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Essays

U.S. Politics and the Vote: How Can Christians Engage in Meaningful Citizenship?

I am a political science professor at a Christian university with ties to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a denomination in the Reformed tradition. My own background is Calvinist. When I was growing up, it was a given that Christians working in political life were considered to be as much involved in ministry as those going to seminary. The theme “all of life is religion” was a mantra at my college, and we were taught that politics belongs to God. But…
September 1, 2016
As We See It

Hillary Clinton and Christian America

Let’s start with a disclaimer. I’m a historian, and as such I have no particular skills when it comes to prognostication. Case in point: At the start of this election season, I would have placed my money on Scott Walker as the likely Republican nominee. For Clinton, bringing faith into politics isn’t anything new. But if history teaches us anything, it’s that anything can happen. This was first brought home to me in 1991. I was a high school student,…
September 1, 2016
Essays

The Maoist Moment in American Conservatism

As of this writing Donald Trump is the presumptive United States presidential nominee for the Republican Party. While it is unclear why Trump has enough popularity to be the nominee (no doubt social scientists and historians will be working on this for a while) the dominant narrative is something along the lines of angry voters tired of “business as usual” politics which do not seem to be paying off for them. So they want to “burn it all down.” What…
September 1, 2016
As We See It

‘Reading As If for Life’: My Debt to Frederick Buechner

In Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, David uses the evocative phrase “reading as if for life” to describe his comfort in certain books during a tragic childhood. When I left graduate school after my dissertation proposal was rejected, that is what I did: I read as if for life. At the time, I was a student at the University of Cambridge, and I had invested a year’s worth of research into the project. The rejection was demoralizing, and it meant I…
June 30, 2016
Essays

Do Not Be Afraid

I had no idea why tears so abruptly filled my eyes. I was crying before I understood why I might be crying. But the sense that the reaction meant something was as real to me as the tears. I was seated alone in a packed crowd at Duke University’s stunning neo-Gothic chapel, listening intently as Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan conducted his St. Luke Passion for choir and orchestra. The core text of the piece is taken word for word…
June 30, 2016
As We See It

Forgiving Pope Francis Might Be Good for Us

“In the afterglow of #PopeFrancis’ Apostolic Visit to America, what are your thoughts on the #PopeInUS?” activist and theologian Peter Heltzel, who is also my systematic philosophy professor, optimistically asked Facebook friends one morning after the pope had returned to Rome. But recent disclosures had left some with an unpleasant aftertaste. “I’m struggling with this Kim Davis thing,” one friend responded. Another wrote, “Secret meeting with Kim Davis has removed all afterglow.” Such a shame! The week before, at New York’s 9/11…
June 30, 2016
Essays

Reformed Assessments of Arminianism: Praise from Unexpected Quarters

In a recent article in the Christian Century, Sarah Hinlicky Wilson and Thomas Albert Howard discussed the appropriate ways for Protestants to celebrate the forthcoming quincentennial of Luther’s issuing of the 95 Theses. They proposed that this commemoration should include some Protestant repentance for sins we have committed in our break with Rome. The same recommendation should apply, I want to insist, to the celebrations some of us will engage in of the adoption of the Canons of the Synod…
Richard J. Mouw
June 30, 2016
Essays

The Human-Flourishing Argument

In the middle of March 2015, the Elders Board of City Church San Francisco announced in a letter to its congregation (and published on its website) that the elders would no longer require their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members to commit to a life of celibacy. This was big news and the occasion of much public castigation, because, while City Church is a congregation of the Reformed Church in America, it is more widely known as San Francisco’s largest…
Daniel Meeter
June 30, 2016
Essays

Jan Hus after Six Centuries

Six hundred one years ago – July 6, 1415 – in the German city of Constance, a Roman Catholic council declared Jan Hus, the Czech church reformer, to be a heretic. He was turned over to secular authorities to be burned at the stake. Because he was accused, among other things, of being a disciple of the English reformer John Wycliffe, is was oddly fitting that when Hus was burned some of the kindling for the fire included the writings…
Ronald A. Wells
June 30, 2016
EssaysScience

Genesis 1 within the Faith-Science Debate

What are we going to do with Genesis 1? I have heard that question throughout my career, first as a pastor and then as a professor. I understand the urgency behind it, but the question itself needs serious revision. For Christians, a more important question asks what Genesis 1 is going to do with us. Or, to put it differently: How does God want to challenge and nurture the church through Genesis 1? Obviously, in order to arrive at an…
April 30, 2016