Author: Adam Johnson
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Edwards, Fiddling on the Roof: The Role of Religious Affections in the Christian Life
In “The Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye asks his wife: “do you love me?” A beautiful song follows, as his wife relives the last 25 years of their marriage, thinking through the chores, the children, the sacrifices… but through all this Tevye’s refrain echoes: “yes… but do you love me?” Pardon the anachronism, but Jonathan…
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Father, Son and Michael Jordan? Gatorade’s Image of the Trinity
You have likely heard several bad images of the Trinity. Ice, water and steam are one in that they are all water, but three states. There are three leaves to a clover, but one clover…. There are any number of such images, each offering an incomplete and largely unhelpful instance combining threeness and oneness. Ultimately, of…
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Head Held High: A Glimpse into the Heart of Education
A student gave me a beautiful reminder of the heart of a liberal arts education last semester. And it wasn’t because she got good grades. In fact, her grades were pretty poor. Having done the vast majority of the work for the semester, she found herself buried in commitments at the end of term, and…
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The Metaphysics of Candlelight
Nature’s Distilled Sunlight Have you ever wondered why you loved candlelight? And what is so mesmerizing about the embers of a campfire? It is as though the depths of wisdom were contained in the spectrum of reds, oranges, yellows and blues, glowing and pulsing with life. John Muir, the patron saint of America’s National Park system,…
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Witness to the Fittingness of the Atonement
Perhaps you have heard critiques of penal substitution based on the fact that it seems rooted in divine violence, which in turn supports violence within families and social structures. Perhaps you have heard debates between adherents of different views of Christ’s work, both of which seemed important and warranted. Perhaps all you can think of…
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Non-Competing Theories of the Atonement
As I told my veteran pastor of my plans to do graduate studies in the doctrine of the atonement, a wry smile creased his face as he asked: “So… which theory of the atonement do you believe in?” I responded: “All of them!” The purpose of this book is to offer a more expansive answer…
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“Put Away Thy Daintiness!” A Call to Meditate on Christ’s Atonement
Augustine writes in his Confessions: “You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Immediately following this petition, he prays: “Grant me Lord to know and understand.” The ensuing few pages are filled with an impassioned plea for…
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The Theologian’s Stone: Atonement In Harry Potter, Book I
“It is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn…. Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenseless to…
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Spiegelman’s “Maus,” Rights, & the Atonement
World War II and the Holocaust of the Jews have been a significant part of my life. I have toured Washington DC’s Holocaust museum several times, spent a day at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, and read several books on the subject. My grandfather was an Army Corps engineer, building bridges across Europe to…
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A Review of Vidu’s “Atonement, Law and Justice”
Adonis Vidu, “Atonement, Law and Justice.” Grand Rapids: Baker, 2014. Vidu’s recent book is worth a careful read for two substantial developments. In the first five chapters, Vidu traces the inter-relationship between the atonement (specifically focused on penal substitution) and understandings of law throughout history, starting a fruitful inter-disciplinary discussion. This approach is valuable for several reasons.…
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Christ’s Death and the Fate of Western Lowland Gorillas
Paul Fryer’s striking art installation is a beautiful and realistic work… of a crucified gorilla. At first one might think his “Privilege of Dominion” is little more than a parody of the Christian faith, a repetition of ancient graffiti portraying Christ crucified with the head of a donkey. And in fact there has been some…
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In Defense of ‘Ramona’ and Other Children’s Classics
I teach classics for a living. As a result, my kids overhear conversations and snippets of conversations about Homer, Dante, Shakespeare and a host of others. But that’s not all they hear, for as someone devoted to the classics, I share this love with them in a steady diet of children’s classics by Beverly Cleary,…