“The Word of God is inspired, inerrant, and infallible. And when he was about eighteen years old, he grew a beard.” This is one of Dr. Brad Jersak’s favourite provocative lines, which he uses to expound on a key text: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it…
For the person of faith, obeying God’s call – or even recognizing it – can be challenging enough. But what happens when one believer’s firm sense of calling dictates the callings of others? This is one of the themes at the heart of Irish writer Emma Donoghue’s most recent novel, Haven. The story begins when…
The Anglican Church of Canada – my home denomination – released a report in 2020 suggesting “there will be no members, attenders or givers” by 2040. In 1961 our peak membership was made up of 1.35 million souls. A mere 40 years later, these numbers were halved. By 2017, membership dropped to 282,412. By all…
How did it happen that in the waning days of the Roman Empire, a small, often persecuted religious movement that had spent three centuries on the fringes of society, suddenly swept through the Empire’s population, institutions, and power structures until, in Gibbon’s famous words, it “finally erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on the…
I didn’t grow up with itinerant preachers or tent revivals. I don’t belong to a charismatic tradition which regularly seeks outward manifestations of the work of the Spirit of God. So I am a bit mystified and, if I’m honest, cynical about the strange attraction of Christians with the revival at Asbury University in Kentucky…
“Who are these people?” I asked excitedly as I walked down the aisle, my eyes darting left and right, taking in the scene. “Oh,” my friend replied casually, pausing to rest his hand on a nearby pew, “those are . . . the saints.” I stared back at him blankly. It was after school, and…
There are three small trees in my garden and none of them is large enough for a bird’s nest, but whenever there is a flutter, I find I freeze and hope because February brings blackbird weather and blackbird song. Growing up in Ontario, the first redwing blackbirds were an early sign of spring. I remember…
Deconstruction is a couple of generations old now. It was originally formulated by Jacques Derrida in the late 1960’s to express the complexity of our relationship to our cultural traditions. It meant accepting that our confident knowing had to be reassessed. Today, deconstruction is having another moment in the spotlight. Specifically, among those who inhabit…
No one has ever accused me of being a mystic. For one thing, I don’t dress the part. No flowing robes or beard down to the belly. Corduroy trousers and tweed jackets are my style. But even apart from sartorial evidence, my writings show few signs of flirting with mysticism. I love the carefully constructed…
We live in a moment when many Christians are deconstructing forms of faith that don’t ring true to Jesus. A renewed faith fit for life in today’s world often involves sifting out the rot and keeping what is most precious. But if all you end up with is a scrapyard of dismantled pieces, what good…
By my early 20s, I had developed a spiritual disorder for which I don’t have a name. It consisted in the ability to wring from any biblical text the worst possible news, even when this meant adopting theological positions that I wasn’t wholly convinced of, or that contradicted each other. Be ye perfect, as I…
In Oshawa, Ontario, in 1978, an unremarkable mall called Five Points was built. I used to go there sometimes as a teen. Over time, business dried up as big box stores started cropping up on the outskirts of town. Eventually, Five Points was torn down and replaced, in 2017, with Dymon Self Storage – a…
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