This year has been a bit crazy. American politics are more than ever divided between the right and the left. Terrorism abroad and at home have people in fear and often their neighbors have become a source of that fear. Racial tensions are a powder keg of emotion and pain. It seems that there are divergent viewpoints on almost everything. In the theological world, pastors and scholars are under careful scrutiny for everything they do […]
One of the things that I get to do to kick off Sunday services is to host the servant leaders prayer meeting. Generally, I try to put a relational spin to it, just so there isn’t this daunting vibe that’s hanging over the group right before they meet and encourage the arriving crowds. When we began, I shared a bit how everything’s been stressful and busy. Immediately, our mischievous praise leader commented and asked, “So, […]
JOHNSON, Luke Timothy. The Revelatory Body: Theology as Inductive Art. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015. pp. 256. $25.00 (Hardback). ISBN: 978-0-8028-0383-2. Luke Timothy Johnson’s The Revelatory Body offers the bold thesis that “the human body is the preeminent arena of God’s revelation in the world.”[1] While many will welcome the claim that the human body possesses divine revelatory potential, many others will likely take serious issue with the position that the human body takes preeminence […]
As part of my nostalgic reflections on the completion of my PhD, and the formal celebration of that a few weeks ago at my graduation, I’ve been thinking about the various trends and themes that characterized my time in Scotland. In particular, I was thinking about the bookends of my studies: how the beginning and end of my time had some clear parallels. Last time I wrote about a stressful travel story at the start […]
Thursday’s attack in Nice, France (le 14 juillet) follows a painful procession of recent attacks that have occurred throughout our world, many within the past month of Ramadan. France, still collectively recovering from Le Bataclan (and Hebdo before it) finds herself in a heartbreakingly familiar and now seemingly permanent state of alertness and grief. Elsewhere flags around the world appear to remain at a perpetual half-mast this summer. People all over are growing accustomed to […]
Simon, Matthew, and Communion: Where Are The People We Disagree With?
At the table sat seven fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, and the other three apostles who at the very least were Jews. If you’re like me and grew up in 21st century United States, then that probably wasn’t the most eyebrow raising description. Except for the tax collectors, because I don’t think the majority of us have happy feelings when we think of the IRS. But what was it actually like? The fishermen were […]
Earlier this week, a friend of mine pulled out his phone and opened what looked like Google maps. Only, it looked more pixelated, and it showed not restaurants but Pokemon. I was introduced then to the new craze that is Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go is a virtual reality smartphone game in which players can find, capture, and battle Pokemon around the world. In the old games, you controlled a little character who would find a […]
Last year I got to experience Hume Lake for the first time as a counselor. I was blown away at their focus on Jesus and emphasis on connecting students back to the local Church. You can read about my experience here. This post is dedicated to sharing what Jesus did in the lives of my students this past week as I was able to go for a second time with the same church as last […]
With the age of Pinterest and bridal websites galore, wedding planning has become such an enormous commercial industry. As a bride-to-be, I’ve had to wade through the myriads of bridal advertisements that flood the inbox of my email, post on the ad space of every website that I visit, and pop up on every Facebook ad on my Newsfeed. Social media has definitely made wedding planning much more complicated with so many options and ideas. […]
Systems are great. You should use them for, like, everything. I just realized this summer that there’s a pretty straightforward system for writing a research paper over five days. Identify a category. I like Athanasius’ On the Incarnation, but I had no idea what to write about it. So I picked it up and read the first twenty or so pages closely. Then I checked out Peter Leithart’s book, Athanasius, which breaks down his theology in three chapters. After […]
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