When Should I Write? Brief Reflections on the Relationship Between Writing and Expertise
It was a Thursday afternoon; I was perched up in the corner of my favorite local coffee shop with a back-pack full of books that teetered somewhere between impressive and embarrassing. I was in the middle of what I refer...
Gaming and the Metaverse
Officially, I am a high-school English teacher. I lead discussions, assign important texts, and grade essays (slower than I should… Christmas cards from my students often read like bribes: “Merry Christmas and please grade our Narrative Essay”). But once or...
Teaching Children to See
This past winter, my six-year-old began each day looking out the window. I would hear him roll out of bed, feet hit the floor, his footsteps moving toward one of the windows in his room. I knew what he was...
Waiting Tables as Soul Craft
During college, I became convinced I would become a consultant. I wasn’t pre-Med and didn’t want to join the Peace Corps, so this seemed to be the best (and only other respectable) option. I listened with childlike wonder as consulting...
What Two Gilded Age Christian Socialists Would Say to Evangelicals Today
The rehabilitation of socialism’s reputation among Millennials and Gen Z has grabbed the attention of political analysts in recent years: “Socialism as Popular as Capitalism Among Young Adults in U.S.” (Gallup). “Majority of Gen Z Americans Hold Negative Views of...
The Contradiction of Healing Prayer
“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” I think about this verse often. I am not sure who counts as a righteous person, and I’m not sure how to qualify “working.” The sentence before...
An Education for Lincoln’s Heaven
In a 2013 article on ‘Christian Schooling and Racial Realities,’ Hunter Baker concluded that while “the racial unification of the American church might best begin in the Christian schoolhouse” he lamented that it is a “mission … awaiting a champion...
Seminary Anxiety
Everyone here bites their nails. I first noticed this last Fall and the realization was at once troubling and consoling. Troubling, because this is a child’s bad habit; consoling, because at least I’m not the only one who hasn’t used...
Karl Barth’s Warning for Evangelical Theology
“What is culture in itself except the attempt of man to be man and thus to hold the good gift of his humanity in honor and to put it to work?” —Karl Barth In 1957, Karl Barth delivered his lecture...
This Is My Body Given for You
On the night Christ was betrayed by Judas, Our Lord celebrated the Passover with all of his brothers, including the traitor himself. Other than the disciple Jesus loved, eleven of His chosen men would later abandon him. In light of...