“I’m not sure I believe that God, like, talks to people or gets involved in day-to-day things,” a friend of mine said recently. “That just doesn’t make any sense to me.” I should mention that he’s a pastor, and his comment got me thinking about secularism and its impact on Christianity. In his book A…
It was about a year into Covid, mid-lockdown, and unlike any time before, when I felt fear pressing in all around us. Too much social media, not enough genuine connection. Too much entertainment and too little prayer. Distraction, distraction. There was yet another crisis demanding our collective attention. I don’t remember if it was a…
David Goa fits the image of a wise philosopher with his flowing white beard, curly pipe and book-lined study. However, his focus is not so much on the academy as on the public square. He was, for some 15 years, founding director of the Chester Ronning Center for the Study of Religion and Public Life…
I first noticed it in personal correspondence. It seemed quaint, maybe even a tad archaic. But the word recurred in all the letters, and often many times in each correspondence. There it was in his last letter to me. “I am glad you have reissued [Beyond Homelessness] again.” “I have been so glad to reread…
My home town of Kampen is a very pretty, small town near the mouth of the river IJssel in the Netherlands. In Reformed circles it became famous because of the seminary founded there by the “separated congregations,” one of the two branches of the Afscheiding of 1854. During the time I lived in Kampen, there…
Sometimes the whirlwind of U.S.-related news carries interesting topics. One such is the “order of love” (ordo amoris in Latin) that hit the news in February. The controversy itself is not worth revisiting, but it prompted knowledgeable people to write on the subject of love, explaining where the idea of an “order of love” really…
Praying at a public event has challenges. People might have other beliefs or no faith tradition at all. I consider this when I open meetings with prayer at our Florida retirement park. When prayer respects differences, most people appreciate it. Resurrection mysteries This month Christians celebrate Easter, and every Sunday is a celebration of Easter….
Back in the days of Gestetner machines and electric typewriters, I literally cranked out the bulletin for our small-town church. Many announcements, especially those on the weekly calendar, were punctuated by the letters DV. As a new Christian, I had no idea what that meant. The pastor kindly pointed me to James 4. We shouldn’t…
Christians have differed in interpreting the cryptic reference to a thousand years in Revelation 20. On the surface, it seems to teach that God’s people will be raised from the dead to reign with a returned Christ for a thousand years, after which will come a brief rebellion and battle before the last judgement. Eschatological…
Josué Reichow is a bright scholar from Brazil who is opening Dooyeweerd in new ways for a new culture. I first came across Reichow through his talk on a Christian response to Critical Theory, in which he offered a generous and clear-eyed way Christians could ally with the postmodern project of deconstruction and decolonization but…
I am a now-retired seminary professor. One of the occupational hazards of my tribe is getting asked theological questions at unexpected times and in all kinds of places. For a Reformed theologian these include the usual touchy points of the Reformed faith – Why do we baptize babies? Is God fair when he chooses some…
I’ve been with the Christian Courier for a year now, and it’s been such a joy. Looking back on this year of columns, including the one the editors wisely rejected, I asked myself what common thread runs through them. It is, simply, the Christian life. It’s a wonderfully inexhaustible topic, if there ever was one!…
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