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...
On Whether Football is Coming Home
In which the Angelic Doctor considers whether or not football is coming home. (Credit for this idea to Joshua Heavin.) Article 1: Whether football is coming home? Objection 1: Nature teaches us that all living things are possessed of roots...
An Unresolved and Perilous Ambiguity
Recently, the 48th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America convened in St. Louis, Missouri. While much important business was conducted in the span of a few days, considerable attention was directed to the issue of ordination standards, particularly...
Gossip
Is gossip always bad? Are you sure about that? Inspired by a recent cover story of Christianity Today Derek, Alastair, and Matt take up the topic of gossip in the church. They explore the topic from Biblical, personal, and organizational...
Mary’s Visitation in the Present Tense
For the church in the West, July 2nd has traditionally marked the church’s remembrance of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. Both were with child under fearful and threatening circumstances. And in Elizabeth’s womb John the Baptist leaped...