What are bodies for? Why do we have bodies? John Kleinig sets out to answer such simple, yet profound, questions in his recent book Wonderfully Made: A Protestant Theology of the Body. As Kleinig puts it, such an inquiry “is not a theoretical question for idle speculation, something for philosophers to consider. It is a […]
Friday, 14 January, 2022 by Joshua Pauling
Denominations across the spectrum are facing the reality of youth attrition. Findings from Pew Research Center suggest that upwards of three-quarters of today’s religious “nones” were “raised as a member of a particular religion before shedding their religious identity in adulthood.” Historically, at least a portion of those who left the church would return when […]
Monday, 08 November, 2021 by Joshua Pauling
A lively debate over how central Christian worldview thinking should be has been going on for many years. Some posit that worldview is the catalyst that brings Christian doctrine into faithful practice, through applying biblical teaching to cultural issues. Take for example, Al Mohler’s daily program The Briefing, which opens each day with, “this is […]
Friday, 01 October, 2021 by Joshua Pauling
Recently, I found myself at a fairly typical community church for an educational event. It was a lovely occasion, bustling with the pleasant sight of young and old, families and children. I’m always grateful to see a church with substantial resources and facilities all well-kept. There was an extensive educational wing, a fellowship hall and […]
Monday, 06 September, 2021 by Joshua Pauling
Image: Copyright © Edward Riojas. Used by permission. The May-June print edition of Modern Reformation provided stimulating reflections on beauty, goodness, and art—something Protestants have not been known for historically. In his article, “Theology and Beauty: An Enquiry,” Bo Helmich laments that Protestants “have long been criticized for treating beauty with indifference, suspicion, and hostility.” He […]
Friday, 09 July, 2021 by Edward Riojas, Joshua Pauling
Joshua Pauling (JP): Thank you, Jeff, for agreeing to discuss your new book, Reading the Times: a Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News. To start, the book has an interesting origin—what was the impetus for writing the book? Jeffrey Bilbro (JB): This is somewhat ironic, but as I acknowledge in the preface, the catalyst […]
Monday, 07 June, 2021 by Jeffrey Bilbro, Joshua Pauling
In part 1, I explored how our current cultural and political moment offers opportunities for developing new coalitions. There are exiles from the Left and the Right who show a common interest in developing a parallel polis of sorts, where communities of humane scale can form and thrive, independently from ideological a prioris that put […]
Monday, 10 May, 2021 by Joshua Pauling
Capitol riot. Portland protests. MAGA. Woke. At the utterance of such words, primal emotions and tribal loyalties emerge with sharpness and severity. Words like these have come to represent two alternative universes on either side of reality—as near photographic negatives of one another. Both sides exhibit similar symptoms, revealing shared underlying pathologies; ideology over truth, […]
Monday, 12 April, 2021 by Joshua Pauling
In Part 1, I explored how sports function as what James K.A. Smith calls a cultural liturgy. While sports send strong cultural messages of consumerism, competition, and entertainment, they also offer a window into how human beings form lasting habits of devotion and commitment—how it is we come to adore something. The rituals and practices […]
Monday, 08 March, 2021 by Joshua Pauling
In March 2020 BCE (Before COVID Era), sports fans were gearing up for another college basketball binge, with conference championships underway and the fabled NCAA tournament ready for roll-out. Excitement was building for a new round of heroes and villains, upsets and blowouts, Cinderella stories and human-interest pieces, all carefully curated into an ever-expanding multimedia […]
Monday, 15 February, 2021 by Joshua Pauling
The Cold War dissidents are currently hot commodities. Rod Dreher has been documenting their lives for years now, especially in his new book Live Not by Lies, which tells the stories of those who lived behind the Iron Curtain and found “within [themselves] and [their] community the means to live in the dignity of truth” […]
Monday, 04 January, 2021 by Joshua Pauling
We’re steeped in a cultural soup of ascent. From religious life framed as the journey upwards, to transcending human limitations through technology, or climbing the corporate ladder, the mentality of ascent is ubiquitous. Career advancement. Personal achievement. The moral arc of history. And so it goes. But as the incarnation of our Lord in the […]
Wednesday, 16 December, 2020 by Joshua Pauling