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Reviews

Patterns of Living that Lead Us into Love

You Are What You Love, by James K.A. Smith YOU ARE WHAT YOU LOVE JAMES K. A. SMITH BAKER PUBLISHING GROUP, 2016 $19.99 224 PAGES In You Are What You Love, James K.A. Smith redirects us to think of our lives as shaped not so much by the mind as by the heart. It is not learning right theology, ahem, that moves us closer to God, but right habits. And habits are learned processes. We are invited, in this text,…
February 28, 2017
Reviews

Good Company in the Valley

Rejoicing in Lament, by J. Todd Billings REJOICING IN LAMENT: WRESTLING WITH INCURABLE CANCER & LIFE IN CHRIST J. TODD BILLINGS BRAZOS PRESS, 2015 $19.99 224 PAGES I’ll confess: I was fully prepared to wince at the contents of this book. The lovely review editor who suggested it had no idea I had been going through “one of those times” until after it arrived on my porch, a mysterious gift from God that showed up on a particularly bad day…
February 28, 2017
As We See It

Does ‘Reformed’ Matter? It Could

Anthropologist Paul Hiebert wrote an article in 1979 titled “Sets and Structures: A Study in Church Patterns.” Catchy title, isn’t it? Fortunately, his essay is far more interesting and informative than its name. Hiebert explains two ways of forming and understanding group belonging, specifically as it pertains to being a Christian. That is, two ways that a group – in this case the church – structures itself to determine who belongs to it. He uses the phrases bounded sets and…
February 28, 2017
Poetry

Thoughts on Holbein’s Portrait of John Calvin

To you, O Lord, I offer my heart, promptly and sincerely.  – John Calvin From the time I was eight I have pondered your portrait, felt your finger pointing at me, punctuating. each. petaled. syllable of your theological bouquet till I could recite you in my sleep. Your rigid words, stoic pose, painted stare intimidated me, like the look my mom would give (and I now give my son) when I fidgeted in church. For years I searched and turned…
February 28, 2017
As We See ItSexuality

Response to Matthew Tuininga on Sexuality and Scripture

Let me begin by warmly thanking Matthew Tuininga, who has become my good friend, for the generous spirit of his response to the talk I gave on same-sex marriage at Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 13 last year. Would that all discussions of this intensely controversial topic breathed such a spirit of respect and friendship! It will help the reader understand my response to Tuininga if I briefly summarize what I said in my talk:…
February 28, 2017
Essays

Sexuality and the Gospel: My Response to Wolterstorff

A couple of months ago, philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff made big news when he delivered a speech at Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, in favor of same-sex marriage. The speech has evoked mixed reviews: Those who desire to see the church affirm monogamous same-sex sexual relationships are ecstatic to have a scholar of Wolterstorff’s stature on their side (however cautiously he may have presented his case), while those committed to the biblical conception of marriage as being between…
February 28, 2017
Essays

You Just Don’t Get It

“You just can’t understand.” It frustrated me when my daughter would tell me, “You just don’t get it. You can’t get it.” I remember the day that she was born. My daughter was 23 hours old when she was placed in my arms by her birth mother. A literal waterfall, a sheet of tears, obscured my view. And when I could see again, I marveled at my miracle, this God-granted miracle girl. This act of love. Her birth mother had…
Debra L. Freeberg
January 4, 2017
Poetry

The Dove

Here in a parking lot in February Where snow, piled through the winter, melting in thaw, Had sent a freshly pulsing tributary Across the asphalt like a silver claw, A dove landed, dipped, and drank, wary. Almost as swift in flight as peregrine With wings that whisper rhythm as it flies, Cautiously wild, yet still in cities seen, This is the mourning dove, whose presence vies For space against construction and machine. Songbird yet gamebird, prey to hunters’ pride, Preyed…
January 4, 2017
Reviews

John Updike as Evangelist

Myth and Gospel in the Fiction of John Updike, by John McTavish MYTH AND GOSPEL IN THE FICTION OF JOHN UPDIKE JOHN MCTAVISH CASCADE BOOKS, 2016 $25 183 PAGES Readers looking for the latest cutting-edge scholarship on John Updike (1932-2009) might be disappointed in John McTavish’s Myth and Gospel in the Fiction of John Updike. McTavish, an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada, offers us instead a kind of bricolage: revisions and expansions of essays and reviews McTavish…
January 4, 2017