I’m OK with the fact that I probably play too many video games and watch too many sports. I’m not that important, and no one is relying on me for survival as of yet. But I learned something the other day from a game I was playing. Indulge me, for this requires some explanation.
I have noticed that some celebrants of Reformation Day see it as a day to mark God’s freeing of the true church from the bonds of Catholic slavery even as God delivered Israel from its enslavement to Egypt. Surely it cannot be reduced to such a stark comparison. Surely we would not cast all those who did not subscribe to the Reformer’s pleas to the side of tyranny and evil. So what do we do with this day?
Yeah, I said it. You’re thinking it, and if not, you should be. First, let me ask all non-Christians, nominal Christians, lukewarm appreciators of Jesus, free-thinkers, and other otherwise unaffiliated atheists to metaphorically go to the fridge while my family and I have a spat. Thanks for understanding.
As we find ourselves approaching Reformation Day on the five hundredth year of Protestant Reformer John Calvin's birth, it may be good to spend some time looking at the issue of Biblical leadership and challenges to that leadership's authority. One of the interesting things about the Bible is that it never is keen on presenting authorities as those who are always right.
William T. Cavanaugh’s Torture and Eucharist is a fascinating look at the Catholic Church’s response to the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The work is, if nothing else, a provocative effort at thinking theologically about what in most minds is a political problem.
The best thing that anyone could say about Dr. Scott Hahn’s book, “The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass As Heaven On Earth” is that he writes about worshipping, meeting, celebrating, and proclaiming—even eating—a God who is really there. I would say just that.
My father died 42 years ago last week. The anniversary gave rise to various emotions — a little sadness, of course, though we’ve had time to get over it — but chiefly I thought about how much he has missed.
There is a very unpleasant little bug going around. It’s like the flu or the bubonic plague or something. It causes fever, makes breathing a chore, and makes one abnormally stupid. And I’ve got it. Which means that this would be the perfect time to run the “evergreen” column in this space. What is an evergreen column? Well …
“He was crucified,” the Apostle’s Creed declares. As the Church has confessed these three words pointing back to a day that seemed anything but “good” two millennia ago, we recall the most unjust, horrid execution of all time.
Last week, Brad Edwards looked at the New Scientist’s claim that religious beliefs such as the rise of “New Calvinism,” is a mere survival reflex we are biologically disposed to. The potential problem he pointed out with the claim is that it assumes that a biological survival mechanism must be irrational. Christianity claims otherwise.