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Remembering Jesus, Not Ourselves

Accompany Them with Singing: The Christian Funeral ACCOMPANY THEM WITH SINGING: THE CHRISTIAN FUNERAL THOMAS G. LONG WESTMINSTER JOHN KNOX PRESS, 2013 242 PAGES (PAPERBACK) $15 In many contexts today, funerals have become a show to feature the distinctive loves and interests of the deceased. Pastors and laypeople tailor funerals to the exact specifications and desires of the deceased or their grieving loved ones. According to Thomas Long, this move has “ended up allowing them to become more individualistic and…
October 31, 2017
Essays

What Will Heaven Be Like? Near-Death Experiences and the Promise of Life with God

When I was a boy, my grandmother told me stories of heaven. I remember her telling me in vivid detail about Percy Collett. His story, told through audiocassette tapes, of walking in heaven with Jesus for five-and-a-half days, became popular in Pentecostal and charismatic circles in the 1980s.  His fantastic account, including a geographic map of heaven, was simultaneously riveting and confusing to me as a young boy. The subject of heaven and the afterlife fascinates our modern culture. Every…
October 31, 2017
Essays

Evangelicalism’s Strong History of Women in Ministry

Women in public Christian ministry is a historic distinctive of evangelicalism. It is historic because evangelical women have been fulfilling their callings in public ministry from the founding generation of evangelicalism to the present day and in every period in between. It is a distinctive because no other large branch of the Christian family has demonstrated as long and deep a commitment to affirming the public ministries of women – not theologically liberal traditions, not Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodox…
August 31, 2017
Essays

The Wide, Wild World of Sex

In the dramatic opening scene of Disney’s Finding Nemo, parents Coral and Marlin anxiously wait for their offspring to hatch. Their mood is light and hopeful, but the music signals an ominous shift. As a barracuda approaches the reef, Coral rushes to protect their eggs. Marlin is knocked unconscious as he tries to protect Coral. When he wakes, Coral is gone, and Marlin finds a single egg remaining from their large clutch. The egg hatches, and Marlin names his only…
August 31, 2017
Poetry

“Where Is God?”

my daughter asks. And I tell her to point anywhere she wants. She points at a dead worm on the sidewalk. “Yes,” I say. “God’s in the worm?” “No,” I say. I take her finger, hug it. “In the pointer.” Ron Riekki’s books include U.P.: a novel; The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works; Here: Women Writing on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; and And Here: 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917-2017 (Michigan State University Press, 2017). Photo: Detail from…
August 31, 2017
As We See It

Wrestling with Gender Identity in the Christian Community

The mutability of gender and identity causes consternation for many Americans. Christians in the United States have also wrestled with understanding correct gender roles. For historians, perceptions of gender as a key formation of identity is not a new issue. Often, the act of encountering a new people group revealed the socially constructed ideas of gender. Early European accounts of natives in what is now the United States demonstrated many of the ideals of gender held by upper class white…
August 31, 2017
Poetry

In the Living Room, Listening to Gregorian Chant

One sustained Alleluia kisses the psalmodic couch, the sanctified family photos, and the unstained glass window where I see a monk- neighbor in medieval bathrobe find that he has no mail, reaching into the emptiness and coming out with his blessed hand. Ron Riekki’s books include U.P.: a novel; The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works; Here: Women Writing on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; and And Here: 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917-2017 (Michigan State University Press, 2017). Photo:…
August 31, 2017
Reviews

Man versus Man, Woman versus Woman: Mixed Martial Arts and Gender Identity

Beast: Blood, Struggle, and Dreams at the Heart of Mixed Martial Arts BEAST: BLOOD, STRUGGLE, AND DREAMS AT THE HEART OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS DOUG MERLINO BLOOMSBURY, 2015 $26 272 PAGES THE PROFESSOR IN THE CAGE: WHY MEN FIGHT AND WHY WE LIKE TO WATCH JONATHAN GOTTSCHALL PENGUIN BOOKS, 2015 $26.95 304 PAGES During my graduate-school years, two massive forces collided in my life. First, the Ultimate Fighting Championship took a gamble on a television show called “The Ultimate Fighter”…
August 31, 2017
Essays

What if This Had Been Me? A Gendered Analysis of the Funniest Video Ever

Confession time: I have a guilty pleasure. Some very smart, very sophisticated people I know watch reality TV. The ridiculously staged, morally questionable, emotionally manipulative kind of reality TV. I don’t. But I’ve always had a soft spot for America’s Funniest Home Videos – I’ll laugh shamelessly at other people’s misadventures, bloopers and pratfalls. With Netflix, I rarely watch any television any more, and I can’t remember the last time I watched AFV. But thanks to social media, I still…
August 31, 2017