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Out of This World: Viewing Life Sub Specie Aeternitatis

"When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after," wrote Blaise Pascal, "I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there." (Pensées, 205)  The seventeenth-century mathematician and philosopher expressed a point of view shared by the Psalmist (Psalm 8:3-9), though without the Psalmist's confidence in the Creator's providence. The vision of life under the aspect of eternity, sub specie aeternitatis, is one reflected on by poets, saints, philosophers, and…
Judy Tanis Parr
March 16, 2004
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Following the Leader

With the proliferation of books today on the subject of leadership, it's no wonder that some of us feel overwhelmed and confused by all the competing notions of "Christian" leadership. Whether we're a minister or a CEO, leadership gurus are positively clamoring for an opportunity to help us discern our particular leadership "style" or cultivate the characteristics of an "effective" leader. Add to all this the decidedly nebulous notion of "biblical" leadership, and the result is less than clear, to…
Arika Theule-Van Dam
March 16, 2004
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Curmudgeons: An Apologia

In the give and take of any healthy community, you'll generally find the curmudgeon, the grumpy one on the fringe of the circle. Though we often laugh at their witticisms, we just as often fuss about their cynicisms. "Can't she see the good in anything?" we say. "Doesn't he ever do anything but tear down?" But where would we be without the grumpy ones?Bandwagoners abound. Trained by advertisers and public relations professionals, most of us are willingly herded into one…
Thomas B. Phulery
February 15, 2004
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Evangelical Bookstores and the Evangelical Mind

In the last few years, some leading evangelical scholars have raised a cry against the intellectual malaise in the evangelical world. David Wells, for one, has pointed out a decline in evangelical interest in doctrine (No Place for Truth, or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology, 1993) and in ethics (Losing our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover its Moral Vision, 1998). With a broader sweep of analysis, Mark Noll exposed the failure to develop a recognizable evangelical intellectual perspective (The…
James R. Payton, Jr.
February 15, 2004
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The House on Larson Drive

For months I dreamt about the mottled orange brick ranch perched high atop a hill in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Though modest in size and humble in architecture, it had a spectacular view of the world around it. I wanted to regain that perspective. Mired in disaster, divorce and despair for too many years, I wanted to be able to see for miles, unhampered by barriers and brokenness. Struggling with the rigors of a demanding job and single parenting, depression and…
Debra L. Freeberg
February 15, 2004
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POETRY by J. Barrie Shepherd and Hans Ostrom

RECOLLECTION I have a hunch that much of faith is formed in looking backward, taking stock, reflecting on what has been, and what might have been. Most of the time, you see, we're far too close to things to view them properly. The hassle hustle of the everyday can blind us to what's really going on, obscure for us the chasms and the pinnacles that mark the landscape of our living. It's only when, and if, we take the time…
Hans Ostrom
February 15, 2004
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Faithful Doubters

Thomas is the kind of guy anyone would want on her team. He was loyal, he was brave, he assessed situations well, and he wasn't prone to flights of fancy. When Jesus decided to go to Bethany to raise Lazarus, even though that area was crawling with people opposed to his ministry, Thomas said, "Let us go with him so that we may die with him." When everyone else was gathered inside locked doors on Easter Sunday, Thomas was out.…
Mary S. Hulst
February 15, 2004
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Seeing With the Eyes of Faith: Evangelicals and the Film Arts

Movies have long occupied contested terrain in religious circles. A Christian writer in the 1930s described Hollywood as the "place where Satan has his throne." In their desire to spread the gospel, evangelicals became leaders in the development of all the major media--except motion pictures. Matthew Crouch, producer of the evangelical sci-fi film, The Omega Code, said, "My dad was sincerely told by his mother, 'If you go into the theater and see Roy Rogers and Dale Evans ride their…
William Romanowski
February 1, 2004
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Difficult Times

Recently a letter to the editor I wrote was published in a Christian periodical. An article profiling National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice had irritated me sufficiently that I wrote to protest what I feared was a tacit baptizing of government policies. Probably that article could have been read in ways other than how it struck me, but having had my share of conversations with fellow Christians on the recent war, what I encountered in the magazine bore resemblance to a…
January 16, 2004