This is the fourteenth in a series of posts engaging with the sermons in Leaps of Faith: Sermons from the Edge. This post is a reflection upon an Easter sermon entitled “A Garden in the Wasteland” (pp. 50-56). The Scriptural texts for the sermon were Galatians 5:13-26 and Isaiah 35:1-7.
I have contributed a guest post to the Wycliffe College blog entitled “Naked Preaching.” You can read the full blog post here: https://www.wycliffecollege.ca/blog/naked-preaching-guest-post-robert-dean.
Earlier this year, Bloomsbury T&T Clark published a collection of conversations between the renowned theological ethicist Stanley Hauerwas and Brian Brock, who teaches at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Brock, who is himself quite an accomplished theological ethicist and is clearly conversant in Hauerwas’s writings, proves to be a worthy interlocutor for Hauerwas. The book is entitled Beginnings: Interrogating Hauerwas. Continue reading With Friends Like These . . .
The Angus Reid Institute recently released the results of a polling study it conducted into the state of faith and spirituality in Canada. (You can read the report here.) As one might expect, the role of institutional religion in Canada seems to be continuing to diminish in many respects. However, the study also suggests that Canadians may be “much less hostile toward religion than declining church attendances might imply.” Continue reading Faith in Canada
A former student of mine has drawn my attention to an upcoming ecumenical worship service which she has been involved in planning. The service, to be held at the Church of St. Andrew Anglican (2333 Victoria Park Ave., Scarborough, ON) this coming Sunday, June 4th at 7:00 pm, is hosted by the Ministerial Association of North East Toronto. The theme of the service is “One Spirit, One Church.” Continue reading Upcoming Christian Unity Worship Service
Yesterday, in the midst of a seminar on the life and work of the missiologist Lesslie Newbigin, one of my students directed me to the Kuyper lecture that was recently delivered by the New York City pastor and church planter Tim Keller. Keller’s selection as this year’s Kuyper award winner had previously generated controversy among sections of Princeton’s constituency on account of his affiliation with the Presbyterian Church in America, which holds opposing views from the seminary’s denomination (PCUSA) on the question of the ordination of women and LGBT people. (If you missed the controversy when it broke, you can read a couple of takes on it here or here.) Continue reading Kuyper Lecture: “Answering Lesslie Newbigin”