Last night we joined my parents in the “Hanging of the Greens” service at Memorial Baptist Church in Pulaski, Virginia. The kids and I sang Marty Haugen’s version of the Annunciation and Magnificat (from “Holden Evening Prayer”), and I contributed short meditations about three symbols common to this time of year. Once we’re to Christmas, I’ll share what I wrote … More Candle Light: An Advent Meditation
I’ve got a new post up today at The Anxious Bench, on the presence of three virtues in Abraham Lincoln’s original 1863 proclamation of a national day of thanksgiving. But that’s all the blogging I plan to do this week. Enjoy your Thanksgiving, and we’ll hope to see you back here next week, when I plan posts on teaching, academic … More Happy Thanksgiving!
Having offered some unsolicited homiletic advice last Saturday, I thought today I might share a rare example of my own preaching: a sermon I delivered last month in Denver, to set up a four-class series at Covenant Village of Colorado on the history of Christians engaging with the wider culture. For the Sunday evening vespers service, I meditated … More Habitation and Homelessness: My Sermon on Citizenship
In this morning’s post, I quoted historian John Fea, who wrote at his blog that while he struggled with his own identification with evangelicalism, he would probably continue to use “evangelical” to describe himself. In part that was because he had decided “that to quit evangelicalism is to abandon a significant part of my responsibility and calling … More Just How Evangelical Is My “Public”?
It’s November 15th, and I’m still not quite sure how I feel about evangelicalism — and my place in it — seven days after an election in which 81% of the white evangelicals who cast ballots opted for Donald Trump. For one thing, we’re getting analysis of the vote more sophisticated than what we saw from exit polls in the heat … More A Week Later… Evangelicalism
Early in professors’ careers, writes Wheaton College biblical scholar Gary Burge, they “must learn the culture in which they work and decide how they are going to fit into the corporate life of the community?” Not only do they need to hone their skills as teachers, continue the research that will earn them tenure, and form important … More Mapping Your Academic Career: Academic Freedom and Institutional Dissonance
Let me talk to pastors for a moment. (Though their congregants might want to listen in.) Sisters and brothers – Now that candidate Trump has become president-elect Trump, I know that many of you are struggling with how you’re going to preach tomorrow morning. Unsettled yourselves, you know that you’ll soon look out at the expectant faces of people feeling … More “Tell It Like It Is”: How Pastors Can Respond to Election Day
One way or another, it’s clear that white evangelical support for Donald Trump is the biggest religion-and-politics story to come out of the election. But as a former student pointed out to me yesterday, that’s not the only Christian group that might have some soul-searching to do. Now, this is preliminary analysis of exit polls, and such … More It’s Not Just Evangelicals…
Back in March, when Donald Trump was nothing more than the surprise leader in the Republican primaries, the fact that he was getting even 40% of the self-identified “evangelical” vote had already led Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore to declare that religious term “almost meaningless this year.” Even worse, “in many ways the word itself … More Done with “Evangelical”? Maybe You Should Try…
One more parable, also from Mark 4: Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. … More Parables: Roots
The Pietist Schoolman 