“Range” and the Generalist vs. Specialist Debate
Do what you can with the gifts and opportunities you’ve been given, to the glory of God.
Whether you emphasize range and broad sampling or deliberate practice and the head start, you’re best off when you resist the temptation to skate through life, giving yourself to neither strenuous practice in a field nor broad training and knowledge across disciplines. A few weeks ago, I devoted a column to Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 Rule,” a... Continue Reading
A Review of Cancel Culture. Edited by Kevin Donnelly
This new volume on cancerous cancel culture is essential reading:
Those who should be speaking out against all this are not, for various reasons. But it is imperative that they do. As Peta says, “This is a war that needs to be fought. If Australia is to flourish, all of us must be confident that, on balance, we can be proud of our country’s history... Continue Reading
“Minari”: Searching for Eden in Arkansas
Lee Isaac Chung’s new film reminds us that we are “strangers and exiles on [this] earth...seeking a homeland.”
Every human is a gardener at heart, haunted by a longing for Eden, as Minari masterfully shows. Yet no earthly place we’ve settled in—or migrated from—will ever satisfy our desire for a better country, the “heavenly one” where God’s people will dwell forever with Christ (Heb. 11:16). When I first saw the trailer for Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, I was... Continue Reading
Fierce Wolves Are Coming
Book Review: Acts 20: Fierce Wolves are Coming; Guard the Flock, by Alexander Strauch
Strauch writes as an elder to other elders, and as a man with extensive experience who seeks to help those with less experience…a particular area of focus is Paul’s knowledge that fierce wolves would soon be preying upon the flock—some approaching from outside the church and some even arising from within it. There are... Continue Reading
Help! My Beliefs Are Viewed as Intolerant
We need to work hard to make sure our non-Christian friends understand that we love and respect them, even if we disagree.
Unfortunately, our current cultural context does not allow for the free exchange of ideas like prior generations. Now, if you say another religion is wrong, it is taken as an act of hostility or aggression. Disagreement is the same as disrespect in most people’s eyes. Thus, we need to work hard to make sure our... Continue Reading
Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Church and What the Bible Has to Say
Book Review: Preston Sprinkle addresses the cultural, medical, psychological and social angles of the trans phenomenon.
Although not without the occasional inconsistency, Embodied is marked by a powerful commitment to biblical truth matched by an equally strong concern for real people. Accordingly, the work is set in a decidedly pastoral frame and is marked by a deeply compassionate tone throughout. Of all the recent evangelical engagements with the questions raised by transgender... Continue Reading
Replacing Darwin Made Simple, by Nathaniel T. Jeanson
Book Review: A Good Overview of a Compelling Argument
The author not only gives Darwin credit for highlighting the problems with a “fixity of species,” he wants today’s scientists to question like Darwin. Jeanson argues that if they used this same scientific critical approach it would back today’s creationism and tear down today’s evolution. How’s this for an intriguing thesis for a creationist book: Darwin... Continue Reading
Deconstructing Doubt in the Church
While it might seem like your world is being shaken, perhaps even like you’re experiencing a kind of death, we are convinced a more robust, settled faith can exist on the other side.
Christianity—to be more specific, Jesus—can help, whatever your questions. Whatever your struggle, it gets better with more—not less—Christianity. It might be tempting to leave the church in order to find the answers. But we want you to reconsider the church as the best place to deal with your doubts and deconstruction. Deconstructing, however jarring and... Continue Reading
Reparations: A Critical Theological Review
Kwon and Thompson are right to show us the failures in our national history and in our churches; what’s more debatable is whether racism and White supremacy are embedded in every institution and encoded in every aspect of our society.
Suppose American history is as bad as Kwon and Thompson aver. Suppose our corporate guilt is everything they say it is. Suppose everything they want to see under the banner of reparations would be good for our country and good for our communities. The religious vision is still one that I find more in line... Continue Reading
Losing Ourselves
The deepest and more fundamental shifts that have taken place in Western culture over the last several decades have not been in our definition of what’s right and what’s wrong. They’ve been in our definition of reality itself...
When who we are as human persons is completely disconnected from any design and from any creator, then the only thing there is left to us is whatever I express about myself. With this framework, when anything – whether it’s religious, moral, or social norms or even laws and public policies – gets in the... Continue Reading
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