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Bethlehem BeckoningPlus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose!

Every twenty years, Bethlehem has beckoned me. In 1964, seventeen years after the outbreak of what Palestinian Arabs call "The Disaster" (an-Nakbah) and Israelis call "The War of Independence," I visited Bethlehem with my family. Then in the Kingdom of Jordan, Bethlehem was a wonderfully dusty little town of crowded houses and twisting alleys masquerading as streets, replete with the sounds and smells of donkeys and Mercedes taxis. Trinket hawkers were persistent and ubiquitous on Manger Square in front of…
Don Luidens
March 16, 2005
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Retrieving Hope

Over the last three decades a major cultural shift has taken place in the attitudes of Western societies toward the future. Optimism has given way to a sense of ambiguity; messianic and utopian modes of thought have capitulated before the drawing of apocalyptic scenarios. This shift is not just a fleeting mood...modernity's "culture of optimism," which emerged from pre-modernity's "culture of endurance," is giving way to a post-modern "culture of ambiguity." This culture of ambiguity threatens to stifle hope at…
William Katerberg and Miroslav Volf
March 16, 2005
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Sittler’s Sermons

"Abuse is use without grace; it is always a failure in the counterpoint of use and enjoyment." So argues Joseph Sittler in the title essay of this book. And so argued Sittler again and again, in a speaking and writing style that was uniquely his own, over a long distinguished career as pastor, preacher, and theologian. Whether referring to wine, God, or the care of the earth, Sittler waxes eloquent on the power and grace of God and the many…
Steven Bouma-Prediger
March 16, 2005
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Easter on the Move

You just never know when Easter will come. Suppose that on January 1 of any given year, someone handed you a brand new calendar. Then suppose this person said, "Without looking, can you tell me when Christmas will be this year?" You might not know the precise day of the week, but you surely would know that this year, as always, Christmas will be December 25. But what if you were asked when Easter was going to be? To answer…
March 16, 2005
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Getting Away

At Standing Stone State Rustic Park near Hilham, Tennessee, they ought to have a sign. No Internet AccessNo Cable TelevisionNo Phones, No Cell TowerNo Microwave,No Seafood Buffet.If You Came Here To Keep Up,Turn Around. The only sign they do have is one that says No Pets, a rule, as far as I can tell, that almost everyone ignores. But it is possible that I have mistaken the strays that populate the place for family pets. People call in every Sunday…
Thomas B. Phulery
March 16, 2005
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Heartfelt Thanks

Last fall newly appointed editor James Bratt bid a fond farewell to Roy Anker as Roy completed his term of distinguished service to this journal. Now it is my turn to say another goodbye, this time to Leanne Van Dyk, whom I succeed as one of the three editors of Perspectives. Like Roy, so also Leanne has been with this journal for just over a decade now, which means Leanne has had something to do with about 100 issues, single-handedly…
February 15, 2005
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POETRY by Jerome L. McElroy

The Two Sons From end to end across the rough-cut dressing table the angry prelate stacked complaints papering the pristine vestments documenting his so-called "errors of interpretation" highlighted in crimson ink like a litany of sins. "You take excessive liberities with the sacred word of God." The slight emaciated curate shouldering a thread-bare stole flashed his blazing chestnut eyes: "The gospels are the only portrait of perfection in the flesh. The exegetes and theologues have had their chance for centuries.…
Jerome L. McElroy
February 15, 2005
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Christ the Fool

What is it about mockery that hurts so much? We all know. Mockery causes shame. It strips us. It exposes us. Mockery isolates some feature of another human being and then holds it up so everybody can see it and laugh and whistle. You isolate what you find so peculiar about another human being. Maybe you imitate it. Or, best of all, you force your victim to mock himself. So if you are a Nazi, you capture a rabbi and…
Cornelius Plantinga Jr.
February 15, 2005