For the past few weeks I have been in many conversations regarding God, suffering, and faith. Don’t ask me why, they just started to follow me. During this same time I have been trying to re-read the classic work, A Grief Observed, by C.S. Lewis. This book is one of my favorites by Lewis, because …
The name, Dr. Gosnell, evokes a unifying sense of disgust across party and religious lines as more information about his killing of already born babies unfolds in the trial taking place in Philadelphia. While we all agree that his practices were unethical, it has stirred further discussion amongst both those who are for and against …
It’s hard to believe that just five years ago making an Iron Man film was risky business. 2008 was such a simpler place, wasn’t it? Before the days when Robert Downey Jr. was an A-list actor. Before the idea of an Avengers movie was anything more than a fanciful dream to only the most faithful …
“ … all human reason is imaginative.” – Andrew Davison In the apocryphal book of 1 Esdras 3-4, the author says that three bodyguards who guarded King Darius wanted to know: what is the strongest (or the most powerful)? If Plato had answered this question, he would have included the arts in his answer, especially …
The following post is a review of the theological themes and concepts presented in chapter 6 of Elizabeth A. Johnson’s award winning book, “She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse.” Contrary to most criticism hurled at the feminist theology project, that it starts with female experience and is, thus, methodologically erroneous, Johnson breaks new ground by …
1. Context, Context, CONTEXT! This could probably be numbers 1-5 and be the most important part of reading the Bible you could ever read. Reading scripture out of context has perhaps done the absolute most damage to believers in their walk with God than any other. One thing must always be understood. Every portion of … Continue reading »
Over the past decade the effort to end modern slavery has grown from grass roots social activism to mainstream attention and a growing movement. Organizations, like the A21 Campaign and the International Justice Mission, have come together to form the End It Movement. This movement to end modern slavery has been featured at large Christian … Continue reading »
In Part I of this series I offered a brief outline of our common sense notions about free will. On the face of it, it seems that: Free will entails the power to choose from multiple alternatives Free will is required for moral responsibility Free will is intimately connected with reason However, when I say … Continue reading »
There is great debate over the accuracy and authenticity of Genesis. One reason this is so is because much of the text tells about things that happened in prehistoric times. What we read today was not written by Adam, Abraham and Jacob; it was written thousands of years after the oldest events. However, there is … Continue reading »
We are all in a state of becoming. All changing, all growing, all dying, all decaying. Bending, breaking, repairing, rotting. There is no other reality but change. Stagnation, though perhaps perceived, does not exist. Over the last couple of years, my faith has been in various states of crisis. It started with something small (namely, … Continue reading »
I like the Shack. I really like the Shack. I love much of what the book claims, but these claims are not actually what they attempt to be. Let me explain what I mean. The Shack tells a story (apparently an actual account) about a man (Mack) who suffers an incredible tragedy that leads to … Continue reading »
This post is part of a review series for S. Mark Heim’s Saved from Sacrifice. To start at the beginning, click here. We will be skipping over chapters 6 & 7 in Heim’s book. While I found those chapters informative, I did not think they served to move the arguments around the main thrust of the book forward. … Continue reading »
As I’ve said in the past, we may not like Tom Cruise, but yet we all like Tom Cruise. Most of the time when we see a movie trailer featuring the 50 year-old actor—that we can’t believe is a 50 year-old actor—we pause. I wonder if that movie’s going to be any good? Cruise adds … Continue reading »
Last week, I watched Olympus Has Fallen with my wife. From the beginning, Olympus sounded exactly like any purebred action flick should. A group of armed men storm the White House and take the President (Aaron Eckhart) hostage. Now, it’s up to a disgraced Secret Service agent (played by Gerard Butler) to single-handedly save the … Continue reading »
“I hopped off the plane My God, what a scene that I seen on that TV screen People huddled round, hands on they mouth Not again, same problem, it hit a new town 26 dead 20 of em kids Where do you begin when some lives just ended? And every body got the question “If … Continue reading »
The Operating Room is a world of its own. The smells, sounds, lingo, technology and etiquette are completely unique to that setting. Often, tensions run high and personalities clash, but there is always one unifying theme…protect the patient. However, even that theme was put to the test this past Friday as health professionals had to … Continue reading »
This post is part of a review series for S. Mark Heim’s Saved from Sacrifice. To start at the beginning, click here. S. Mark Heim – Saved from Sacrifice While Chapter 4 dealt with the passion narratives in light of Girard’s scapegoating theory, chapter 5 (“Sacrifice to End Sacrifice”) moves on to discuss how the early Christians understood … Continue reading »
When you think of free will, very often what comes to mind are examples of your choosing between say, sweet tea or a pepsi product. Perhaps you reflect on the fact that you freely chose to be an account manager instead of a computer repair technician. Various examples may be given, but implicitly these examples … Continue reading »
If scholars are correct in their judgment that the Book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible, we have ample evidence that its central theme (namely, Why do bad things happen to good people?) is nearly as old as humanity itself. Modern horrific events like the Columbine shootings, the Aurora movie massacre, and … Continue reading »
