A Christian is made by submitting oneself to Christ and the Church. One wonders if those original first-wave feminists could have possibly imagined just how many external authorities—including basic biology—their idol of autonomy would call upon its adherents to reject.   At the end of Kate Chopin’s nineteenth-century novel, The Awakening, protagonist Edna Pontillier steps... Continue Reading

We are no longer able to be limited by natural laws observable in the created order. Those laws become merely obstacles to be overcome through technological mastery in order to accomplish our economic or technological ends. This might be one reason why natural law has become forgotten in modern society, not because it truly is... Continue Reading

Out of the Blues, is an incredibly helpful book for the depressed and lonely, and those wanting to help the depressed and lonely. His approach to the subject is gentle and balanced. He does not thunder down on the fainthearted, nor does he coddle the “woe is me” pity party.   Wayne Mack (1935-2025) was... Continue Reading

Dr. David Edgington fills the pages of his book with real-life counseling situations and actual interactions with the church’s prominent figures. He provides the testimonies of men and women affected by the sins of reviling and white-knighting. You will not be bored reading the book! I read this 268-page book in four days. I couldn’t... Continue Reading

Burge came to conclude that “the mainline was dying, and rapidly.” If current trends and aging memberships persist, he expects that in 20 or 30 years “the mainline tradition will largely be extinct across many parts of the United States.” This is the most dramatic of the patterns Burge documents.    (ANALYSIS) Lots. And no... Continue Reading

Once a major asset to American life, the independence of nonprofits is being eroded by politics. Their effectiveness is ebbing. There may be a lesson for the church in that story as well. The Nonprofit Crisis offers valuable insight into what we’re losing as polarized politics takes over our culture.   Nonprofits have a long and storied... Continue Reading

Christians have known that food and cloth dedicated to the altar can be sanctified, dedicated toward a good use: “nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving.” Even the Machine’s all-enframing and all-pervasive scope in our lives does not mean it cannot also be “sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.”  ... Continue Reading

Conybeare rightly devotes a substantial section of her biography to this dispute given that it deeply involves what it meant for Augustine to be African. As she observes: “Whatever else was claiming Augustine’s attention through the decades of his bishopric, the resistance of the African church must have been a nagging pain. It threatened his... Continue Reading

Here is my simple encouragement for the new year: read the great books. They require effort (I’ll give some brief advice below) but they are great precisely because they repay that effort. You might read War and Peace and decide never to read it again, but the point is not that every great book will become your favorite. The point is... Continue Reading

“The problem that we need to correct,” say the authors, “is our view of the addict, so that we can minister to them as the Lord Jesus would have us to. We must see the addict as the Lord Jesus sees the addict–as a soul made in the image of God, broken by sin and... Continue Reading