Albert Wolters was my Greek professor, a columnist for Christian Courier, expert on the Copper Scrolls and a preacher, but he is best known internationally as the author of Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview – what philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff called “The best statement I have come across of the ‘reformational’ Christian worldview.”…
If we can’t get angels, there is nothing anyone on the planet wants more for Christmas this year than a vaccine for the coronavirus. We are told it’s on the way, but we must be patient. A global pandemic can’t be subdued in a day. This is our first COVID Christmas, and hopefully, by God’s…
“My world just opened up. In fact, it exploded.” Justin Cooper was a preacher’s son who arrived as an 18-year-old at Trinity Christian College in 1968. Through professor Calvin Seerveld in particular, he saw in a fresh way that “this is my Father’s world” – and thus perceived he ought to love that world. “They…
Do you dismiss as a hypocrite a public intellectual who divorced his wife of 27 years and married his much younger research assistant while writing a book called The Road to Character? Or do you buy his next book to see what he has learned through such public scandal, assuming a person is more than their…
Children, like puppies, are always zooming around. They zoom until they drop exhausted, and it’s great fantastic fun. But Zooming with a capital Z – or whatever your video conferencing platform of choice may be – is not good for teaching students except as a last resort.
Trustees at Calvin University voted unanimously on May 8 to approve some significant changes in faculty requirements with regards to Reformed identity. While the University webpage headlines “Calvin Deepens and Strengthens Faith Expectations,” the student newspaper declares “BREAKING: Board of trustees vote that faculty no longer required to be CRC, send kids to Christian K-12 schools.” What is going on? Calvin is an official ministry of the Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA).
Does this sound familiar to ears tuned to Abraham Kuyper? “There is not one ‘square inch’ in the entire public square where Christ’s model of hospitality does not have relevance and normativity.” Kaemingk tweaks Kuyper’s slogan: he acknowledges the crown of Christ and the political justice Christ demands, but insists that the cross of Christ puts the hospitality of God for humankind as the primary frame for the Christian’s activity in the public square.
Although it isn’t by any means the most comforting or reassuring novel for the current moment, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven. It’s the story of a post-apocalyptic world in which most of the population has been decimated by a flu pandemic. The narrative focuses on a group of actors and musicians known as the Travelling Symphony, who journey around what’s left of the Great Lakes region keeping hope and culture alive by performing the classics.
Harry Van Belle has written an invitation to those shaped by our secular age, to life as coram deo, lived before the face of God. This means seeking the meaning, intimacy and vitality that comes from recognizing that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jesus loves and cares for us, and calls us to a life of deep spirituality and love. Van Belle not only shows coram deo as a comprehensive approach to understanding human history and the Bible, but as a way of life that brings meaning to vocation, education, and the seasons of life.
In the second week of March, Joel Koops, Steve Bosman and Dave Caputo gathered round a strategy table, exchanging information on COVID and wondering how to keep their workers employed. Then they asked each other: “What can we do to help?” The three men own Trusscore, a material science company that manufactures building products such as wall and ceiling panels as well as pipes.
After 85 years of adventures with family, church, culture and creation, Bert Witvoet has been enfolded into the loving arms of his Creator and Father. After a few weeks of struggles with his health, on Tuesday morning, March 10th, he peacefully passed away in Niagara Health Centre (St. Catharines, Ont.) surrounded by his wife and all his children. Bert was a beloved Editor of Christian Courier for 17 years, a role he returned to twice more when duty called. He continued mentoring young and beginning writers and writing lively editorials until his final retirement in 2016.
Esther Acolatse frames the problem well: a hermeneutical gap between the church in the global South and the modern church in the West. The African church, with its animist cultural heritage and the influence of divination found in African traditional religions, lives in an enchanted world where the conflicts of angels and demons affect the details of everyday life. Supernatural forces not only manipulate the environment and social system, but also the enter into individual consciousness to wreak havoc and harm. While this seems close to the Biblical worldview, it can be too dualistic, distracting from Christ’s victory at the cross and missing the joy of living in tune with the Holy Spirit.
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