The fourth section of Gary N. Fugle’s book Laying Down Arms to Heal the Creation-Evolution Divide looks at the value of biological evolution. It is hard for the non-scientist, and even many scientists who are not conversant with biology, to appreciate the depth and importance of the evolutionary theory in biology. [O]nce the idea of evolutionary change is considered, we find that it has enormous power to explain much of what we see in the biological realm. This explanatory power... Read more
The Old Testament prophet stood above the crowd, faced the crowd and turned his or her eye of insight and revelation on the people and its leaders. How did their theology work? What were the major themes? Aaron Chambers, in Interpreting the Prophets, sketches two major themes of the prophet: 1. Sinai and the establishment of a covenant between the Lord and the Israelite people, and 2. Zion and the establishment of a covenant between the Lord and David (and his... Read more
This past July, while I was on my study break and away from the church I serve, one of my favorite people in church passed away. His name is Roy Willis, and I would love to introduce you to him. Brother Roy used to get up around 6:30 on Sunday mornings to walk to church. He couldn’t drive, and didn’t have a car, but for the first few years at Highland, he would beat me to church. He got up... Read more
From Carolyn Custis James, Malestrom, something to be read slowly and treasured: Blame [the rise of women into leadership, the breaking of the patriarchal boundaries] on feminism, contraception, affirmative action, access to higher education, postmodernism, economic changes, exploding technology, the Internet, or global warming, but make no mistake about it—the world has changed. Even in cultures where advances for women are lagging and the disparity between the sexes leaves women at an appalling disadvantage, women continue to defy the odds by creating... Read more
Angie Miller, through Valerie Strauss, at WaPo: It is August, the Sunday of summer, and teachers everywhere are battling their back-to-school demons, trying to balance precious time with their families while also reflecting on how to improve their practices and preparing for (more) rolled-out districtwide initiatives. I don’t know a teacher right now who isn’t riddled with the anxiety created by a career in which this delicate balance always feels impossible. We have all locked ourselves in a proverbial bathroom.... Read more
The issues surrounding science and Christian faith are huge. They seem complex and technical. It is tempting to search for short simple solutions and move on … or to ignore the issues all together. What do Christians with training and a background in science think about these issues? Where is the Christian leader, teacher or pastor able to turn to get started? Wouldn’t it be useful to listen to Christian scientists discuss these issues? The American Scientific Affiliation is a... Read more
In their book Church Refugees, Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope sketch four reasons why some active Christians become the Dones: They wanted community.. .and got judgment. They wanted to affect the life of the church.. .and got bureaucracy. They wanted conversation.. .and got doctrine. They wanted meaningful engagement with the world… and got moral prescription. Their book however is not designed for those who want to be mad at the church; it’s not designed for the Dones to say “See how... Read more
From Arise. By Rachel Heston-Davis: Rachel Heston-Davis is a writer, English professor, and former freelance journalist. She lives in Southern Illinois with her husband Jaron, where she teaches at her alma mater, Greenville College. A lover of good rhetoric, Rachel blogs about faith, feminism, culture, and sometimes the internet itself at rachelhestondavis.com. Not long after I began studying egalitarian theology in a serious way, I was confronted by one of the more perplexing questions associated with it: what are the true “differences”... Read more
Zealotry is the choice to protect holiness by living beyond what the Bible says, and it finds in that zeal a source of immunity from being wrong. I contend that zealotry reflects an absence of trust in God’s Word. Its motivation is the fear of freedom. Its environment is inevitable: judgmentalism and boundary-marking that together destroy in different ways the unity in Christ. God’s people were not meant to be penguins, waddling all alike, but instead free, separable, unique individuals who live in community and fellowship... Read more
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