Thinking After

Category: Quotes

  • Newbigin’s Prophetic Insight

    When I was teaching in Toronto, there was a period of several years in a row where I read Lesslie Newbigin’s Foolishness to the Greeks with my students.  I consider the book, written in 1986, to be something of a 20th century theological classic.  As evidence of that, I did try a few years ago to blog through Newbigin’s seven essentials for a church seeking a genuine missionary encounter with Western culture.  I only made it through the first four before other endeavors required my attention, but you can find links to those previous posts here. (more…)

  • More Religion?

    I sometimes challenge my students to reflect more deeply upon the reality of the Christian faith in our post-[insert your choice of noun here:  Christian, modern, secular, truth, etc.] context by inverting the popular cultural slogan and claiming that I’m “religious but not spiritual.” (more…)

  • Every Christian is a Politician

    In 1962, the Swiss theologian Karl Barth made his one and only trip to the United States.  The visit was a whirlwind tour, eagerly followed by the media, that saw him deliver lectures at the University of Chicago and Princeton that would be published as Evangelical Theology and even visit San Quentin maximum security prison seven years before Johnny Cash would make it there.  On several occasions Barth spoke out about the wretched conditions he witnessed in American prisons.  He knew a thing or two about prison conditions from his regular preaching to the inmates in Basel.  (more…)

  • Apocalyptic Peace

    ““ Peace ” is also finally an apocalyptic concept . It cannot be separated from conflict . Peace with God means conflict with the world , even as peace with the world means conflict with God . The peace that passes all understanding is a peace that remains restless until the end. (more…)

  • The Challenge of Teaching the Faith Today

    A penetrating excerpt from Adam Neder’s excellent little book, Theology as a Way of Life: (more…)

  • The Future is Now

    “The next wave of American “conservatism” is not likely to base its appeal on such unsuccessful slogans as the Constitution and free enterprise.  Its leader will not be a gentleman who truly cares about his country’s past.  It will concentrate directly on such questions as “order in the streets” which are likely to become crucial in the years ahead.  The battle will be between democratic tyrants and the authoritarians of the right.  If the past is a teacher to the present, it surely says that democratic Caesarism is likely to be successful.  In the fight between Sulla and Marius, it was the descendants of the latter who established the Julian line of emperors.”[1. George Grant, Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism, 40th anniversary edition (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005), 66n.23.] (more…)

  • The Meaning of a Sermon: Some Wisdom from Flannery O’Connor

    I’ve had the privilege of spending this week with the Doctor of Ministry cohort at Providence Theological Seminary leading them a week-long intensive course entitled “Thinking and Interpreting Theologically.”  While not large in size, the members of the cohort manage to represent both coasts of Canada, the province of Manitoba, and the country of Nigeria. (more…)

  • Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

    “Who are the mourners?

    The mourners are those who have heard the good news of God’s good future and weep because it is not yet, still sadly not yet.  Their eyes have caught a glimpse of God’s future, and their eyes fill with tears because they see it challenged and contradicted in the present.  Their spirits ache for the coming of the kingdom Jesus announced, the future he made present in his words of blessing and his works of healing.  It is because they hope that they mourn. (more…)

  • Iconic Perception

    My “Christian Ethics” course this semester is following an innovative schedule where students gather on campus for five full days spread out over the course of the semester.  While having three weeks between classes may impact upon continuity and classroom dynamics, it does present the opportunity to have students engage with significant works in preparation for each class.  My students are currently in the midst of reading Norman Wirzba’s From Nature to Creation: A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving the World.  Wirzba, who teaches at Duke, is one of the leading voices working at the intersection of theology and ecology.  While there is much to commend in the book, I was particularly taken by the following passage describing what Wirzba refers to as “iconic seeing”: (more…)

  • The “Evangelical” Crisis

    Alan Jacobs, an influential Christian public intellectual who teaches at Baylor University, has published an important piece that traces the morphing of the word “evangelical” in public discourse.  He describes how the term that once referred to a vital, denomination-crossing,  renewing impulse within Protestant Christianity has now in the public imagination come to refer to a political and social movement characterized by nationalistic sentiments and a vague religiosity. (more…)