From a reader, and we will be having two responses tomorrow from a homeschooler and a pastor: What wisdom do you have for her? for the family? I hope all is well with you. I hope too your new faculty position is proving to be a blessing and a wonderful and formative ministry towards those being trained for ministry roles in the church. Your wisdom would be much appreciated. I find myself in a difficult position where a very... Read more
Time to return to the basics: Jesus reduced the Torah to its essence when a scribe asked him what the greatest commandment was. Jesus responded by saying there are two: Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. But Jesus caps this off with a profound... Read more
From WSJ by Sue Shellenbarger: Could you pack more into each day if you did everything at the optimal time? A growing body of research suggests that paying attention to the body clock, and its effects on energy and alertness, can help pinpoint the different times of day when most of us perform our best at specific tasks, from resolving conflicts to thinking creatively…. When it comes to doing cognitive work, for example, most adults perform best in the late... Read more
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more
By Robert N. McCauley, and I have clipped bits from his longer piece, which come from his book on this subject: Suggesting that natural science is unnatural and that religion, which traffics in the supernatural,is natural seems to turn things upside down. Sorting out these paradoxes, though, will offer insight about both enterprises. The “naturalness” of cognition is the sense of the term in play here. Natural cognition is intuitive, fast, automatic, unconscious, and often difficult to articulate. It arises in a flash... Read more
Ann Voskamp: “My Dad had said we’d never see anything like it again — not in our life times. 120 combines lined up around one field — 160 acres of soybeans. A harvest of less than 12 minutes. An attempt at a world record. All crop donated to world hunger. They were calling it a harvest for hunger.” Allan Bevere has an important book on the Christian and the State, and Ted Gossard reviewed it thoroughly… here is the last post in the series with... Read more
Fr Dwight Longenecker is right: What kind of evidence does the atheist want? What would be the knock-down argument/evidence? The most frequently asked question by atheists who come to this blog is “What evidence do you have for the existence of God?” My reply is always to ask what sort of evidence they require, but not one of them has ever given me a straight answer. My question is an honest one. What sort of evidence would someone be looking... Read more
“But isn’t [being subversive] dishonest? Not exactly, for I’m not misrepresenting myself. I’m simply taking my words and acts at a level of seriousness that would throw [the congregation] into a state of catatonic disbelief if they ever knew.” How can the pastor be subversive and sustain his vocation? Eugene Peterson wrestles with who is living in the real world. Is it the business man who thinks church is a nice diversion from the real world of money-making, bottom lines... Read more
No one questions that the Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox have a high(er than average) view of the church; it is the Protestants who struggle with forming a robust ecclesiology that is not just liturgical but also missional. As I said before, what we need is a good textbook that is theologically conversant with a variety of ecclesiologies so that missional can be given a good solid intellectual context. That book is by Graham Hill, a professor at Morling College... Read more
I’m seeing this theme at times — namely, that Republicans are creating obstacles for voters, especially if they can establish policies that could lessen the Democrat vote. Is this piece by Elizabeth Drew accurate? The Republicans’ plan is that if they can’t buy the 2012 election they will steal it. The plan, long in the making and now well into its execution, is to raise great gobs of money—in newly limitless amounts—so that they and their allies could outspend the... Read more
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