“The House Studio” is putting out some great material these days. In particular, they are re-packaging some profound video footage from great American theologians and practitioners along with well written study guides for small group study. They are great – affordable, too. My friend Isaac Anderson wrote the study guide for the “Economy of Love,” which features Shane Claiborne. If you are looking for great small group material with a short video lesson and plenty of thoughtful discussion material –... Read more

There was a pretty interesting article at Slate.com yesterday about Marilyn Monroe. Simon Doonan has written a book called Gay Men Don’t Get Fat, and this excerpt is published at Slate. In it Simon tells about being the designer hired to put Marilyn’s personal estate on display for Christie’s auction house. Doonan is a pretty good writer – funny, too. He discloses a couple of surprising revelations about the world’s most iconic sex-pot which I would have never guessed.First, she... Read more

Pat Robertson told viewers of his program (how does he still have them?), that God told him who the next president is going to be… but he is not supposed to tell us. This, as we all know, is the tele-evangelical equivalent of that thing where you show a little kid how you can remove the end of your thumb, then magically restore it. My assumption is that he’s going to lay a huge wager in Vegas and doesn’t want the... Read more

Thanks everyone for the great conversation yesterday on “Why are young adults leaving the church?” It’s a question which deserves a lot of thought and discourse – I’m glad it could happen on Paperback Theology. On a lighter note… I ran across this video yesterday from the Lutheran Satire folks. You’ve heard of messing with Sasquatch – they have a go at the dispensationalists. Nothing could be more fun than messing with the sloppy biblical interpretation and just plain fictional... Read more

Kara Powell wrote an interesting article in Relevant Magazine called, “Why Young Adults are Leaving the Church.” Powell riffs on a Tim Clydesdale saying that young adults put religion/faith in “the identity lock box,” Both argue that when students leave high school they put everything really important to them in a lock box while they turn to embrace their college experience. Most likely they will return to church later on. The problem she describes is that this period of time... Read more

I made my confession… you make yours! I confess that I used to take Francis Schaeffer seriously, until I started reading his son Frank Shaeffer’s book “Crazy for God.” I confess that although I’m only halfway through the book, I no longer take Francis Schaeffer seriously. I confess that I hope my sons never write a book about our family. I confess that I think Oklahoma Statedeserved to lose the Fiesta Bowl last night. I confess that Matt Millen should... Read more

An Evangelical Social Gospel?: Finding God’s Story in the Midst of ExtremesKindle edition on sale now for $10.00 Read more

The pew research forum does a ton of research on Christian demographics. One of their recent studies was a worldwide census of Christians; where do they live, how is the population distributed, things like that. I was reading the numbers and thinking that some of this information really surprised me. Americans know so little about the rest of the world! (and our own world to be honest). So, here’s a little 10 question quiz to see how much you know... Read more

I’m praying for my brothers and sisters at Westport Presbyterian Church today. They lost their building in a fire last night. The building was over 107 years old. I can’t imagine what they are dealing with this morning. Think about pastor Scott Myers and his congregation today. Read more

Just before Christmas the NY Times book review was on a book we’re all familiar with: The Bible. Marilynne Robinson, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Gilead penned the interesting article which was subtitled “What Literature Owes the Bible.” Here basic thesis was that the bible has made an unparalleled contribution to the wide world of literature. The reason this is so, Robinson says, is that the Bible asks the tough questions and attempts to construct a coherent answer.... Read more