Less than a week has passed since we entered 2022 and I trust that you haven’t broken your resolutions for the New Year. Or, if you’re like me, you have yet to actually finalize them. Fitness goals are typically on the top of Americans’ resolution lists. Online ads for dieting, the packed classrooms at the gym, folks jogging in noticeably larger numbers,…
It’s not uncommon before, during, and even after July 4th, for Americans to speak of our nation as the “best country on earth.” The claim is typically followed by historical high points—victory over the Nazis in World War II—or the financial support given to nations around the globe. Christians often point to the number of missionaries sent to spread the gospel abroad.…
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Such was Tertullian of Carthage’s claim in the early 3rd century AD. Though his quote is perhaps the most famous of its kind, the African apologist was not alone in his conviction about martyrdom. The anonymous author of The Epistle to Diognetus, a letter likely composed between 150-250 AD challenges the…
U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made headlines recently when she testified at the National Action Network’s virtual conference that “the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents.” Whether that claim is true or not—and/or to what extent—is not the point of this blog. Of present interest is why original sin as a theological term has entered the cultural lexicon. Without…
“Of making many books there is no end” (Ecclesiastes 12:12), an observation no less true in our day as in Solomon’s. But unlike the ancient world, the sheer number of potential writers and readers in 2021 is staggering. As a representative from Wipf & Stock publications noted, anywhere from several hundred thousand to one million books are published annually in the U.S.…
In my second semester of seminary—fall 2011—I took a course called “Classics of Christian Devotion.” The instructor for the class was my future doctoral advisor, Chris Chun. One of our first assignments was to read a 1944 essay by C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) called, “On the Reading Old Books.” In the essay, Lewis makes the case for reading books that have withstood…
Sermon on the Afternoon of Christmas Day (1530) By Martin Luther (1483-1546) You have heard today the story from the Gospel of St. Luke of how it came to pass that our Lord Christ was born and then also the message of the angel, who announced who the boy was who was born. Now we shall go on and take up the…
2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower Pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth, a significant milestone no doubt obscured by the nation’s election and COVID. In true technocratic form, one’s appraisal of this event depends on algorithmic suggestion no less than a philosophy of history. Articles praising the Pilgrims as an embryonic community of liberty-loving patriots can be matched by scholars who decry…
In March 2016, Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore wrote an article titled “Reading Augustine in an Election Year.” Drawing on the principal theme of The City of God, a book some recognize, fewer have read, and even fewer have finished, the motif of “two cities” is no less important today as it was four year ago, for in Moore’s words, “it can…
If you have been following contemporary politics, President Trump’s prospective nominee for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, has been the subject of vigorous debate, notably in the last week. Barrett is a mother of seven children, whose ages span 8 and 18 years, five of which are biological, the youngest having Down Syndrome. Two of the Barrett children were adopted from…