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
Tag Archives: faith
Proper Confidence
“The confidence proper to a Christian is not the confidence of one who claims possession of demonstrable and indubitable knowledge. It is the confidence of one who had heard and answered the call that comes from the God through whom and for whom all things were made: ‘Follow me.'”
– Lesslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 1995), 105
Martyrdom and the “No” of Faith
“The church makes disciples in order to form a company of faith, a theater of martyrdom” (218). Kevin Vanhoozer elucidates this claim in the concluding chapter of his recent book Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014). The chapter sparked some thoughtful discussion in my systematic theology class this past week. During the discussion it occurred to me that we privileged Western Christians are sometimes enamored with overly romantic conceptions of martyrdom. Continue reading Martyrdom and the “No” of Faith