You can find scintillating answers to these and a number of other questions in an interview (part one, part two) I just did with historical theologian Nathan Finn. Nathan graciously asked me several questions following the release of the book I edited with David Mathis of Desiring God, The Pastor as Scholar, the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Theology (Crossway, 2011, authored by John Piper and D. A. Carson–that’s Carson to the right speaking at the event that... Read more
File this under Seinfeldisms. If you can’t call someone fat, why can you call them short? In a world full of confounding realities–how does photosynthesis happen? Why do people enjoy the music of Neil Diamond?–this is a particularly tricky one. I’m not tall, and I happen to know a number of people like me. In discussion, we’ve learned that it’s quite common for a certain type of person to make remarks about height. “You’re short, you can fit in that... Read more
Here’s an interesting report from the Washington Post that examines median salaries for college graduates of various majors. The study, conducted by researchers at Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, offers the following data: According to the study, the median annual earnings for someone with a bachelor’s degree in engineering was $75,000. The median wage was $47,000 in the humanities, $44,000 in the arts and $42,000 in education or in psychology. The individual major with the highest median... Read more
John Woodbridge of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School has just published a book with Pulitzer-prize winning journal Maurice Possley that tells a fascinating story: how a gun owned by Adolf Hitler ended up in the possession of his family. That is already an interesting tale, but the book, entitled Hitler in the Crosshairs: A GI’s Story of Courage and Faith (Zondervan, 2011) delves into another story, the strange and faith-building life of an unknown man named Teen Palm, who before helping... Read more
I just had the privilege of writing an article for the Christianity Today Theology in the News column. Collin Hansen wrote this column for several years. As one who loved Collin’s essays and counts him a dear friend, it’s an honor to be able to contribute. That honor is compounded by the fact that the founding of CT is a part of my doctoral research at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. It’s very cool to be writing for the magazine that Carl... Read more
Have you heard of Sarah Jarosz? If not, you should check her out. She’s part of an interesting develop in modern music. Call it “classical bluegrass.” NPR recently did a story on Jarosz and this developing sound, suggesting that her brand of performance is the child of a marriage between classical music schools and traditional bluegrass. If you like music, this is interesting stuff. The NPR piece tells the story: The New England Conservatory, the oldest free-standing music school in... Read more
The American college experience occupies a vaunted place in the mind of many an adolescent. College, overworked high schoolers assure themselves, will be a place of freedom, experimentation, video games, and goofing off. And that’s just in class. The system of delayed adulthood or prolonged adolescence or unmitigated disaster (choose whatever term suits your fancy) is by now a part of American culture. It starts young. Parents baby their children, allowing them to live luxe lives at home, chores and... Read more
If you’re a sports fan, did you see the news about former Villanova Wildcats basketball player Will Sheridan coming out of the closet? And the stories about Phoenix Suns President and CEO Rick Welts revealing the same? Whether you like basketball or not, you should care about these stories as a Christian. The way each narrative has unfolded in the press shows the direction our culture is traveling on the issue of homosexuality. Christians need to be very aware of... Read more
There’s a great deal of interest right now in what some have called the pastor-theologian and theologian-pastor movement. John Piper and D. A. Carson are two of the more prominent faces of each of these enhanced ministerial vocations. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Dustin Neeley of Church Planting for the Rest of Us, a fantastic blog offering tons of free resources for pastors and church planters, and talk about the book I coedited on this subject.... Read more
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently released a chilling story that you should know about. The CHI piece is called “The Shadow Scholar” and it’s authored by a paper mill writer under the name of “Ed Dante.” You can read the whole thing here. Reader’s Digest picked it up for their May 2011 edition, which has mainstreamed it. For educators, parents, and Christian citizens interested in the general state of American education, this essay is essential reading. Here’s a snippet: In the past... Read more
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