Amazon Prime

Last updated on: March 19, 2013 at 8:29 am By Scot McKnight

From Time: Even more interesting than the growing Prime ranks is what Prime seems to do to subscribers. A 2010 Businessweek story stated that Amazon Prime broke even within three months of launching, not the two years predicted by its creators. That’s because customers spent as much as 150% more at Amazon after they became Prime members. Subscribers not only ordered more often, but after paying the $79 fee, they started buying things at Amazon that they probably wouldn’t have in the past. Since... Read more

Today’s the Day

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 7:51 am By Scot McKnight

From Justin Welby, new Archbishop of the Church of England: Justin Welby will be enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury today, marking the official start of his public ministry. He will be enthroned in two special seats in Canterbury Cathedral in a ceremony due to be attended by 2,000 guests including the Prince of Wales, David Cameron, and archbishops and bishops from around the world. Representatives of other faiths will also be in attendance. The ceremony gets underway at 3pm when... Read more

Christian Mingle: Rethinking

Last updated on: March 18, 2013 at 8:18 pm By Scot McKnight

Jon Merritt, at RNS: Perhaps we can excuse ChristianMingle for a bit of shallowness. After all, they are operated by marketers, not theologians. The site is owned by Beverly Hills-based Spark Networks. The company also owns Adventist Singles Connection, BlackSingles, DeafSingles Connection,CatholicMingle, as well as sites for Mormons, Jews, military members, and plus-size women(and the men who want to date them). But what about a site that purports to be more theologically rooted like ReformedSingles.com? The verse at the top right of their home screen is Jeremiah 29:11, which says,... Read more

Keller and THE PROBLEM (RJS)

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 5:40 am By RJS

We do not live in the Garden of Eden (Utopia, Shangri La, Paradise — you name it). Most of us would agree that it is self evident that something is fundamentally wrong with the world we currently occupy. The 20th century, with genocide, war, greed, injustice, and selfishness, has disabused the optimistic view of the inherent goodness of humanity and the evolution of human society. So then, what is the problem — and — what is the solution? In Chapter... Read more

Prayerbooks: Our Teacher

Last updated on: March 20, 2013 at 7:51 pm By Scot McKnight

I’m curious: What is your practice when it comes to the use of set prayers? Do you pray through a psalm or the Psalms? Do you pray with prayer books? Do you, as Kris and I do, use prayer books like Phyllis Tickle’s The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime? Which are your favorites if you do use prayer books? I wrote about the use of prayer books (Praying with the Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today), and I enjoyed all the discussion of... Read more

Brief Fact about Tolkien

Last updated on: March 23, 2013 at 11:03 am By Scot McKnight

JRR Tolkien, to his daughter, Priscilla: “So far I have felt the normal feelings of a man of my age — like an old tree that is losing all its leaves one by one: this feels like an axe-blow near the roots.” “This” is the news that his friend, C.S. Lewis, had died unexpectedly. Read more

Working People

Last updated on: March 17, 2013 at 2:51 pm By Scot McKnight

The Workplace Zodiac infographic by JESS3. Read more

Intellectual Uniformity: Not Going to Happen

Last updated on: March 18, 2013 at 6:45 am By Scot McKnight

Ed Cyzewski: I’ve already mentioned this week that it’s biblically impossible to be “biblical,” but there’s something else that’s impossible for evangelical Christians: unity as intellectual uniformity. Authors/speakers/bloggers often lament that the church could truly be unified if only we could all agree on “X.”… Since evangelicalism took shape largely around a common vision of sharing the Gospel, there’s a glimmer of hope that perhaps we can find unity again. However, it will never come about by signing a piece... Read more

Prodigal Christianity

Last updated on: March 20, 2013 at 7:53 am By Scot McKnight

My friend and colleague, David Fitch, is the co-author of a book with his co-pastor and our fellow colleague at Northern Seminary, Geoff Holsclaw, called Prodigal Christianity that I really like. David and Geoff are missional theologians, they are also pastors and professors. I have concerns about what might be called “armchair ecclesiologians,” that is, academics telling pastors how to pastor on the basis of theory alone. Bible people and theologians have things to say, but when it is not mixed... Read more

Preaching Hope, Preaching Judgment

Last updated on: March 19, 2013 at 7:01 pm By Scot McKnight

How often do you hear a sermon at your church that develops what we find in the Creed: “I believe in Jesus Christ … who will come to judge the living and the dead, [and in] the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting”? This theological creed affirms a constant theme of the Bible: God will judge, and God’s judgment results in redemption or destruction. [Personal note: When I was a PhD student I met Stephen Travis, who was... Read more

Who was cast into a fiery furnace but was unharmed?