Christ’ Three-Fold Coming in Music: The Christmas Oratorio’s musical beauty and theological simplicity drive home the power of Christ’s coming in all its forms in order to help bring about the coming of Christ in the hearts of its hearers, while pointing them toward the final coming of Christ at its end.
Bach’s Holy Dread: Scholarship tends to secularize Bach. But the historically informed performance movement helps restore awareness of his firm theological grounding, bringing Bach’s spirituality to the forefront. To what extent does he faithfully transmit Lutheran doctrine? What did he privately believe?
Investments for the Kingdom: Eventide Funds has confounded the investment world with its success—and its biblically based principles. The murmurs have faded: since its launch in 2008, Eventide’s flagship mutual fund, the Gilead Fund, has given shareholders a 13.70 percent annualized return.
Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines That Shape the Church for Mission by David Fitch (IVP, 2016). Is there a way to be the church that engages the world, not by judgment nor accommodation but by becoming the good news in our culture? We have lost the intent and practice of the sacramental ways of the historic church, […]
Where Did The Universe Come From? This is the first of five brief audio clips from an NPR Morning Edition series on contemplating the universe. The series runs from 12/26/2016 to 12/30/2016, closing with “How Will the Universe End?” and might serve as a set of starter pieces for astronomy, philosophy, intro to religion, or […]
Top Ten Religious Liberty and Church-State Developments of 2016: Howard Friedman picks the most important church-state and religious liberty developments of the past year. “This was a busy year, and a number of the important developments amounted to themes that spanned many months. So here are my Top Ten picks for the rather chaotic year that […]
Varieties of Religious Experience: Ross Douthat provides a convenient list of current popularized notions about God, gods, and other versions of the numinous. Useful for the sociology of religion, apologetics, world religion, intro to philosophy, or introducing William James’ original book.
Hollywood discovers God! Again! — New York Times headline the other day: “Secular Hollywood Quietly Courts the Faithful.” The basic message of this in-depth business feature was that this is a topic that is not new and that it is not going away, in part because Hollywood has entered an era in which making profitable […]
Love, Liberal Education, and the Secret of Human Identity: A truly Christian education in the liberal arts can raise the soul to see a glimmer of what Dante wishes for us to see. I have become painfully aware of the chasm between those who love the liberal arts, what I have called the free-making arts, and […]
The Religious-Liberty Showdowns Coming in 2017: In 2017, Trump’s administration—backed by a Republican-controlled Congress—will take up pending religious-liberty questions in all three branches of government. Every issue will come saddled with this fundamental conflict: Some groups’ claims to religious liberty may necessarily involve curtailing the rights of others.
