What would you do if Odin decided to haunt you because he was angry you’d left him for Jesus?
When a pagan society is Christianized, it must determine how to either leave behind or incorporate its old talismans and traditions into its new Christian faith. This is seldom an easy task, as any missionary who has [...]
Monday, February 22, 2010
If there’s one thing Monty Python star John Cleese and Focus on the Family agree on, it’s that hell is a decidedly British place.
At least, that’s what one might assume after hearing their competing audio interpretations of C.S. Lewis’ classic book, The Screwtape Letters.
John Cleese’s masterful interpretation of Screwtape is full of all the eloquence [...]
Monday, February 22, 2010
Relations between the United States and the Middle East have always been complicated. Given that the Middle East enjoys complicated relationships with every other region in the world as well-including itself-this should come as no surprise.
On 9/11, however, many Americans were surprised. In the days just after the attack laymen and newscasters alike tried to [...]
Global warming might be real, but that doesn’t mean you have to do anything about it. If fact, if your actions are motivated by guilt or fear, Katharine Hayhoe and Andrew Farley would rather you didn’t act at all.
Hayhoe and Farley are the authors of A Climate For Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions. [...]
Hello, my name is Rachel, and I am an introvert.
There are more of us than you might think. In fact, it’s thought that we are the majority with 50.7 % of the population. And we don’t all fit the awkward-wallflower stereotype; introversion and extroversion indicate whether a person is sapped or energized by social interaction, [...]
Remember the days just after 9/11 when many claimed the West was finally paying for its crimes against Muslims during the Crusades? They were wrong - and they weren’t the first to misunderstand what happened during the years of fighting between Christian Crusaders and Muslim soldiers.
Rodney Stark’s newest book, God’s Battalions: The Case for the [...]
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Stephenie Meyer is a thoughtful, careful writer. The depth and subtlety of her plot is fantastically mirrored in the multi-layered facets of her characters, wherein the complexity of her thought is revealed. One is simultaneously unable to stop reading and also drawn to careful consideration of such things as community, prejudice, self sacrifice, dualism, the [...]
Monday, September 28, 2009
Is your church killing you? If you are a pastor or other church worker, it might be:
*90 percent of pastors work more than 46 hours a week.
*80 percent believe that pastoral ministry affects their families negatively
*75 percent report they’ve had a significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry
*40 percent report a serious conflict [...]
Friday, September 11, 2009
Do you control the ways in which you communicate, or do they control you? As Shane Hipps, the Porsche advertising executive turned Mennonite pastor, writes, “Christianity is fundamentally a communication event.” Hipps’ newest book, Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith, explains why a misunderstanding of the relationship between a communicator’s medium and his message [...]