||Article|| As you read this, I would like you to imagine how things might be different today if the ideas here were widespread in churches 30-40 years ago. It is unfortunately common for churches to be slow to respond properly to difficult social issues – too often the response has been silence, reactionary, or capitulation. Nevertheless, “late” is better than “never” and churches are increasingly taking these kinds of ideas on board.
Some thoughts on a letter Martin Luther wrote to a friend during a health crisis.
||Short Article|| Reception history provides a useful and exciting set of new tools for studying the Bible, which I am confident will be a much more fruitful and satisfying endeavour than studying the film-texts that make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
||Book Summary|| Noted church historian Justo L. Gonzalez does what professional historians usually don’t – he tells a history in order to make a point about the present.
||Short Article|| Anthropology shapes ethics. In other words, what we believe about the human person shapes what we think are appropriate behaviours. Our nature as divine image-bearers puts us in a special relationship with our Creator which comes with unique privileges, duties, and responsibilities.
A short while ago I came across a summary of the gospel from John Stott’s commentary on the book of Acts. I appreciated the summary but wondered what place gospel-motivated social transformation has in it. How does the gospel make us make the world better?
||Book Summary|| Children from families who have immigrated are often said to be caught between two cultures. They belong to their parents’ culture but grow up within another. It can be a tricky tension for them to navigate as they often wish to be faithful to their ‘home culture’ as well as fit in with their adopted culture at school and with their friends.
||Book Summary|| The contest of rights between women and their unborn is one of modern society’s fraught issues for which a Christian ethic that embraces both justice and care is needed. Gorman’s Abortion and the Early Church is an informative and worthwhile read for anyone wishing to survey the sources and contexts for Christianity’s first voices on the subject.
Experiences don’t make or break the Christian life. They can be a great boost for faithful Christian living, but in the end they count for nothing if what God has already clearly spoken has little value to you. Do seek to hear God, but make sure you aren’t neglecting to listen in the right place. He has already spoken.
Photography isn’t able to capture the eerie majesty of the Red Crater or the imposing bulk of the mountain slopes. It just doesn’t have the capacity. This reminds me of the way we fail to truly grasp the characteristics of God. We might agree with them mentally, but not really comprehend the scale.
Chris Northcott 