Faith as Yessing
Faith is often defined as a posture, an attitude, especially a posture or attitude of trust. I have gladly defined it that way myself....
Successful–or Merely Popular?
The new season of “Black Mirror,” a “Twilight Zone” TV program now produced by Netflix, opens with an episode nicely terrifying for our...
Power vs. THE Power
Just a quick thought as I sit in the Moncton Airport waiting to fly west. New Brunswick is Canada’s only officially bilingual province....
What Will We Want Jesus to Want from Us?
Reading in Matthew 14 this morning, I was impressed afresh at the Apostle Peter’s audacity. I wonder if I, on the verge of 2016, will...
The Continual Unpredictability of a Straight Line
As one looks at Jesus in the Gospels, one sees the Lord carving through the world as a straight line of integrity, purpose, holiness, and...
Image Search
Sitting in our bedroom for my morning time of prayer today, reading Aleksandr Men’s An Inner Step toward God again, slowly, I came across...
What’s It Worth to You?
A friend of mine, Ralph Winter, has produced a wide range of movies, and many of them share a common trait: a character with super...
Actually, It Isn’t Just about “Being”: It’s about “Doing,” Too
A Christian friend whom I know to be godly, serious, pious…and very successful in a highly competitive and demanding career…sent me the...
Freedom of the Child vs. Freedom of the Adult
LIke, I expect, most of my contemporaries, I wrestle with the concept of freedom. I have resisted the claim of certain philosophers and...
Accepting Praise
When our sons took piano lessons, they were taught to bow properly. Now that is a skill otherwise rather rare in contemporary Canadian...
Merton Channels Screwtape
Here’s a challenging passage from Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation that will bring many of us up short: The devil is not afraid...
More Merton: On the Humility to Withdraw from Glory
I’m just back from being up front and vocal for almost a week. I flew down to Cupertino (= AppleLand), California, to serve alongside the...
A Good, Daily Prayer from Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton has fans. Lots of them. I’m not one of them. His spirituality is neither to my taste nor lined up with my theology in many...
C. S. Lewis on Avoiding God
Blaise Pascal, of course, offers classic observations in his Pensées on how industriously we avoid God and ultimate issues such as virtue...
What Christianity Means (Note: Not “to Me”)
One of the insidious developments among my students, readers, auditors, and interlocutors is consumerism about theology. Instead of...
Downward Mobility
I thank God I don’t have to thank “God-in-general,” or some alternative deity. Yes, the God of the Bible is called “God” because, in the...
Theory Ain’t Belief–Thank God!
Philosopher Alvin Plantinga buries a little gem of insight in a footnote to his massive Warranted Christian Belief (Oxford, 2000) that...
What Christmas Is All About, Charlie Brown
The Van Pelt family has taught more people about the true meaning of Christmas than any preacher you can name, including probably the...
Are You Lovable?
This apparently bizarre question pops up over and over again in Christian worship and theology. It was posed to me recently by a friend...
Calm, Cool, and Collected
One of the most beloved features of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the “Collect,” the prayer that unites the voices of the...