Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all people, to the glory 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
My father taught high school in the 1950s in a small village in central Illinois named Roodhouse. One of his students, Bill Roberts, has become a respectable attorney in Springfield. His offices have a Sky Box suite at Wrigley Field. Bill and my parents are Cardinal fans. So, every year Bill invites my mom and dad to a Cubs-Cards game at Wrigley. Which brings me to this: We’re invited to the game today! We’ll be cheering for the Cubs amidst... Read more
Overstatement of the week: here’s what somone said when the animal activists won out and now Chicago is banning foie gras: “Given animal rights activists’ success getting foie gras banned in Chicago, Didier Durand, the chef and owner of Cyrano’s, is confident they will take aim at other foods as well. “Pretty soon we’re going to be eating grass,” he said. What’s the difference? gras, grass. |inline Read more
Because of some time teaching at a seminary and now at a college, I’ve been asked to reflect on the difference between teaching seminary students and college students. I haven’t taught seminary students in 12 years, and will get to next Spring again for a few weeks, so by then I may have some more ideas. But here goes: |inline Read more
As I said last Thursday, Jarrett Stevens’ new book, The Deity Formerly Known as God, is a remake of J.B. Phillips’ famous Your God is Too Small. The book is definitely designed for the younger generation (than mine). The first half deconstructed bad views of God; this half constructs some biblical images for God. Here they are: |inline Read more
If this does breathe the air that eventually became Calvinism, I don’t know what does: “So then he [God] has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he [God] hardens the heart of whomever he chooses” (Romans 9:18). |inline Read more
We’ve been looking this week at emerging and orthodoxy. I stand in line with those who affirm orthodoxy, but I’m quite happy to have conversation with those who have their questions. But the importance of such conversation does not replace the importance of local churches affirming what they believe and doing so in such a way to anchor themselves in the Great Traditions of the Church. What do emerging churches do? |inline Read more
Some titles of books work, and some don’t. Jarrett Stevens’ new book, The Deity Formerly Known as God (Zondervan, 2006), is a title that works. I’ll post on this book twice. |inline Read more
Paul begins exploring his major issue — God’s faithfulness and the place of Israel in God’s plan — by saying this: If you look at it, it has never really been just “flesh” that makes a person part of “Israel.” No, in fact, it is the Promise Line that is the true Israel. |inline Read more
What is the relationship of the emerging movement and the orthodox creeds? How do you think it relates or should relate to orthodoxy? Well, I don’t speak for anyone, but I’ll tell you what I think: it varies. (I’ll bet you dropped dead in surprise on that one.) To see how and why it varies, I point to what I think are four major impulses in the emerging movement, and each of these impulses leads to slightly different interests in... Read more
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