

One of the more fascinating developments in our time is the nearly absolute contrast between data and the claims by many that religion, church, Christianity and even God are all dying out. So, it is not without interest to me (and to many readers of this blog) that What Americans Really Believe studied this very question. About a year ago I read that Thomas Jefferson thought Christianity would die out in his generation; Thomas Woolston said in the 17th Century... Read more

This is an incredible series being offered to us by Matt Edwards: a nine part summary and response to Douglas Campbell’s mega-book, The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul . Thanks to Matt Edwards. The Deliverance of God 5–The Injustice of God in Justification Theory We are evaluating Douglas Campbell’s rereading of Romans 1-4 as presented in The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul. In the book, Campbell rejects “justification theory” (JT),... Read more

Augustine’s famous opening lines in his The Confessions (Everyman’s Library) says something like this: You [God] have made us for yourself and we are restless until we find ourselves in You. One way of putting this is that humans are hardwired for God. In What Americans Really Believe the authors examine this question and wonder if the evidence available today from American surveys can probe into an answer to the belief Augustine confessed. It’s about personality. Is religiousness inherent to... Read more

You might be surprised what the numbers tell us about who and who doesn’t tithe. In What Americans Really Believe we get a pretty full disclosure of some significant facts about tithing. But there’s an issue here: some pastors urge the tithe; the NT evidence is hardly clearly in favor of tithing; the NT focuses on generosity; Pope Adrian I in 787 mandated a tithe; many countries have a church tax — Denmark, Italy, Austria and Sweden. Fact #1: poor... Read more