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NOVEMBER 2008: ESSAY Not Too Much Sovereignty for Economics, Please: Abraham Kuyper and Mainstream Economics by Kent A. Van Til Humans tell stories. To our knowledge, we are the only earthly creatures who can. The fact that we can entails memory and imagination. We interpret the past and construct possible futures, and do so in part by the stories we choose to tell. Though all our stories are told in and about the same world, they are all somewhat fictitious…

NOVEMBER 2008: REVIEW by J. Todd Billings I was trying to nap in the bedroom of my small mud-floored, grass-thatched hut in Uganda, but I was bothered by a commotion in my sitting room. "Oh no," I remember thinking to myself. "Another exorcism. I just need some sleep!" In Uganda, exorcisms are commonplace activities, not the stuff of Hollywood special effects. There, as in much of majority-world Christianity, spirits--and the external signs of the Holy Spirit--are a lively presence. Encounters…

NOVEMBER 2008: REVIEW by Robert Hubbard Shakespeare's "difficult" plays fall into two categories: alluring messes and rigorous masterpieces. On the last day of May 2008, I visited the opposite ends of this continuum. I caught the matinee of Cheek by Jowl's alluring deconstruction of Troilus and Cressida performed at the Barbican Theatre in London. Later that evening, I stood in the pit of Shakespeare's Globe for a powerful if conservative production of King Lear. Exposed to over six nearly continuous…

NOVEMBER 2008: INSIDE OUT by Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Luke 1:35 In The Gospel According to Steve, the angel Gabriel comes to Mary to ask her permission, to give her a choice. Luke's gospel doesn't tell it that way. Gabriel only makes announcements. He asks no questions. He tells Mary she is favored by God. He tells Mary not to be afraid. He tells Mary…

NOVEMBER 2008: LETTER Dear Editors: Thank you for the powerful and evocative article on "Tradition" by Daniel Meeter in the October issue ofPerspectives. It's an example of what makes Perspectives one of my few "must-read" journals. It is interesting that the Reformed Church in America is all a-twitter with another jargon word: "missional." My denomination, the Mennonite Church, has been on this same word-infatuation trip for several years, although we seldom hear this particular term anymore, since it is characterized…