Scot has a new book coming out at the end of this month, Adam and the Genome, co-authored written with Dennis Venema. Dennis is a biologist – and he handles the genome in this book. Scot looks at what this means, or could mean, as we read Scripture. I’ve read or heard parts of these ideas from Scot and Dennis over the last several years and look forward to reading and interacting with the book over the next few months.... Read more
D. G. (Darryl G.) Hart, in spite of donning a bow tie, is an exceptional scholar, thinker, and writer. His latest is about one of my favorite writers and appears in the most unlikely of locations: in the Library of Religious Biography. It is unlikely because this series concerns major religious persons while this book is on the most irreligious of characters, none other than H.L. Mencken. The book is called Damning Words: The Life and Religious Times of H.L. Mencken.... Read more
“Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the Gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment.” —Martin Luther King Jr. On the Thursday morning that Dr. King was assassinated he also was attacked by one of his own friends….with a pillow. On the day of his death, Martin Luther King Jr. got in a pillow fight in his own hotel room. I don’t know about you, but that fact makes me smile in some... Read more
By David Fitch JAK Smith’s ‘You are What You Love’ (Part 2): How Worship Shapes You to Love and Live Differently In the previous post, I described Jamie Smith’s sketch of the human self as a homo liturgicus in his book You Are What You Love. Human beings are persons shaped to love by habits. We are all being shaped to love something, and these loves are misguided at best when shaped by the consumerist liturgies of the world we... Read more
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. All Christians agree that the heavens and the earth are intelligently designed for a purpose. The God we worship is the creator of all. The marvel, beauty and wonder of creation make known the Creator. The classical design arguments of William Paley and the more recent Intelligent Design movement spearheaded by the... Read more
By Michelle Van Loon, www.MomentsAndDays.org and www.MichelleVanLoon.com Last week in this space, I wrote about a flawed Proverbs 31-focused approach one congregation took when they decided to rethink their ministry to women. Even as I raised concerns, I noted that I’ve been enriched by time spent in prayer, study, fellowship, worship, and service with women’s-only groups. Do these single-gender groups reflect who the Church is? Paul highlighted diversity within the Church, even as he reminded us that there is one Savior... Read more
By David Fitch, professor at Northern Seminary JAK Smith’s ‘You are What You Love’ (Part 1): Challenging the Everyday Assumptions About Desire James K. A. Smith published a fabulous book earlier this year titled You Are What You Love. It is fabulous because he summarizes the important stuff in the first 2 books of his trilogy (Desiring the Kingdom and Imagining the Kingdom) in a way that is accessible, inviting and interesting. It exposits the challenges of the Christian life... Read more
I begin a series that will seek to shed some light on why I am Anglican. Image used with permission. More than twice a month I am asked “Why did you become Anglican?” The answer to the question is complex, and I want to answer that question in part by saying up front that I don’t believe in ecclesiastical superiority. I don’t think any single church or denomination is the one true church. I’ve heard more than a whiff of... Read more
Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. BCP Read more
YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW JOHN By David George Moore Dave’s videos can be found at www.mooreengaging and his blog is www.twocities.org. Jane Dawson’s new biography of John Knox is being hailed as the definitive treatment we now have. Diarmaid MacCulloch says Dawson’s work “renders all his [Knox’s] previous biographies obsolete.” [The book is called John Knox (Yale, 2016).] Dawson teaches at the University of Edinburgh and is a noted authority on sixteenth-century Scotland and Calvinism. She had access to new sources,... Read more
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