Featured Essay / Culture
A friend and I had a conversation about a situation of systemic and personal abuse she was suffering, which turned into correspondence between us. With permission, I have polished up my exchange with Lori (a pseudonym), as a reflection on what it means for a victim to properly love a…
Essay / Culture
My dear friend and Scriptorium Daily’s own Paul Spears is at the U2 concert tonight with his lovely wife Lisa. Tomorrow night, my old buddy Mike French gets to go. They will bask in the glow of 30 years of the best rock-and-roll ever right
Essay / Culture
It is a truth universally acknowledged (among theologians, or at least most of them), that a Christian in possession of a Pietistic spirituality, must be in want of a social ethic. Pietists, those champions of heart religion, those prototypes of today’s experience-driven religion, were so
Essay / Culture
St. Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary and Foster-Father of Christ, has always fascinated me. He comes on the scene, plays his role, and then is never mentioned again in the gospel narratives. He is a man who is called to do one task, difficult,
Essay / Culture
I couldn’t let the 326th birthday of the great Kappelmeister go by without some short reflection on my favorite choral piece, the great St. Matthew Passion. As a devout Lutheran, Bach heavily meditated on the passion of Christ, influenced heavily by Martin Luther’s theology of
Essay / Culture
Joe Gorra at the Evangelical Philosophical Society blog interviewed me and co-conspirator Jason Sexton about our project called Theological Engagement with California Culture. Here are a couple of excerpts from the interview. On how the project got started: The basic idea developed from a summer
Essay / Culture
Baseball player Duke Snider died this weekend in Escondido, California, at age 84. If you’ve got baseball in your soul, the headline is all you need to read to know that his death symbolizes more than just a personal loss to his family and friends.
Essay / Culture
Is there such a thing as a theology of California? I have long suspected that there is, or at least that Christians living in California need to be equipped with a functional theological account of what this state is and what it means for the
Essay / Culture
In 1958, Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, wrote a fan letter to Czeslaw Milosz, the Polish poet. Milosz knew some of Merton’s writings, and replied to the letter. The two struck up a correspondence that lasted for a decade, until Merton’s death in 1968. Those
Essay / Culture
This week my family is visiting friends in Berkeley, California; returning to that strange little city where we lived for four years in the late 90’s and have visited with students every summer since. Berkeley’s easy to make fun of, but also easy to love.
Essay / Culture
Biola‘s Torrey Honors Institute is a great books program. Our students get their general education by reading and discussing the hundred or so greatest hits of western civ, and everybody who works here teaches that whole curriculum. But the phrase “great books” doesn’t always instantly
Essay / Culture
No matter your taste, Canada has given us some good music over the years. If you want to make a political statement you listen to Bruce Cockburn. Wanna rock like it’s the summer of ’69? Then there’s Bryan Adams. Riding in an elevator? Listen to
Essay / Culture
There are occasional days when I heartily affirm with Randy Newman: ‘I love LA!’ More often, I hate it. On Tuesday morning I flew back to Los Angeles, with its cars and concrete, its hurry and hustle and hassle. I had been in the Southeast