Human life isn’t random luck. Rather it is the result of divine providence. Darrel R. Falk, former president of BioLogos and emeritus professor of biology at Point Loma Nazarene University agrees with Dennis Venema (Adam and the Genome) when it comes to the evidence for the long history and evolutionary past of the human species. In the second chapter of the new book Evolution and the Fall edited by William Cavanaugh and James K. A. Smith, he lays out a... Read more

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. BCP Read more

That’s one serious moat (Rhodes Greece). Folks, there is a connection between the shooting of the young Jordan Edwards and what happens in the stands of Major League Baseball stadiums, and I’m glad the Cubs are speaking: Jason Heyward briefly looked at a television show discussing the racial slurs directed at Orioles center fielder Adam Jones at Fenway Park and shook his head before heading to the batting cage. “You hear stuff, you hear stuff,” Heyward said Tuesday when asked if... Read more

I begin as I did Wednesday. If Christ is the incarnation of God, and if that means Who Christ is should shape our view of Who God is, what’s next? Greg Boyd, in The Crucifixion of the Warrior God, contends that the center of the center is the cross. So the question becomes How central is the cross to your view of Christ? And if the cross is central, the implication is clear: the cross determines our understanding of Who... Read more

Source: Suddenly those fat contract extensions Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald and Chris Collins signed look, well, adorable. Collins got Brad Underwood money, about $3 million a year, to tick past the new Illinois basketball coach. A source said Fitzgerald was boosted into the $3.5 million-to-$4 million range. That’s serious cabbage until you consider it’s roughly what Nick Saban will be paid to coach spring football at Alabama. USA Today reported Saban will be paid $11.125 million this season under a three-year... Read more

Source: CHICAGO—In most courts in the Cook County district, a person accused of a crime will have their case decided in a courtroom, by a judge. There’s little attempt to tackle any issues underlying the crime, and few alternatives to incarceration if they’re found guilty.A new court opening this summer in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood is looking to change that equation for some offenders. The Restorative Justice Community Court will offer select young people charged with non-violent felonies or misdemeanors... Read more

The bush of hominins … a rather cryptic title for this post. The term hominin refers to modern humans and groups affiliated with our immediate ancestors. In the figure this is certainly everything from Australopithecus up, and possibly everything from Ardipithecus up. Hominids (formerly used with roughly this meaning) is now taken to include modern and extinct great apes. (See here for a discussion of the terms.) Although it is common to talk of a tree of life and to... Read more

By Jonathan Storment Part 3: Learning to Power Off, a reflection on Andy Crouch, The Tech Wise Family. Remember when the internet wasn’t everywhere? Remember when it was someplace you had to actually “go” to, and it took work trying to navigate it? Since Al Gore invented it, the internet has quickly expanded to being as ubiquitous as the air we breathe, it’s seen as a basic human right, it has created and destroyed careers, changed Presidential elections, exposed and created... Read more

If Christ is the incarnation of God, and if that means Who Christ is should shape our view of Who God is, what’s next? Greg Boyd, in The Crucifixion of the Warrior God, contends that the center of the center is the cross. So the question becomes How central is the cross to your view of Christ? And if the cross is central, the implication is clear: the cross determines our understanding of Who God is. Which means, we need... Read more