Beatitudes: “Hunger & Thirst”
Continuing our series of discussions on the Beatitudes, Alastair, Derek, and Matt next consider “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.” At first glance, this statement seems completely obvious. But when you dig deeper and look at the...
Responding to Secularism
As secularism has grown ascendant and liberalism has become decadent, Christians have used different strategies to respond. Some change to accommodate the culture, some hunker down and wait for it to blow over, and some propose re-Christianizing America. Ross Douthat...
Purity Culture
So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.” (Matthew 27:24) Our contemporary culture has...
Beatitudes: “Meek”
Meekness is not often understood. And when it’s understood, it’s not often commended. And when it’s commended, it’s not often lived out. And yet we are told that the meek will inherit the earth. How should we understand this virtue...
The Hole in Our Soul Care: Searching for a Road Forward for Pastoral Care
Early in his book The Logic of the Body: Retrieving Theological Psychology, Matthew LaPine comments that, unfortunately, “there is a path out of the church that runs through the counselor’s office” (p. 36). As a Christian and a counselor I...
In Praise of Reading Aloud
It felt a bit awkward at first, a group of friends in their mid twenties sitting around in my library in an old Capitol Hill row house. We had all brought our copies of various Tolkien, some with a well-loved...
Easter Hymns
He is risen indeed! This high holy day calls for reveling in the glories of the best Easter hymns. Scroll to the time stamps to read the lyrics of the three hymns that Matt, Alastair, and Derek discuss in this...
The Danger of Respectable Christianity
Since its first season premiered on Netflix in 2016, The Crown has garnered attention from viewers, critics, and from the members of the royal family whose lives it portrays. The series’ fourth season, which was released late last year, has...
The Church Amongst the Counter-Institutions
I watched The Social Dilemma far later than most people not living under a rock. I expected a serious documentary that forecasted serious consequences with a tone of (even more) serious urgency and fear to drive the point home. If...
I Am a Unit of One
After Jiang Qing married Mao Zedong in 1938, Communist leadership informed her that to join the Communist movement, she would need to submit her will to a work unit. Qing, who before her marriage to Mao was an aspiring actress,...