Racial Reconciliation and the Queen of the Sciences
In the 2013 book Aliens in the Promised Land, editor Anthony Bradley along with a number of other people of color who have served in predominantly white evangelical institutions explain in great detail why, as the subtitle has it, “minority...
‘Reformed Resurgence,’ with Brad Vermurlen
There’s a movement in Evangelicalism you may have heard of: the New Calvinism. Apart from its theological significance, it turns out that this sort of movement is of great interest to sociologists too. The guest on this episode, Brad Vermurlen,...
Book Review: “Faultlines” by Voddie Baucham
Voddie Baucham. Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe. Washington: Salem Books, 2021. 270 pp, $24.99. Racism has reentered the public discourse with renewed vigor. Gone are the days of rosy optimism filled with racial reconciliation conferences and...
Fragility, Heroism, and the Conditions of Modern Masculinity
Near the end of the 2009 movie Zombieland, Woody Harrelson’s character shares his deep grief at losing his three-year-old son. Tallahassee, the gun-slinging warrior who kills zombies by opening his car door into their faces while driving, is distraught. A...
Government: Ally or Antagonist?
In years past, Christians were an ascendant force in culture. More recently, they have become a forgotten relic. Whether cultural force or relic, governing authorities rarely had cause to make Christians uncomfortable. But the coronavirus pandemic led to regional lockdowns...
The Metaphysical Stalemate Behind Political Divisions
It’s been over 35 years since Lutheran theologian George Lindbeck published The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age. Lindbeck wrote The Nature of Doctrine as an attempt to grapple with the incommensurability of intra-Christian division, and...
Book Review: Listening to a Continent Sing by Donald Kroodsma
Donald Kroodsma. Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018. 336 pp, $21.95. It’s early spring as I sit on my porch reading the opening pages of Listening to...
The Beatitudes Through the Ages: An Interview with Rebekah Eklund
Interview with Rebekah Eklund for Mere Orthodoxy “Whence then doth He begin? and what kind of foundations of His new polity doth He lay for us? Let us hearken with strict attention unto what is said. For though it was...
Christian Organizations Should Reconsider Using the Intercultural Development Inventory
If you’ve ever taken the Intercultural Development Inventory, a psychometric assessment administered at multiple secular and Christian organizations, you may have sensed that there’s more to it than your ability to get along with people of other cultures. In a...
Beatitudes: “Persecuted for Righteousness”
Continuing the Mere Fidelity series of discussions on the Beatitudes, Alastair, Derek, and Matt talk about the blessing for those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. It’s not as clear as it might at first seem. Specifically, why are there...