Putin’s recklessness
|

Putin’s recklessness

In 1918 pandemic followed war. In 2022 war has followed pandemic. Few of us saw it coming. Up to the last moment, I thought Russian President Vladimir Putin would continue to chip away at Ukraine’s largely Russian-speaking eastern territories, funding “separatists” and daring the rest of the world to do something about it. I personally…

Deconstructing biblical womanhood
|

Deconstructing biblical womanhood

What if? My kids love “what if” questions. What if you had two extra arms? What if you could turn yourself into anything you wanted? These types of questions stimulate their imaginations and get them thinking about what life would be like if things were different. In her new book The Making of Biblical Womanhood,…

Get back to where you once belonged
|

Get back to where you once belonged

“Well, who wants to keep the human race going?” This is the question considered in the slim volume entitled Curing Mad Truths: Medieval Wisdom for the Modern Age by Rémi Brague, a French intellectual and historian of philosophy. Lest any of Brague’s characteristics give one pause about the books’ accessibility, the reader may draw reassurance…

In praise of small things
|

In praise of small things

In a mega/MAGA world, it is easy to hold up greatness as an ideal. Size matters, we’ve heard, whether it’s the size of our stock portfolio, pickup truck, political rally or congregation. Today I would like to consider the ant. Not, as a guide to industriousness (in Proverbs), but only in terms of its size….

Praise God for vaccines
| |

Praise God for vaccines

In the spring of 2019, I was diagnosed with superficial bladder cancer. The cancerous growth was surgically removed but reappeared nine months later and removed again. My surgeon suggested follow-up treatment at Edmonton’s Cross Cancer Clinic for BCG immunotherapy. BCG stands for Bacillis-Calmette-Guerin. BCG was developed by French doctors Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin in…

A Subversive Christmas
|

A Subversive Christmas

Medieval Christmas traditions would seem a little weird to most of us. In fact, the kind of Christmas that my ancestors likely observed in the fishing villages of Medieval North Holland probably looked a lot more like Halloween than Christmas. Take caroling, for example. We think of caroling as a joyful, cheer-sharing pastime meant to…

Permission to divorce?
| |

Permission to divorce?

I was recently at a gathering discussing churches leaving their denomination. It struck me that the attitude was “you have our permission to get divorced.” There was no plea for reconciliation. When I was in a congregational pastorate and a married couple would come to me talking about divorce, my reaction was not how can…

Two Brits banter about the past
|

Two Brits banter about the past

Most history podcasts sound like modified lectures or highly detailed disquisitions on discrete issues, requiring copious quantities of listening time and a certain degree of monomania. For the history fans for a moderately long walk, run, or drive, The Rest is History is an accessible, entertaining, and well-produced listening experience. The hosts are two British…

Reassessing our heroes
|

Reassessing our heroes

What do we do with our heroes from the past when we discover their flaws? What shall we do with the monuments to their achievements when the latter seem overshadowed by their errors? Like so many Canadians, I was horrified to learn of the discovery of 215 unmarked graves of aboriginal children on the premises…

Bookends
|

Bookends

Christian Courier has recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. The end of one world calamity and the beginning of a new world calamity stand as bookends to these 75 years. My feelings of isolation in the current pandemic have drawn my memory back to the days of WW II and my own experience in The Netherlands….

In the shadow of doubt
| |

In the shadow of doubt

How did the West turn away from Christian faith? Beginning in the 18th century philosophers and scientists made it difficult to believe in God; by the 1960s, pop culture caught up to their earlier intellectual attacks. And thus we Christians find ourselves today in a thoroughly secular society. Or so goes the usual answer. Not…

Taking the long view
|

Taking the long view

The title suggests a guide to the worthy books of the past, but it is actually Alan Jacobs’ argument for why we should assign any worth to such books. The necessity of his argument, Jacobs explains, is a modern mindset that is overloaded with information, experiencing change at a rapid pace, and inundated with the…