Early Beginnings of Pentecostal Worship
An easy error for a historian to commit is to equate or link events or movements in history that are similar, while ignoring or underplaying… Read More »Early Beginnings of Pentecostal Worship
Articles on Culture
Imagination, Illumination and Faith: a Proposed Connection
We have already showed the importance of imagination for shaping on overall Christian outlook and sensibility. Still, for many Christians these things seem abstract and… Read More »Imagination, Illumination and Faith: a Proposed Connection
Discerning the Christian Imagination: Consensus and Canonicity
Determining if a poem, hymn, musical piece, novel, devotional work, painting or other work should be considered a helpful work of Christian imagination is mostly… Read More »Discerning the Christian Imagination: Consensus and Canonicity
Discerning the Christian Imagination: Analogies and Proportion
If Christians should grow in their ability to discern superior Christian works of imagination, how should they do this? Must every Christian pursue some kind… Read More »Discerning the Christian Imagination: Analogies and Proportion
Handshakes: More Like Holy Kisses Than Ever
An interesting observation this morning. Libertarian-ish lawyer Ken White asks about handshakes, and stats and polling guy Nate Silver offers an answer that handshakes mean… Read More »Handshakes: More Like Holy Kisses Than Ever
Shapers of Christian Imagination
How is Christian imagination shaped? A true but not very helpful answer would be to say, “everything shapes imagination”. Visits to the doctor, watering the… Read More »Shapers of Christian Imagination
Christian Imagination Fleshed Out
What does the Christian imagination look like when it is fleshed out? We can imagine it as a spectrum, beginning with Scripture itself and working… Read More »Christian Imagination Fleshed Out
Imaginative Knowing
If “Christian imagination” is really another way of saying Christian knowing, or Christian knowledge, why persist in calling it imagination? Why not simply call it… Read More »Imaginative Knowing
Imagination and Understanding Reality
Should Christians persist in referring to “Christian Imagination”? Since we are concerned with truth, should we not avoid terms that have connotations of what is… Read More »Imagination and Understanding Reality
Unprecedented
These are not unprecedented days. That’s important to say, because unprecedented has become one of the most overused descriptors of the past year. To call… Read More »Unprecedented
A Concise Biblical Evaluation of Critical Theory
Podcast version of this article: The issue of Critical Theory (CT) has become the hot-button issue for evangelicals over the past couple of years, as evidenced… Read More »A Concise Biblical Evaluation of Critical Theory
Island Culture
Le Mont-Saint-Michel is a tidal island off Normandy, France. Water levels have varied over the centuries, but at its highest, the island would be completely… Read More »Island Culture
Beauty’s Description
Beauty defined may be abstract and remote; beauty described should be concrete. What does beauty look like? For that matter, since beauty is not only… Read More »Beauty’s Description
Tattoos: To Do or Eschew?
The Christian life is meant to be a life of obedience grounded in discernment. “Test all things; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thess. 5:21)… Read More »Tattoos: To Do or Eschew?
Beauty’s Difficulties: The Problem of Taste
After more than a century of grappling with Descartes’ division of knowledge into “subjective” and “objective”, eighteenth-century thinkers developed a way to rescue the concept… Read More »Beauty’s Difficulties: The Problem of Taste
Lessons from a Pandemic: Science Is Limited
I’m obviously very thankful for science, I’m thankful for medical advancements that improve quality of life, I’m thankful for technology. However, what our current situation… Read More »Lessons from a Pandemic: Science Is Limited
The Unexamined Life
“The unexamined life is not worth living”, said Socrates. Socrates was teaching the need to live a life where all things are parsed for their… Read More »The Unexamined Life
Live Images Are Not Living Persons
Our technologies have come a long way from when John wrote, likely using a reed-pen on a papyrus sheet, “I had many things to write,… Read More »Live Images Are Not Living Persons
Disembodied Christianity
During last week, I read one man rage at ‘conservative Christians’ for their desire to re-open churches. He then proceeded to point out that Hebrews… Read More »Disembodied Christianity
Let Us Break Bread Together On Our Screens
“John, we’d love it if you and Susan would join us for a meal on Thursday evening.” “Uh…well, Mike, thanks but…isn’t that illegal? I mean,… Read More »Let Us Break Bread Together On Our Screens