Awakening to Independence
Religious belief and practice directly influence society in myriad ways. However, the extent and character of its impact is a contested matter. Historians of colonial America have often argued that the First Great Awakening significantly influenced the development of the War for Independence. Paul Johnson, Harry Stout, and Rhys Isaac have each attempted to explain the connection between these historical events. Unlike revisionist...
Laying Hold of our Tradition: Free Will Baptists and the Laying on of Hands
by Joshua R. Colson The laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Spirit after baptism is foreign to most modern Baptists. In the 1600s, however, a movement emerged among English General Baptists to institute the practice in their churches. The inclusion of the rite as a gospel ordinance in both the Standard Confession (1660)[1] and the Orthodox Creed (1679) makes this fact plain.[2] What’s more? Although discontinued “by the...
Book Review: Being Mortal
The ethics of life and death continue to be an area for Christians to explore and seek to understand. I remember my first few weeks serving as a chaplain resident on trauma rotation at the University of Kentucky Health Care. The vicarious trauma that I witnessed left me paralyzed. More specifically, the fear of my own mortality became overwhelming. I witnessed the brevity of life each day with code blues, car wrecks, and traumatic...
Finding Your Christian Identity Between Individualism and Collectivism
It does not need to be repeated (but here I go) that our country is incredibly divided. It seems like there are few, if any, ways in which we are unified as a nation. At a broad level, we stand at odds on a variety of issues, not least of which includes politics. Of course, it is not a sin to disagree. If anything, we need to learn how disagree better. Yet, with so many disagreements we find ourselves grouped with others on various...
The Chief End of Man’s Education
The purpose of education is a complex issue. Christians have spent hundreds of years working through a biblical understanding of what the telos or end goal of education is. Some of the greatest minds of Christian history like Clement of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, and Thomas Aquinas wrote at length on the subject. Unfortunately, many Christians today have forgotten this long history of Christian thought and have allowed...
Book Review: Charles Malcolm Wingard, Help for the New Pastor
Needless to say, ministry is not easy, and it can be discouraging for the young pastor just starting out despite the many years of training at Bible college or seminary. You know how to prepare a sermon, but where should you start? You know you need to visit people, but how do you balance this with the much-needed office time to prepare for Sunday? Starting out in ministry can almost be like sitting down with a jigsaw puzzle right out...
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