Deaths of Despair and Lives of Hope in a Cynical Age
Upon falling into the hands of Giant Despair, Christian and his friend Hopeful were imprisoned without any provisions for days on end and while enduring beatings. In John Bunyan’s 17th-century allegory Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian eventually laments, “Brother, what shall we...
Book Review: The Decadent Society by Ross Douthat
Although the word “apocalypse” in contemporary popular imagination connotes “the end of the world,” the word in biblical and theological literature means an “unveiling” or a “revelation.” In apocalyptic literature, the truth about reality is not always what it seems....
A Hidden Life as Temptation Narrative
How do we live when nobody is looking, or when the collateral damage of pursuing good might outweigh complicity in evil? Terrence Malick’s film A Hidden Life is based upon the true story of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian peasant who...
On Dishonest Stands for the Truth
By Joshua Heavin Collin Hansen recently tweeted, “I’ve come to expect that many will lie about what I say and think. It’s part of the job for me and life for all of us in this fallen world. I don’t...
The Church’s One Foundation and the Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral
By Joshua Heavin Upon initially hearing there was a fire at Cathédrale Notre-Dame, I assumed that perhaps some light smoke damage would be incurred; such a titanic vessel must be unsinkable, and our sophisticated modern technology will undoubtedly prevent any...
Pragmatism and the Practice of Theology
By Joshua Heavin Several decades ago, missiologist Lesslie Newbigin wrote about our impulse towards pragmatism in the post-Christendom West: In discussions about the contemporary mission of the Church it is often said that the Church ought to address itself to...
A Christian Ethic of Sex in a Pornographic Age
In the late fourth and early fifth centuries, the church had no shortage of theological controversies and societal crises at hand. Yet several prominent theologians nonetheless devoted significant time to writing about marriage and human sexuality. St. Gregory of Nyssa,...
On Theological Education and the Church’s Health
By Joshua Heavin In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Review of Books, Alan Jacobs described the realization that compelled him to write The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis: “…what was so...
The Danger of Neglecting the Old Testament
By Joshua Heavin “How I love your torah, O Lord!” (Psalm 119:97) Love for torah is always fittingly strange by the grace of God. But I am concerned that literacy of and love for the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament...