If you haven’t heard about James Davison Hunter’s recent book, To Change the World, you should at least acquaint yourself with its basic argument. This is one of those rare, earthquake-shaking books that will be discussed for many years to come – and rightly so. The implications of his line of thinking are far-reaching, especially for those in the academic and political arenas.
If you’ve been called to the academic world in any way, you should certainly read C.S. Lewis’ essay Learning in Wartime. It was originally preached in a church in October of 1939. Thus, the backdrop for his writing was the second world war but any Christian must answer the questions Lewis poses and resolves.
He begins with, “…every Christian who
If we’re going to think faithfully, that probably means we need to think accurately about ourselves. Unfortunately, most of us do not. Professor Daniel Gilbert backs up this assumption with data. In his highly readable and rather entertaining book, Stumbling on Happiness, he writes:
“…if you are like most people, then like most
We’ve all heard the vacuous claim that all religions are the same. “They’re just different roads that go up the same mountain,” people parrot to us, repeating what they’ve been told thousands of times. That claim, as baseless and simplistic as it always has been, may start getting less and less support.
It is noteworthy that the illustration of
One of the challenges of living faithfully in a predominantly secular age is imagining what difference it would make if we looked for God in history. That sounds absurd, doesn’t it? But much of history, American history at least, has been considered, explored, and recorded as if God were absent. Even for some who acknowledge God’s existence, their historical inquiry assumes he’s apathetic, uninvolved, distant
Are there unanswerable questions? Should we opt to not answer some questions and choose instead to just “accept some things by faith?”
Billy Graham faced this dilemma early in his career as an evangelist when his close friend Chuck Taylor barraged him with questions about the Bible. Taylor had
Proverbs 25:2 may be the leading candidate for a life verse for thoughtful Christians. The text reads, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” This shows the contrast between God and people but also the glory of both. There are some things only God knows or can know. People are not omniscient. But there are some things that people can know, should know, and
The tag line on this blog reads, “where thoughtful faith and faithful thinking intersect.” Perhaps that needs a little explanation. What do I mean by “thoughtful faith” and “faithful thinking?”
Thoughtful faith dares to ask questions, probing into implications and applications not immediately
One of the foundational assumptions behind this blog is that people are whole, integrated persons. Thus, the way we see all of life and interact with all people should be framed by a sense of the wholeness, the integrity, of all of life.
This holds true even in the lives of those with whom we disagree strongly. Christopher Hitchens,
Many Christian students I know would love to tell their non-Christian professors about their faith. Motivations range from exasperation (because the teacher takes pot-shots at the Christian faith) to genuine compassion (because the education process tends to unite teacher and student).
Our modern world and education system