Results for: sacred marriage
Action, Education, and Being: A Response to Gary Thomas
Gary Thomas, founder of The Center for Evangelical Spirituality, graciously answered my critiques of his pragmatic and helpful book, “Sacred Marriage.” The conversation continues below with my thoughts on excerpts of his helpful response. I’ve read your primary critique once...
The Cross in Our Calling: A Reflection on Mary’s Magnificat
Mary is chosen for the sacred work of bearing the Incarnate Son of God, and the unforgettable words we know as The Magnificat come tumbling out: And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God...
The Something More of Sex
In a strikingly vulnerable 2018 New York Times article, author Courtney Sender casts a light on today’s impoverished sexual norms by describing her own disappointing experience. Her date, a connection through Tinder, requested Sender’s consent for nearly everything. Kissing. Undressing....
Food and the Life of the Nations
We are not simply the users of creation; we are, all of us, called to be its offerers. The world will be lifted, as it was always meant to be, by our priestly love. We can, you see, take it...
In Defense of the Gender Binary
We are now seeing seismic shifts in perception about sex, gender, and marriage. You might think this has been occurring for some time now, and you wouldn’t be wrong about that. But, granting that as truth, the shift seems especially...
Christians in the Gray Zone: The Strong Gods are Back
In his 1978 commencement address at Harvard University, the great Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn argued that what united the capitalist west and communist east mattered more than what divided them. Both, he said, had lost any feel for the transcendent,...
Contemplative Realism: The Germinal Yearnings of a New Literary Movement
“Realists do not fear the results of their study.” —Dostoevsky Maybe I was a twenty-something romantic haunting the East Side of Milwaukee. A draught stole past the cream city bricks, trespassed the strips of sackcloth patching the window. Once a...
Visions of Exile: Christian Communitarianism, Christian Secularism, and Faithful Presence
How can Christians live faithfully in an ever-changing and increasingly pluralistic world? How can we maintain that faithfulness, both over the course of our own lives and from generation to generation? What sort of formation do we and our children...
Ten Theses on Homosexuality and the Church
I wrote the following to clarify my own thoughts and also to (indirectly) respond to some recent discussions and developments within my own denomination (the PCA). But at present here are my own reflections on homosexuality today as a pastor...
Atheist Nones and the Problem of Soviet Atheism
Victoria Smolkin. A Sacred Space is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018. $32.95, 360 pp. It is perhaps too easily forgotten that Soviet Communism began as a vibrant ideology, full of optimism for the...