Gene Edward Veith
The word calling, or in its Latinate form vocation, had long been used in reference to the sacred ministry and the religious orders. Martin Luther was the first to use vocation to refer also to secular offices and occupations. Today, the term has become commonplace, another synonym for a profession or job, as in vocational […]
Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned him, and to which God has called him.1 Corinthians 7:17 "Justification by faith alone" is surely the most important contribution of the Reformation. The second most important, arguably, is the "doctrine of vocation." Whereas the doctrine of justification has wide currency, the doctrine […]
The Family The family comprises many different vocations. A particular person may have, at the same time, the vocation of being the husband to his wife, a father to his children, and a son to his own parents as long as they are living. Each of these family vocations has a specific-and limited-number of neighbors […]
A major controversy during the time of the Reformation involved the proper use of the arts. Despite the artistic glories of the medieval church, the Reformers believed that art was being misused, that it was obscuring the Gospel behind a haze of aesthetic experience. In some ways, the medieval approach to the arts, as condemned […]
We are living in a time in which to be modern is to be out of date. As the twentieth century limps to a close, exhausted and disillusioned, and as we begin to enter the third millennium, a new worldview is emerging. We can see it in academia and in public opinion polls, in our […]
Most of the world's faiths are cultural religions. Hinduism, with its caste system and social rituals, is inextricably tied to the culture of India. Islam seeks to apply the Koranic law to every detail of society and so creates a specific culture, as evident throughout the Middle East. Tribal religions mythologize tribes' customs, history, and […]
Those who worried about Charles Colson's diplomacy with Catholics in "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" can at least appreciate the cultural outline and apologetical aid he and Nancy Pearcey here offer. For they have written a book that is clearly influenced by the Reformed tradition of Abraham Kuyper, which is both its strength and its weakness. […]
y students tell me that their high schools are segregated according to music tastes. Some teenagers like pop; others like rap. And then we have the heavy metal head-bangers (themselves divided into factions favoring death metal, thrash, Goth, and other musical sects). Then there are the "alternative" fans, the devotees of techno, and those who […]
"Lies That Go Unchallenged: In Media and Government" by Charles Colson and James Stuart Bell
Lies That Go Unchallenged, by its own description, is about the culture war between the cultural implications of Christianity and the cultural implications of secularism. Christians trying to wage a culture war often confuse politics for culture and moralism for the gospel. True, Christians believe in morality (while understanding that fallen human beings cannot keep […]
When I go into a restaurant, the waitress who brings me my meal, the cook in the back who prepared it, the delivery men, the wholesalers, the workers in the food-processing factories, the butchers, the farmers, the ranchers, and everyone else in the economic food chain are all being used by God to “give [me] […]
The word “calling,” or in its Latinate form “vocation,” had long been used in reference to the sacred ministry and the religious orders. Martin Luther was the first to use “vocation” to refer also to secular offices and occupations. Today, the term has become common-place, another synonym for a profession or job, as in “vocational […]
