The Little Friar

Christianity is a believing and a very particular kind of existing corresponding to it—imitation. We can put faith first and imitation second, inasmuch as it is necessary for me to have faith in that which I am to imitate. But we must also put imitation first and faith second. I must, by some action, be marked in some measure by conformity to Christ, and thus collide with the world. Without some kind of situational tension, there is no real opportunity of becoming a believer. -- Søren Kierkegaard

This image made its rounds on Facebook, particularly on pages that purport to defend the "New Atheism". I spend a lot of my time engaging in the ideas that these New Atheists put forward because, frankly, so much of what they have to say assumes Christianity to be of a particular sort.  Namely, Christian fundamentalism. Let me establish yet again:  I do not believe in the Bible.  I believe in the God of the Bible. That's not to say I think the Bible is unimportant.  The Bible is the unique prophetic and apostolic testimony of God in Jesus Christ.  As a testimony, the Bible therefore demands a great deal of study.  When I was ordained, I was asked:  "Will you be diligent in the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures, and in seeking the knowledge of such things as may make you a stronger and more able minister of Christ?"  I answered:  "I will".  And the rest of my life has been spent keeping that promise. Anyone who listens...

Charles Meeks' Christian Hope through Fulfillfed Prophecy:  An Exposition of Evangelican Preterism is a magnificent attempt to present the future of eschatology for evangelicals.  That future, though, looks nothing like the preterist "last days" of Dispensastionalism.  Instead, it's a future that looks firmly and faithfully toward what God has already done for us and in human history, and lays claim to God in our future as the only hope of the world. What Meeks offers is a reexamination of the data of Scripture in an effort to reframe and reclaim that faith in God.  Instead of the "doom and gloom" escapism of so much evangelical eschatology, Christian Hope through Fulfilled Prophecy looks to the earliest days of the Church -- to the first century -- to find in Scripture a faith that affirms God's work within human history as the only hope we Christians have.  Instead of looking forward to something God has yet to do, Meeks finds in Scripture a fa...

Derek Penwell's The Mainliner's Survival Guide to the Post-Denominational World is a book I've yearned for for a long time.  He takes seriously the landscape of Christianity in America, and does so with a pastor's heart.  While raised in an evangelical tradition, Penwell eventually was ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and as the title suggests, he seeks to address mainline denominations such as his own in particular.  By "mainline", he means those denominations that largely had their heyday in the mid-20th Century -- think United Methodists, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church (USA), and a handful of others, not least of which is his own. Penwell develops his survey in three sections.  The first is a brief historical treatment of Christianity's varying place in the United States.  This is by far one of the best, most accessible surveys I've read in years.  He spends ...

Christopher Kaczor's The Gospel of Happiness: Rediscover Your Faith through Spiritual Practice and Positive Psychology brings the research of positive psychology to bear in understanding Christian practice.  Particularly, he explores seven ways in which positive psychology and Christian practice can lead to personal and spiritual transformation.  Kaczor focuses on the empirical findings of most recent positive psychology research, and finds those findings pointing toward the deep wisdom of the Christian spiritual tradition.  From practices of prayer and gratitude to forgiveness and virtue, Kaczor provides very practical suggestions on how Christians can live happier lives, while deepening love for God and others through those very practices.  While the book explores some important concepts in positive psychology -- what is happiness ?  how can we experience it? -- The Gospel of Happiness attempts to answer those questions by reference to Christian spiri...

From Paul Tillich's Shaking of the Foundations : Do we know what it means to be struck by grace? It does not mean that we suddenly believe that God exists, or that Jesus is the Saviour, or that the Bible contains the truth. To believe that something is, is almost contrary to the meaning of grace. Furthermore, grace does not mean simply that we are making progress in our moral self-control, in our fight against special faults, and in our relationships to men and to society. Moral progress may be a fruit of grace; but it is not grace itself, and it can even prevent us from receiving grace. For there is too often a graceless acceptance of Christian doctrines and a graceless battle against the structures of evil in our personalities. Such a graceless relation to God may lead us by necessity either to arrogance or to despair. It would be better to refuse God and the Christ and the Bible than to accept them without grace. For if we accept without grace, we do so in the ...

