The World After September 11: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism Blog Post

The events of September 11 have presented considerable spiritual challenges to contemporary culture. I would like to discuss one aspect of one of these challenges which, specifically, is how to engage persons of other faiths in a manner consistent with grace and truth. How do we honor their right to practice a religion different from our own, respect them as persons, love them as beings made in the image of God, and yet maintain the integrity of our own faith?…

Keeping the Faith in the Christian College, Past and Present Blog Post

These two recent studies by veteran faculty members take dramatically different approaches to the question of how colleges that are serious about maintaining their Christian identity can resist the temptations of secularization. One seeks an answer far back in the history of Christianity, distilling common elements in the early church fathers that remain relevant for today’s first-year students. The other looks instead to the recent past and the present complexion of six representative institutions and suggests models to guide them…

Personal Jesus Blog Post

Religion and politics seem to be ever more entwined in the American public square, with religious language being used to alternately affirm or decry stances on any number of issues–the Iraq War, the death penalty, abortion, same-sex marriage, and so on. However well-intentioned, something about such rhetoric seems fundamentally reductive, regardless of where on the political spectrum it originates. How refreshing, then, to read Lauren Winner’s Girl Meets God. In three hundred pages Winner never once attempts to connect religious…

The Reformation According to Janet Blog Post

As Janet spoke, though, it came to me again that religion mangles the Gospel sometimes. It had, for example, taught both Janet’s and Chester’s parents a harsh script, and they had acted it out; it was Janet who bore the spiritual pain of that bad teaching.

God and Country Blog Post

God & Country is an important film for the moment we’re in. It helps us better understand what Christian Nationalism is, where it came from, why it’s growing, and where it wants to go.

Barbed Questions and Bread from Heaven Blog Post

Listen in on a conversation between Jesus and a crowd of persistent people gathered on the shores on the Sea of Galilee. It is the morning after the feeding of the thousands back on the other side of the lake. A conversation between Jesus and a crowd of people? Chances are, it was more like a high-stakes press conference, with questions being shouted from all corners of the crowd. There is a certain haphazard, disconnected, non-sequitur quality of this encounter…

The Other Eden: A Novel Blog Post

In a world ravaged by racism, it’s love like Esther Honey’s that we’re called to,  and it’s Apple Island we long for.