J.R.R. Tolkien: Storytelling & the Eucatastrophe
What book has been voted #1 on NPR’s “Top 100 Fantasy Books,”[1] Waterstone’s “Book of the Century,”[2] and Amazon’s “Greatest Book of the Millennium”?[3] None other than J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings (LOTR). But why? One can almost hear the voices of literary critics lamenting, “Of all the books in the world, why pick this?” Why indeed? Why does the incredible and fantastical imagination of one man resonate so...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Cross and Community
Until I was eighteen-years-old, I held dual citizenship in two countries. The first was in the United States, where my father was born, and me; the second, Germany, where my mother was born. It was a unique experience growing up in a cross-cultural home. I would antagonize my mother with questions about life in Germany: “What’s the word for this? Do they have words for that? Does everyone wear funny overalls over there?” (I’ve since...
Thomas Helwys: A Short and Plaine Proof
John Donne famously wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself.” Likewise, no theology is formed within a vacuum, but rather emerges from within the context of human history. This is the same history in which God speaks, works, and incarnates Himself. We are called to remember the works of God (cf. Deut. 6:12; 1 Cor. 11:24; Rev. 2:5). For that reason, there is great value in studying history to try and understand how God has worked...
The Doctrine is the Drama
In his book on evangelism, Will Metzger discusses Dorothy Sayer’s thoughts on theology. At length, he quotes Todd Best’s summary: For Sayers, theology is what shapes or ought to shape everything that Christians think about and do, an it also ought to speak meaningfully to the culture in addressing broadly human questions… Christian doctrine, the teaching of historically orthodox Christianity,… is not, as many...
Knock-knock: Toward a Theology of Humor
What hath a “knock-knock” joke to do with Him Who stands at the door and knocks? That is, does God care about humor? Often times, humor finds itself on opposite ends of the spectrum, from a spiritual perspective. On one end it can be borderline sacrilege, making the things of God out to be trivial at best and blasphemous at worst. On the other end are the perennial “pastor jokes”—those that incite equal portions of groans and pity...
Recent Comments