Category: Theology
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Needy and Rational: Existential Reasons for Belief in God
Once you’ve encountered solid evidence for belief in God, it’s hard to settle for anything less. That is, if you think you have reasons for affirming that the Christian God is real, and that believing in him means having actual knowledge about reality, it’s hard to listen to people who say things like “I believe…
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Being Hopeful
It is tempting to think that we have it hard. That our lives are particularly difficult. That is, the sense that life is not always fair and that no matter what we do things just do not seem to get any better. As well, in this season of Lent, for those who have entered into…
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Shel Silverstein's Annunciation Day Poem?
Here is the Shel Silverstein poem entitled “Merry…” No one’s hangin’ stockin’s up, No one’s bakin’ pie, No one’s lookin’ up to see A new star in the sky. No one’s talkin’ brotherhood, No one’s givin’ gifts, And no one loves a Christmas tree On March the twenty-fifth. I mention it today just because it’s…
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Most Popular Kindle Highlights from Deep Things of God
I’m planning to be up to speed with the Kindle just about the time it’s being phased out in favor of the next big thing. Call it my new media strategy. But I certainly see the benefits of e-books, and am looking forward to a trans-Atlantic flight this summer without 30 pounds of books in…
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Bach as Theologian
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 the cross. For Luther, Christ as the “suffering servant” is…
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Leo Steinberg Looked at Art
Leo Steinberg (1920-2011) died earlier this week (NYT obit), leaving behind a rich legacy of writing on art, both criticism and history. There are some great art historians out there, but it’s hard to imagine who can fill the void left by a Steinberg. Steinberg is probably most famous for his critical revolt against mere…
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Deep Things of God in Snohomish, WA
This weekend I’ll be in Snohomish, WA (way up there in the northwest corner of the country, just above Seattle) speaking on the Trinity and my book The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything. I’ll be at The Bridge Church in Snohomish, for a Friday evening message (6pm) and then a Saturday…
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Eureka: Interview about California Theology
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 class that I taught a couple of times over the…
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There Will be Trinitarian Hip Hop…
but have no fear, it won’t be me doing the rapping. I’m doing a workshop on the Trinity (why to love it, how to defend it) at the first-ever Los Angeles-based event for the Legacy Movement. It’ll be an all-day event on Saturday, April 9 in Compton, combining training workshops with a main speaker (Shai…
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Augustine's Worst Sin
Augustine sets out, in Confessions, to confess his sins to God comprehensively. He analyzes his life story minutely, and when he brings it all the way up to date, he makes the great leap into the present tense and confesses all that is within him. “May I know you, who know me,” he says to…
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Data-Wise
You should assume as a matter of course that at least once in your college career you will behold the blue screen of death or that your laptop will be either stolen or dropped down the fire escape or forgotten in Starbucks and that it will occur in the days before you must turn in…
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What Augustine Confessed
For Augustine, writing the Confessions didn’t just mean telling (confessing) all his sins. He took “confession” as the title of his work precisely because it has such a wealth of meanings: It means to speak forth the praise of God (“confess that you are great”); it means to acknowledge something (“confess the Lord Jesus,” see…