This is for the kids who die, Black and white, For kids will die certainly. The old and rich will live on awhile, As always, Eating blood and gold, Letting kids die. Kids will die in the swamps of Mississippi Organizing sharecroppers Kids will die in the streets of Chicago Organizing workers Kids will die in the orange groves of California Telling others to get together Whites and Filipinos, Negroes and Mexicans, All kinds of kids will die Who don’t believe in lies, and bribes, and contentment And a lousy peace. Of course, the wise and the learned Who pen editorials in the papers, And the gentlemen with Dr. in front of their names White and black, Who make surveys and write books Will live on weaving words to smother the kids who die, And the sleazy courts, And the bribe-reaching police, And the blood-loving generals, And the money-loving preachers Will all raise their hands against the kids who die, Beating them with laws and clubs and bayonets and bull...

Theology. I'm mostly in this business because of the books. And I love them all: The great solid tomes, thicker than American steak; the slim pamphlets, as fine as the wings of a butterfly, and just as enchanting. I spend my days surrounded by books. Teaching theology, for me, feels a bit like being a kid left in charge of the candy store. We all know that I'm going to give up my responsibilities keeping the store at some point to gorge on the candy, and I can't guarantee any dignity to the whole affair when I do. I'll admit that I don't bring much refinement to the act of reading. I'm always a tumble of pages, elbows, slouches, and scribbles. More than a few of my books bear the scars of war with a tea cup. Reading, for me, is enjoyable only when it is reckless and undisciplined. All of that is what makes historical theology so fun for me. Historical theology, you see, is all about reading. Or, rather, readings, of which there are good and ba...

The NIV Zondervan Study Bible , edited by DA Carson, is the newest in the study Bible genre from evangelical scholars.  It has the usual maps and charts one would expect, plus a great set of notes, but also some great short articles in the back by folks like Tim Keller, D.A. Carson, James Hamilton, Pual Williamson, Sam Storms, Graham Cole, Doug Moo and more.  They cover topics like "The Bible and Theology", "A Biblical-Theological Overview of the Bible", "Sacrifice", "Kingdom of God", "The Gospel", and "Mission".  The NIV Zondervan Study Bible is also unique, I think, in that it is filled with colored pictures of ancient archaeology sites in places like Egypt, Israel, Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome.  It brings together some of the best exegetical reflections from evangelical biblical scholars along with some of the newest research in biblical archaeology, in order to bring the biblical text alive with meaning for the c...

Currently, the most popular way of defending the notion of an eternal torment is an appeal to creaturely freedom and to God's respect for its dignity, but there could scarcely be a poorer argument -- whether it's made crudely as by William Lane Craig or elegantly by Eleonore Stump, it is going to fail. It wouldn't if we could construct a metaphysics or phenomenology of the will's liberty that was purely voluntarist, purely spontaneous, though even then we would have to explain how an absolutely libertarian act, obedient to no rationale whatsoever, would be distinguishable from sheer chance or mindless organic or mechanical impulse, and so any more free than an earthquake or embolism. But on any cogent account, free will is a power inherently purposive, teleological, primordially oriented towards the good and shaped by that transcendental appetite to the degree that a soul can recognize the good for what it is. No one can freely will the evil as evil. One c...

Some weeks ago, I wrote a theological reflection on the nature of time .  I want to expand on that a little, and develop a philosophical account of what time might be, grounded on that theological affirmation that time itself gathers a reorientation and redefinition in the Kingdom of God. So, what is time , philosophically understood?  We already have an account of time pscyhologically understood -- that is, from the existential experience we have of past, present, and future.  What is time qua time?  By time I'm talking about a way in which a thing is necessarily lost to me.  There's a way in which it is impossible to attain the same thing again:  Youth, a missed opportunity, a dinner I ate.  This sort of necessity is alien to contemporary science.  So how do we take this lost -ness?  Perhaps this necessity derives from the psychological sense of time.  If this is so, and we oppose this to the physical sense, we need to be cle...

