The Little Friar

Don't Blame the Mud , by Marty Machowski, author of The Ology and The Gospel Story Bible , gives a simple story to parents that is illustrative of how sin often occurs.  In the story, Max is on his way home from school, and he hears his mother's voice resounding in his head not to fall into the mud and get dirty.  All he has to do is walk home, change his clothes, and then he can go out and play.  It's pretty simple.  But then he sees a muddy path, and he knows he can just run along the trail next to the creek to skip stones and find frogs.  Why wait when he can do it now?  He won't get dirty. Max gets the mud on him.  Just as Paul personifies sin in Romans 6-7, illustrator Craig McIntosh personifies the mud.  The mud grabs him and covers him.  It gets everywhere.  So Max sneaks in, hides his muddy clothes, puts on new clothes, picks up a book, and jumps in bed as if nothing ever happened.  His mom sees right through hi...

Trinity Without Hierarchy:  Reclaiming Nicene Orthodoxy in Evangelical Theology , edited by Michael Bird and Scott Harrower, is a difficult book to review, much less rate or recommend.  It's a mix of both introductory and advanced essays -- all of which make a clear contribution to the ongoing conversation about the nature of trinitarian faith in the future of Evangelicalism.  For example, Ian Paul writes a detailed but accessible chapter on the trinitarian theology of Revelation (85-107). It's a good introduction, accessible to nearly every reader.  While Tyler Wittman's brilliant essay on Thomas Aquinas and the Trinity (141-164) will require far more advanced familiarity with the history of theological thought. But Trinity Without Hierarchy shouldn't be overlooked.  The book is a clear statement on the shortcoming of the subordination of the Son to the Father that's making its way around Evangelical circles.  Michael Bird's essay rightly points out...

Tim Anderson's Into His Presence:  A Theology of Intimacy with God is a book that I've thought for some time we actually needed.  Right from the introduction, Anderson explores the depth of what this relationship means for us experientially, and the difference that a rich theology can make in that relationship.  The first half of the book comprising four chapters most met the hopes I'd had for this book.  His defining "intimacy with God" forces us to think concretely about all the nebulous thoughts swirling around.  Chapter 2 addresses the subject regarding philosophy and theology with some of that theology being the most helpful to me.  Chapter 3 on linking the fall with intimacy with God was one of the best in the book and did clear up some real questions for me.  The chapter on God as our Father tied in some important information as well and made sense of the role of fathers in our lives that is often written about today. There are some pl...

Fran Pratt's Call and Response:  Litanies for Congregational Prayer is a beautifully poetic text filled with pastorally-sensitive, theologically-rich congregational litanies for a variety of occasions.  This is an excellent resource for liturgists and pastors whose task is to lead the people of God in prayer and praise and lament.  Each of the litanies in this text are meant to be used in the context of public worship, so they're fit for regular congregational use.  Pratt's writing is clear and engaging, and the spirituality in the poetry of these responsive prayers is deep.  There's no facile Christianity on display here.  It's just the sort of resource needed to assist congregations in revitalizing their public faith and the prayers of the people. The book is divided into five sections with three appendices. The sections include, "Litanies for Looking Forward", "Litanies for Looking Outward", "Litanies for Coping", "Litan...

Micah Berteau's Love Changes Everything:  Finding What's Real in a World Full of Fake explores the height and depth and breadth of God's love for us in a refreshing way.  Using the biblical story of Hosea and Gomer, Berteau looks at a question nearly every one of us asks at some point:  Can God love me -- flaws and all? If your mental image of God is as a punisher, or a stern judge, then this book can show, through Scripture, just how much love God really has for all people, no matter what their past is. Love really does change everything.  And in a culture that seeks its affirmation and acceptance in fleeting ways -- on social media, for example -- Berteau explores the difference love makes when its frame of reference is the covenant fidelity and kindness depicted in Hosea.   This is a much needed book.  And one that you need to pick up and read. _____________________ I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my ho...

Some years ago, teaching the introductory Christian theology course around the theme of liturgy as theology, I required students to read Evangelical Is Not Enough .  It's a beautiful little book, that challenges the prevailing distrust of liturgy among evangelicals.  There exist, even in the Anglican tradition, those sorts of folks who believe that repeated exercises rob the exercise of its power.  In psychology, it's known as the Law of Diminishing Returns.  As the novelty wears off, the activity seems to produce less response in our brains.  This is usually understood when it comes to things like addictions, in particular.  But, it can be applied to other areas as well. Yet the aversion to liturgy among Protestants goes even deeper.  Just mention Luther's treatment of the abuses of a Church that had become so enamored with rituals that it seemed to walk away from its Christological center.   Thus, we conclude, rituals are to be avoided bec...

I've been (somewhat) at work on my next book about political theology.  Since I live deep in the heart of a a "red state" (Tennessee), that means I have to come face-to-face with the realities of the political imagination in America.  Not, that is, to switch readers' allegiances from one color to another, but to redraw the map they've inherited; to place a question mark next to its self-evident obviousness, which they treat as if it were the periodic table of elements (with only two to choose from!). So I've been working on a rough draft heuristic that I'm hoping to develop in that book. Most of us come from an array of political spectra, both from political first principles (which we apparently have a more difficult time articulating these days, based on my conversations) and practical, concrete policy decisions (which, if we're honest, seem to be the only place where Americans actually think about these issues anymore).  I think it's a ser...

"Put yourself into a relation of indebtedness to some of the great thinkers of the past."  So the Free Church of Scotland patriarch, Alexander Whyte, in a commencement lecture to students at New College, Edinburgh in the early years of the 20th Century.  He himself was a lifelong student of the Puritan Thomas Goodwin; not only a student but an enthusiast, an apologist for Goodwin as one whose depth and penetration of the theology of grace, Whyte believed, was without a serious rival.  I was introduced to Whyte when I was a seminary student of Tom Langford. Sixty years later the Christian philosopher Nels S Ferre advised those who wanted to grow an authentic spirituality and an intellectually honest and resilient faith to choose and master one thinker till they knew that person's thought thoroughly.  From then on everything else that is read will be measured against that authority; the person whose thought you have taken time to think through, understand, critique an...

Read part 3 here.

Read part 2 here .

"There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve" (Miroslav Volf).

Read part 1 here .

Some weeks ago, I wrote a series on my theology of preaching.  Now, to try the same thing with my theology of the eucharist.  Part 1 -- on the theology of food.

I wrote this not long ago . Tonight, I was searching through YouTube for some sermons by Fred Craddock, that illustrious preacher of preachers.  The one who initially helped to teach me to preach. And I found this: Would that pastors were more like this now.  But, sadly, at least in this one experience lately, pastors have abrogated their divine office to something much smaller, less Christ-like, than pastors are called to be.