A hymnal is a deeply human work. What you hold in your hands is real music, written and selected by real believers who you will one day spend eternity with.⁠ And what’s in there stays there. There is no refresh button. No infinite scroll. No additions or subtractions. And that’s a wonderful thing. The nature... Continue Reading

If you want to listen in to the conversation that some very fine pastors and thinkers are having about Calvin, then invest the necessary money and time into purchasing and reading this book.   Review of Derek Thomas and John Tweeddale (eds), John Calvin: For a New Reformation, Crossway, 2019, 567 pages. “It’s always better... Continue Reading

I am well aware that this may be met with outraged protests and shocked denial. Yet I am certain what I describe here is a real phenomenon, and that it needs to be said. I write in the abstract so that the message may be clear without creating undue or unintended offense. I believe one... Continue Reading

For many centuries, children have been trained in voice and instruments through religious music. If a child is learning an instrument or singing, use hymns of the faith as their learning material. The more folk-like melodies of hymns are great to learn on piano or violin, for example. Both Keith and I developed our musical... Continue Reading

Books put pressure on our desires. They can teach us to want well or to want poorly, but none is neutral. Like living companions, authors act as mediators of desire; unlike them, they wield the particularly potent magic of the written word, inviting us to enter into their experiences, to participate in their worlds, to... Continue Reading

When Christians embrace their identity as God’s image-bearer, they discover what it means to embody God’s glory and goodness in every area of life. This is especially important for youth and young adults who are in the throes of identity-formation. By teaching them what it means to be iconic, we aren’t merely helping them answer... Continue Reading

If you trace the history of art and music in America, both used to be far superior. Paintings, sculptures, architecture, and music were better. Think also about Christian music. Has it gotten better or worse as time has gone on? Most of the best hymns that we have are old. Much of the modern Christian... Continue Reading

Confronted by an intellectual world for which they are not prepared, Christian college students are leaving behind their faith in worrying numbers.   Well, it just happened for the third time. This past week, I dropped off my last child at college. As might be expected, there were lots of emotions. Excitement, nervousness, fear. And... Continue Reading

The picture of a persistent conflict between science and faith is bad history. When we revisit the past to look at actual scientists and actual theologians, when we observe what they thought and said about science and faith, we discover that science and Christianity have had a more complex relationship—diverse, subtle, surprising, tangled, and messy. ... Continue Reading

In the Old Testament, it was the priests who mediated God’s presence through the rites of divine worship that Moses had received. As music came to be seen as the primary way we experience God’s presence, in the 20th century, worship leaders became a new kind of priesthood to serve the church—and, really, no one... Continue Reading