Not Just Good, but Beautiful:  The Complementary Relationship between Man and Woman is a collection of essays that grows out of Pope Francis' colloquium -- The Synod on the Family -- at the Vatican, held from November 17-19, 2014.  That gathering was sponsored by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.  It brought together leading religious, philosophical and cultural minds in order to explore the complementarity between men and women, using fresh and creative language to explore that complementarity from a variety of viewpoints. What resulted, of course, is a way of exploring the importance of marriage and family as social institutions.  What ties these essays together, then, is an appreciation for the social beauty of marriage and family, as well as marriage's benefits for me...

... are you drawn closer to Jesus, or further away?  Something to think about.

I've been collecting all the direct commands of Jesus.  In the first post of this series, Jesus called people to repent.  He insisted that people should believe in him and follow and obey his commandments.  But repent from what and toward what?  If believing in Jesus means to follow him, where does following him lead us?  And what did he command that we should obey?  For Jesus it all begins and ends with love and mercy (as foreshadowed in the OT and reinforced in the rest of the NT). Love As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love (John 15:9). I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another (John 15:17). I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35). This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  N...

Alan Bandy and Benjamin Merkle's Understanding Prophecy:  A Biblical-Theological Approach is an excellent text that investigates the nature of the biblical prophetic texts (from both the Old Testament and the New Testament) from a theological perspective.  Bandy and Merkle contend that biblical theology is the primary prism through which biblical prophecy must be seen.  The way in which they define biblical theology centers around three key theses (chapter 1): The Bible contains a unified message. That unified message centers on Jesus. Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension are the climax of that message, becomes the central viewpoint from which all biblical prophecy must be read. Bandy and Merkle then offer an understanding of biblical prophecy that focuses prophecy not so much on telling the future as on speaking on behalf of and for God (chapter 2).  Biblical prophecy is "rooted in the revelation of God" and is therefore "historically conditioned...

Kendra and I have known one another for nearly ten years.  Of that time, we've been married nearly two years.  We've had challenging moments to our relationship -- as does any relationship (and especially one that has someone who is on the Autism spectrum) -- but I've learned more about myself in the process.  And so has Kendra.  I suppose these eight reasons are really more an ode to the respect and understanding, care and commitment, that make our love possible than it is an ode to her.  That said, the eight reasons being married to my wife rocks: 1.  She knows my moods better than I do. As an autistic man, trust me when I say, sometimes I'm clueless about how others feel -- even myself.  But Kendra can detect my moods from a mile away.  And she seems to know exactly what I need.  Whether it's a hug or a few minutes of quiet away from the loud crowd -- I take comfort knowing that Kendra is the one person I trust enough to care for me...

What some Christians read when they read Jesus' "Great Commission" from Matthew 28, with glosses for those parts they assume you already know Jesus meant but never said: Go, therefore, to all nations (especially the ones you can colonize) and make disciples (ensuring they tick all the right boxes on their theology cards), baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (guaranteeing endlessly bitter debates about paedobaptism and baptismal regeneration, and the nature of the Trinita rian relations -- the Filioque should go on and on nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum ), and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (except that Sermon on the Mount stuff, of course).  And remember, I am with you always (this is more a threat than a promise ...), to the end of the age (... because that's when I'll burn the crap out of anyone who looks at me funny).

Eric Prum and Josh Williams' Infuse:  Oil, Spirit, Water is a unique cookbook that pushes the boundaries of the genre.  What they offer are unique recipes of various extracted compounds, or "infusions".  Whether it's those standard infused party drinks or category bending Sriracha and honey soaked popcorn, this book has it all.  What adds to those unique recipes are the beautiful illustrations that make the ideas "pop".  With only a few simple tools, anyone can get started and it won't be long before you are enjoying an unlimited variety of delicious flavors. This book promises to be a valuable addition to every cooking bookshelf for the kitchen.  It's also one that would make such wonderful conversations as the table book in the living room Infuse really is a wonderful genre-bending, and mind-blowing, book. ____________________ I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review...

