Culture

I suspect that 2015, from a Christian perspective, will go down in history as one of the darkest and gloomiest years of human history. The cavalier destruction of human life, in the name of religion, is on the rise worldwide. No matter how much we protest that terrorists will not change our way of...

I suspect that 2015, from a Christian perspective, will go down in history as one of the darkest and gloomiest years of human history. The cavalier destruction of human life, in the name of religion, is on the rise worldwide. No matter how much we protest that terrorists will not change our way of...

Biographical description many pastors write for the web site of their church: "Married to the most beautiful woman in the world." "We have the best youth pastor in the country." "He's the smartest guy in every room..." I often joke that the most beautiful woman in the world must be getting very...

I'm not a musicologist or a respected lyrical critic. In fact, I don't know much at all about music. I'm a novice theologian who can't help but be pricked when he hears what is played on the radio during his morning commute. This week, it happened to be the song, "Take Me to Church," by Hozier. The...

I'm not a musicologist or a respected lyrical critic. In fact, I don't know much at all about music. I'm a novice theologian who can't help but be pricked when he hears what is played on the radio during his morning commute. This week, it happened to be the song, "Take Me to Church," by Hozier. The...

I have had the pleasure on a couple of occasions of sitting next to a girl wearing a hijab. Typically, this has occurred in departure lounges of airports or on the platforms of railway stations. Never has it happened in a place of worship at the time of a service. Never, that is, until recently. On...

I have had the pleasure on a couple of occasions of sitting next to a girl wearing a hijab. Typically, this has occurred in departure lounges of airports or on the platforms of railway stations. Never has it happened in a place of worship at the time of a service. Never, that is, until recently. On...

D. Brent Layham, iPod, YouTube, Wii Play: Theological Engagements with Entertainment (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2012), x + 220 pp., $24.00 D. Brent Laytham, a professor of theology at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore, has written a very thought-provoking, judicious, and insightful...

ii. God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in anything, contrary to his Word; or beside it, if matters of faith, or worship. So that, to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands, out of conscience, is to betray true...

Is Idolatry the New Sin? "Just talk about idolatry and you'll be fine." A mentor recently offered these words in my presence to a seminary student who was facing an assignment to preach on the topic of sin. The student's sermon may, indeed, have been "fine" if he followed that suggestion, but the...