Recommended Books (Winter 2019)
The old PBS program Reading Rainbow opened with a song that argued that reading allows us to go anywhere and be anything, even if only for a moment. While PBS has aired more than its share of silliness, that point is important. Reading really does open whole new vistas for the reader and makes it possible for us to travel to distant lands and learn new ideas from the comfort of a favorite sitting chair. Words, in themselves, are...
Grace in Arminian Thought: A Plea for Clarity
by Jeremy Craft A few years ago I found myself in a discussion with a Free Will Baptist minister who was uneasy with how I taught about the believer’s perseverance. To him, my strong emphasis on grace sounded too Calvinistic, as if I believe in the doctrine of eternal security (once saved, always saved) and that grace gives license for sin. Yet this very same minister had also heard me teach on the doctrine of apostasy. Interestingly...
Navigating Grief
I have recently been thinking through the dynamics of grief and how human beings deal with loss. As a hospital chaplain, I meet people every day who are grieving. I have seen how grief has affected those I care about in church. Furthermore, my grandfather passed away this past September. Papaw was special to me. He was my friend. Grief is a normal reaction we all face to significant loss. This reaction is often left unprocessed and...
Technology in View of the Eschaton
Sophia is a humanoid robot that was been created by a Hong Kong-based company known as Hanson Robotics. She was fully activated in 2016 and since then has made quite an impact on pop culture. The Internet is replete with videos of Sophia being interviewed and on display. She has been on 60 Minutes, The Tonight Show, and a handful of other notable shows, and has been profiled in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. What makes Sophia...
The End of History
Christianity is inherently concerned with history. Early twentieth-century historian Marc Bloch went so far as to say, “Christianity is a religion of historians.”[1] He could make this claim because, unlike other religions, Christianity doesn’t derive its doctrines or rituals from mythology that is inherently outside time. Rather, “for sacred books, the Christians have books of history.”[2] The Bible is filled with history and...
Food: A Good Gift from a Good God
(Part I/II) We find ourselves eating all kinds of food (especially desserts) this time of year. Yet amid the feasting and celebrating, have you ever thought about food Christianly? Is there a proper Christian view of food? Is it merely a means to an end, or is it nobler than that? Is it somehow less important—less spiritual—than, say, Bible reading and prayer? Over this two-part essay, we will consider five principles regarding...
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