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An enthusiastic "thank you" to the editors of Perspectives for Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell's and Nicholas Wolterstorff 's helpful reflections on Kuyperian neo-Calvinism in North America (February 2008). I was awake for the "friendly nudge" and appreciate it; the issues raised need additional public airing, and this reply is intended as a friendly response to further the conversation. Whether I am lodging the vigorous "Nein" that Wolterstorff called for remains to be seen since on several substantive issues I am in full…

I'm a bookseller so I see a lot of titles come and go. Some that I have high hopes for prove to be disappointing; others turn out even better than promised. The fabulous and generous new book by Ken Wilson, Jesus Brand Spirituality, definitely falls in the second category. I unpacked it the day I was heading off to sell books at a conference of pastors in southeastern Pennsylvania. Once I got there, all I could do was hold it…

My dad died in a car accident five years ago. It made it more strikingly difficult because my husband and I, along with my sister and brother-in-law, were traveling in Europe at the time of his accident. We didn't come to know of his accident until two days after it happened; he died eighteen hours after we returned home. Because of this dramatic situation of his death, I would often reflect that it felt more like a movie script than…

Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell's essay, "Reformed Intramurals: What Neo-Calvinists Get Wrong" (February 2008), touched on some important challenges for neo-Calvinists today. His concluding story about the great theatre deftly highlights these challenges; yet the story he tells is incomplete. The drama needs another act. His story is of a great theatre, unparalleled in its beauty and design. But something happened to knock it off kilter. Every performance on the stage, indeed, every performer on it, was affected by the damage that was…

My thanks to John Bolt and Jeffrey Sajdak for responding to my friendly nudge in "Reformed Intramurals: What Neo-Calvinists Get Wrong." In addition, my gratitude to Nicholas Wolterstorff for his gracious reply in the February issue of Perspectives. Perhaps I should not be surprised, but I am a little disappointed, that the response to my nudge, at least Bolt's reply, was more political than theological. Bolt heard me to say that my "real and deep disaffection is not so much with North American…