Category: Blog
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The ‘New Monasticism’ Turns Ten
Professor Greg Peters examines the “new monastics” a decade on from their emergence into Christian life over at First Things: The new monasticism, characterized by Robin Russell as individuals and families who “commit to follow a ‘rule of life’ . . . and they immerse themselves in community life and service,” is without a doubt…
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On Being White (And Talking About It) – Part 2
Read Part 1 here. As an African-American, third-culture adult teaching in an honors program at a predominantly white Christian institution of higher learning, married to a white American with a blended (bi-racial) daughter, I think about race a lot. I’ve been thinking through the issues addressed in this blog post on Huff Post Parents titled,…
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Trinity in Old and New Testament (Vos)
Gerhardus Vos (1862-1949), best known for his biblical theology, also wrote a systematic theology. In 1896 he brought out a Reformed Dogmatics in Dutch that is now being published in English by Logos. I was struck recently by his deft handling of the question whether the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed in the Old Testament.…
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Coffee with Facepalm Jesus Calling
An earlier generation asked What Would Jesus Do? But these days, people are increasingly comfortable with skipping the hypothetical, shifting out of the subjunctive, and just telling us What Jesus Would Say, in their opinions. If he were really here, that is: if he were talking, if he were blogging, or meme-ing, or cartooning, or…
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On Being White (And Talking About It) — Part 1
Read Part 2 here. The last few weeks have involved lots of conversations about ethnicity, racial reconciliation, white identity, micro-aggressions, locs, Trayvon Martin, bi-racial children, “other”-ness, post-racial America, racism in Christianity, interracial dating, and a host of conversations about how to have these conversations. This may sound overwhelming, but it’s my life. As an African-American,…
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The Courage to Speak: Responsibility, Accountability, and Community
So often we talk about being responsible for ourselves. But responsibility is not limited to ourselves alone. Being responsible demands a willingness to speak the truth to others when necessary. Consider David when he was at the zenith of his reign as King of Israel. David had fought numerous military battles against Israel’s enemy’s and…
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Three Elements of Trinitarianism in the New Testament
Whether the doctrine of the Trinity is in the Bible is a nice question. Yes or no? When asked, I routinely answer “yes,” and then backpedal from there: I concede that the key terminology (person, substance, Trinity) is not to be found in the words of Scripture, that the whole conceptual package is not assembled in…
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Fringe Benefits of Being Finite
Discovery Honing skills Getting stronger Being surprised Falling in love Learning Figuring something out Taking risks Maturing, outgrowing Relief at getting over something Becoming a parent Having frontiers Surfing Having fringes
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Fundamentals Sermon for Founders Day
I got to preach in Biola chapel on Founders Day 2014, the week we marked Biola’s 106th birthday. We also happen to be within the centennial period for the publication of The Fundamentals (1910-1915). What, you may ask, are The Fundamentals (1910-1915)? What, you may ask, do they have to do with the Bible Institute…
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Down with Random Acts of Kindness (What’s Best Next)
Matt Perman’s book What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done is finally available. I’ve been looking forward to this book for a long time, and am glad to report that it lives up to the high hopes I’ve had for it. The genre of productivity literature is its own…
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Lent for the Rest of Us
Lots of people these days are going liturgical. Really, that’s not quite the right way to put it. All churches are liturgical, in so far as their worship of the Lord takes on a form and has an order to it. But you know what I mean. Many evangelicals are striking liturgical gold, discovering the…
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Symposium on Soulen’s The Divine Name(s)
The Winter 2014 issue of Pro Ecclesia: A Journal of Catholic and Evangelical Theology features a 58-page symposium on Kendall Soulen‘s important 2011 book The Divine Name(s) and the Holy Trinity: Distinguishing the Voices. That seems like a lot of pages of commentary, but they are well deserved: Soulen’s book is both a solid accomplishment in its own right…