I recently had an exchange in which someone mentioned leaving the church. Who hasn’t? He quit participating some time back, and he’s not alone. There are any number of reasons people walk out and don’t return. There are those who wake up one day and decide the whole enterprise is false. But most seem to leave because the church has failed to measure up in some way. They leave because they are disillusioned. You know the triggers: Community life is... Read more
I found this video very moving. It captures scenes from an exhibition on Orthodoxy in Moscow. It’s touching to see the deep reverence shown by the faithful. And it’s horrifying to view the footage of the Communists and their destruction of churches and icons. Even for for those of us in the West who’ve never witnessed anything like this, nor have any cultural memory of such barbarism, it’s a soul-wrenching thing to behold. Watch it twice. Read more
Gene Robinson, retired Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, says the Catholic church is playing politics with the Eucharist. The comments stem from recent pronouncements that Catholics who oppose the church’s moral teaching should refrain from taking the Eucharist. Neither should they be surprised if denied the sacrament. “For a Catholic to receive holy Communion and still deny the revelation Christ entrusted to the church is to try to say two contradictory things at once: ‘I believe the church offers the... Read more
I’m excited today to feature a guest post by my friend and fellow Patheos blogger Bill Blankschaen. Bill looks at a question provoked by Brad Lomenick’s new book, The Catalyst Leader: 8 Essentials for Becoming a Change Maker. Brad’s book releases April 14 from Thomas Nelson. We all know the church should help you grow in your understanding of the Holy Scriptures. We all know that the church should be known as a house of prayer. We all agree as... Read more
Marking the fiftieth anniversary of his death, Oxford scholar and popular author Alister McGrath has released a new and illuminative biography of C.S. Lewis. Reviewers have given C.S. Lewis: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet a warm welcome. Here’s McGrath presenting on the book at Wheaton College: Wheaton’s Wade Center houses a collection of Lewis’ papers — along with a large wardrobe formerly belonging to Lewis into which a handful of children have been reportedly lost. I’ve written about Lewis before. Here... Read more
We read in the Apostle’s Creed that Jesus “descended into hell.” Some Christians today are unsure about this idea, but it is an ancient and venerable belief of the church. We commemorate this descent on Holy Saturday, the somber sabbath following Christ’s great labor on the cross. While his body rested in Joseph’s crypt, the Lord entered hades. In this event we call the harrowing of hell, Christ entered not as victim, but as victor. He came to raze the... Read more
There have been several very successful books on heaven in recent years, including Heaven is For Real, published at Thomas Nelson by my colleague Matt Baugher. The interest among readers is reasonable enough, considering that we’re talking about our eternal destinies and all the hopes and fears that go along with them. Not a small topic. But let’s expand the conversation. Heaven is more than an endpoint. When Christians pray the Lord’s Prayer we ask that God’s will would be... Read more
After gathering to protest the Muslim Brotherhood at their suburban Cairo headquarters, several of the demonstrators, mostly Coptic Christians, were dragged by Brotherhood thugs to a nearby mosque after Friday prayers and tortured. Mosque officials were apparently powerless to stop the hours-long assault, which for one man resulted in a broken skull, broken arm, bleeding in the right eye, and wounds from birdshot. I learned of the story yesterday morning, moments before attending a panel discussion on the newly released... Read more
Any book of theology that starts with a epigraph by Tom Waits is arguably worth looking at. Such is Rob Bell’s What We Talk About When We Talk About God. Since the 2011 publication of Love Wins, Bell’s name has doubled as a lighting rod, the controversy having merely cooled, not diminished. I have no interest in revisiting that here. Nor do I have any interest in writing a negative review of his newest, aspects of which certainly could use... Read more
Things today seem more fragmented than ever. Try focusing on your job, for instance, amid the alerts for incoming email, social media updates, and meeting invites. Add to that phone calls, interrupting coworkers, and elastic tasks stretching past allotted times and squeezing into others. Nice knowing you, margin. And that’s just what outsiders impose. Inside the mind there are — at least for me — forty-two stray thoughts trying to push to the fore, some succeeding and distracting me while... Read more
Joel J. Miller
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