John Driver's Life Together in the Spirit:  A Radical Spirituality for the Twenty-First Century is a fresh word for Christians about the nature of Christian discipleship in our world.  Driver is just the guide we need for living this life together -- his pastoral wisdom in this little book is spoken with a grace, a simplicity, an love that has been borne from his years of service in and for the Church in Latin America. Life Together in the Spirit embraces the Anabaptist vision of discipleship for the contemporary Church.  That vision is one that sees the central confession of Christian faith -- that "Jesus is Lord" -- as the focal point for every aspect of our lives.  It's a vision that sees the Christian community as the context within which the life of the Spirit, the life of that confession, is lived out.  Grounded in Scripture and in the best Anabaptist thought, Driver has given us a reminder that those who have come before us have lived the Christian ...

O God, early in the morning I cry to you. Help me to pray and gather my thoughts to you, I cannot do it alone. In me it is dark, but with you there is light; I am lonely, but you do not desert me; My courage fails me, but with you there is help; I am restless, but with you there is peace; in me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience; I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me. Father in Heaven praise and thanks be to you for the night.

I haven't driven since my surgery last Wednesday.  I suspect it will be a few more days until I'm able to sit and drive without pain. That time away from driving has given me some perspective. Perhaps you have seen reports of the recent road rage incident in Florida , where one driver followed another to his home.  The presumed aim was to get the other man's address so as to report his unsafe behavior behind the wheel.  Actually, both parties called 911 to complain of the other's crazy driving.  The driver in the front car warned CNN that his gun was "cocked and locked".  Once home, he took his gun and shot dead the driver who followed him.  The wife, daughter and grandson of the man who was shot watched in horror and were forced to get out of the vehicle and wait until police arrived. Take a look at this CNN report documenting several incidents of road rage caught on tape .  According to a Washington Post poll ...

Recently, I began reading through the four gospels again, slowly, prayerfully. One of the things that struck me was in several places, in various ways, and in each gospel, Jesus places great importance in keeping his word or commandments: They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them. . . . Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me (John 14.21, 23-24). If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14.15). You are my friends if you do what I command you (John 15.14). Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord', and do not do what I tell you? (Luke 6.46; cf. Matthew 7.21). Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away (Matthew 24.35; cf. Mark 13....

Gary Thomas' Sacred Marriage:  What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More than to Make Us Happy is now revised and updated for a new day, drawing on the biblical wisdom for which Thomas has been known in books past.  Marriage, for Christians, is more than a sacred covenant with another person.  It is a spiritual discipline designed to help you know God better, trust him more fully, and love him more deeply. Scores of books have been written that offer guidance for building the marriage of your dreams.  But this book asks the counter-cultural question of Christian discipleship:  What if God's primary intent for your marriage isn't to make you happy ... but holy?  And what if your relationship isn't as much about you and your spouse as it is about you and God?  Everything about Christian marriage -- everything! -- Thomas rightly insists, is filled with prophetic potential, with the capacity for discovering and revealing Christ's c...

God of my ancestors, Lord of mercy, you who have made all things by your word and in your wisdom have established humankind to rule the creatures produced by you, and to govern the world in holiness and righteousness, and to render judgment in integrity of heart: Give me Wisdom, the consort at your throne, and do not reject me from among your children; for I am your servant, the child of your maidservant, a man weak and short-lived and lacking in comprehension of judgment and of laws. Indeed, though one be perfect among mortals, if Wisdom, who comes from you, be lacking, that one will count for nothing. Now with you is Wisdom, who knows your works and was present when you made the world; who understands what is pleasing in your eyes and what is conformable with your commands. Send her forth from your holy heavens and from your glorious throne dispatch her that she may be with me and work with me, that I may know what is pleasing to you. For she knows and u...