Treating religious claims as strictly experiential-expressive can help carve out a space for religious free exercise, over against its cultured despisers. But this is a profoundly unstable space. For one thing, it generally abandons the possibility of giving a normative account of the good of religion as such. One can point to the meaningfulness of... Continue Reading

Women have been led to believe that having children will destroy the possibility of fulfillment and happiness. This narrative is so dominant that many women feel stigma from finding any joy in motherhood. Cohen described as much in a remarkable section of her Vox piece: “When I started asking women about their experiences as mothers,... Continue Reading

The most profound reason that the sacraments engage our entire being is that they present to us the incarnate Son of God. Baptism and Communion help us encounter the crucified, risen, and present Christ in a full-bodied manner. Whenever these visible words of the gospel are celebrated in the context of the gathered body, our Lord... Continue Reading

As we survey life under the sun, we may wonder what basis there is for the human pursuit of meaning. How do we know there is purpose in life and to life? How do we know we matter? We know we matter because of Genesis 1:1. We know there is meaning because Genesis 1:1 grounds all... Continue Reading

As another year passes by, and as eternity draws ever nearer, may our focus this year not be on how we might make things better but on how Christ makes all things new. May our resolutions not be to make something more of ourselves; rather may we resolve to know Christ and to make Him... Continue Reading

While mainline churches continue to speak this “gospel” of no judgment by God by which all people are in and none outside of the circle of acceptance by God, the final strokes of their demise will come, bleeding church by church, merge by merge. But there is a solution as radical as a true reformation.... Continue Reading

“Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 29:20).  So if you do not want to turn into a grumpy old man – or to become a fool – then learn how to curb your tongue. And learn how to listen... Continue Reading

Fifty years later, perhaps it is time for us to revisit this document.  Are we living in times where some, on behalf of all, have determined what society should look like?  Do we see a mounting pressure to conform with what ‘they say’ is acceptable human thought and belief? Indeed, we should not be so... Continue Reading

Moralism is a terrible substitute for Christianity. We need gospel-fueled obedience, not a “grit your teeth and do it” obedience. We should actively pursue a moral life, but it should flow from the gospel. And really, this is the only way that we can sustain real Christian morality. We must run the race with endurance,... Continue Reading

As Christians, we can defend what we believe about Jesus evidentially. We can make a case with the evidence from the first century and the universe around us. I pray that you and I, as Jesus followers, can become “Evidential Christians.” In the increasingly antagonistic culture in which we now live, we no longer have the luxury of being... Continue Reading