Here’s the new question at the “On Faith” discussion at the Washington Post. What do you think? Does it matter? Does theology matter? Does theology matter when it comes to rendering legal judgment? If Elena Kagan is confirmed to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court would for the first time in its history be without a justice belonging to America’s largest religious affiliations — the Protestant traditions. If Kagan is confirmed, six of the justices will be... Read more

I read Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s newest book, The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture , because I was asked to blurb it. Here is what I said to Paraclete: I like this book but I don’t think I should blurb it. Why? I can’t say I’m committed to stability in the way this book advocates. But I like the book, and I will keep a copy close at hand. Kris and I have lived in this house for... Read more

Some of us over here in the USA are trying to make sense of what is happening with the coalition government in England.  What do our British friends have to tell us? Is this good or bad?  From CNN.com… New British Prime Minister David Cameron wants to form a coalition government between his Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, he said Tuesday. Cameron was invited to form the next government by Queen Elizabeth II about one hour after she accepted... Read more

Ron Highfield’s new book, Great Is the Lord: Theology for the Praise of God , examines the roles of reason and experience in theology. Anselm’s statement is famous: “For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe — that unless I believed, I should not understand” (38). Faith enables a person to perceive the world, and Highfield is asking if it does the same for theology itself. I will... Read more

What do you think? (From Newsy)(HT: MV) Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com Read more

“How long will this hassle or threat last?” is a very common question. David asks it four times in the space of two verses in Psalm 13 (after the jump). Actually David asks how long God will ignore him and how long he has to worry and how long his enemies will get to gloat over him. So, we ask, what will say next to God? David moves to these words: 13:3 Look at me! Answer me, O Lord my God! Revive me,... Read more

J.R. Briggs recently suggested to me that I should listen to Derek Webb’s new album called Mockingbird . So I did. I liked it.  What I liked most was the lyrics, and the following lyrics — from “A New Law” — is about the call to freedom in Galatians (so it seems to me) and the necessary risk that freedom brings. Instead of wanting to live in freedom, and perhaps even more letting others live out that freedom, many of... Read more

I’m sitting here reading Robert Wuthnow’s newest book, Be Very Afraid: The Cultural Response to Terror, Pandemics, Environmental Devastation, Nuclear Annihilation, and Other Threats , and I’m thinking about how I — “we” would be better — responded in the 70s. In spite of all you hear about the glory days of the hippies, during those days for American fundamentalists the world was falling apart — and fast. So fearful were we about the perils our world was in —... Read more