Resources from 2019

It seems that politics are becoming more and more disorientating, especially for Christians. Our outlook on goodness and justice is dismissed as outdated at best and regressive at worst, and we feel increasingly confused about relating our spiritual principles to our civic life. Some have proposed that we abandon society altogether to form our own […]

In 1655, Puritan pastor William Gurnall began publishing The Christian in Complete Armour, addressing the “war between the saint and Satan […] so bloody a one, that the cruelest which was ever fought by men will be found but sport and child’s play” by comparison.[1] This commentary on Ephesians 6:11-20 totals over 1,100 pages in […]

Years ago, when I first began to read Lutheran theologians, I remember friends warning me to watch out. “Lutherans were weak on sanctification,” they said. But by that point it was too late. The work of Martin Luther had already begun to haunt me. The wild and paradoxical claims in his Heidelberg Disputation intrigued me; […]

Have Christians forgotten how to live well? Do we approach life with a different mindset than that of an unbeliever, or do we get caught in the chaos and stress of life? It is crucial to examine our lives in the light of Scripture and understand who God made us to be and how he […]

Sarah Moore Grimké (1792–1873) and Angelina Emily Grimké Weld (1805–1879) were two sisters born into a slaveholding family on a South Carolina plantation. Along with twelve siblings, they were the children of John Faucheraud Grimké, a prominent judge and former mayor of Charleston, and Mary Smith Grimké. They were brought up in the Episcopal Church, descended […]

Noteworthy social commentator and Senior Research Fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute, Mary Eberstadt, follows her 2013 landmark book How the West Really Lost God: A New Theology of Secularization with her latest imprint, Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics. Both provocative and insightful, Primal Screams stands as a clarion call […]

“Identity” is something of a buzz word today. It’s almost impossible to avoid discussions about gender identity, sexual identity, or racial identity in the mainstream media. So-called “identity politics” are increasingly dominating the decisions on Capitol Hill and the discussions at home. While this is a popular topic right now, it’s by no means a […]

I spent three hours waiting in line at the social security office last week. It was first thing in the morning, and the line weaved away from the designated waiting area, out the door, and down the sidewalk. The waiting area was smaller than I expected for a government building in a largely populated area. […]

True story: in 1965, Congress held a lengthy hearing to discuss the looming twenty-hour work week. According to their estimates, the rapidly expanding automation of the day mean that by the year 2000, Americans would have more free time than they’d know what to do with. Summer camps would have to stay open year-round. People […]

In Lovin’ on Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship, authors Swee Hong Lim and Lester Ruth offer a thorough, honest, and surprisingly non-polemical presentation of the development of contemporary worship practices. Rather than attempting to justify these practices or defend them against their detractors, the authors simply describe and explain certain post-1960 liturgical developments, […]

Christmas is a time when we cross great distances and deep divides to be with the ones we love. For some, that might mean traveling to see family and friends in a different town or state. For others, it might mean taking small steps to overcome conflict with someone in your family. Christmas is a […]