Three Questions for Discerning Our Motives in Prayer
Discerning our motives in prayer isn’t always cut-and-dried. As justified sinners, we should always be suspicious of our sinful hearts.
Praying for God’s glory means letting His sovereign wisdom decide what to do with your prayers and your life. It means keeping our focus on Him and on His glory over our own. “Prayer is not a convenient device for imposing our will upon God, or for bending his will to ours, but the prescribed... Continue Reading
Examining America’s Political Pulpit
Book Review—When Sorrow Comes: The Power of Sermons from Pearl Harbor to Black Lives Matter
Matthes argues for the power of the pulpit—or what she labels “sermonic influence” on political and cultural life. Such an influence, she demonstrates, has proven especially notable during times of national crisis: it is here that Protestant sermons have resonated with the greatest force. In her new book, When Sorrow Comes: The Power of Sermons... Continue Reading
Robin DiAngelo’s Fragile Narrative
This summer, DiAngelo released her newest work, "Nice Racism." It didn’t sell.
The deep irony of DiAngelo’s work is that she demands exquisite sensitivity from everyone in all social interactions, but her own gross insensitivity is displayed on virtually every page. For many people, 2020 was a nightmare that refused to end. For Robin DiAngelo, it was a very good year. In the aftermath of the George... Continue Reading
American Protestants and Conservative Politics: A Q&A with Dr. Gillis J. Harp
Some will be surprised at how Christian conservatives in early American history look very different from conservatives of the past 20 years.
One is a major change in the understanding of what constituted authentic conservatism. This transformation occurred during the final couple decades of the 19th century. Political scientist Clinton Rossiter referred to it as the “Great Train Robbery” of American intellectual history wherein leading conservatives switched to embrace classical liberal ideas of economic laissez-faire. Editor’s... Continue Reading
Is “White Fragility” a Helpful Resource for Christians?
Those who want to see the end of racism and to experience true reconciliation will find themselves farther from it if they heed DiAngelo.
It is ultimately hopeless. DiAngelo’s book ends with a vision for a better world, but it’s actually not much of an improvement. The world she would lead us into would still be defined by race, still be broken by white supremacy, still be scarred by whiteness, still see the deepest divisions between black and white.... Continue Reading
Review: ‘Our Comfort in Dying: Civil War Sermons by R. L. Dabney’
12 manuscript of unpublished Dabney sermons were found, apparently undisturbed since the 1880s or 1890s, by which time Dabney had completed the writing out of the sermon texts.
Realizing these sermons were of great value especially to students of Dabney’s preaching, Union seminary digitized the 12 sermons and placed them on their website. In early 2020, Jonathan Peters, an administrative assistant at Harford Christian School, in Darlington, Maryland – and a costumed Gettysburg tour guide – encountered the army sermons while studying the... Continue Reading
The Making of Biblical Womanhood: A Review
Does Barr deal fairly and accurately with the proponents of “biblical womanhood” and with the historical evidence she cites in opposition to “biblical womanhood”?
If Barr simply wanted to demonstrate that “biblical womanhood,” as some conservative Christians understand and practice it, has been shaped over the centuries by ideas and forces other than the Bible, that would likely be a convincing argument. But this would require Barr to admit that the current fervor against “biblical womanhood” is culturally situated as... Continue Reading
“The First One Hundred Years of Christianity,” by Udo Schnelle
Book Review: An introduction to Christianity’s history, literature, and development that cites original sources and significant scholarship.
Schnelle uncovers historical writings and the material culture of early Christianity so that readers can better understand what we can know. Readers can follow Schnelle’s reasoning of the sources; or they may not. That is the genius, as I see it, of Schnelle’s work. I am fascinated by the question: why did a small number of... Continue Reading
The Shepherd of Hermas: A Literary, Historical, and Theological Handbook
Book Review: Jonathan Lookadoo's handbook is specifically designed to help the new reader of "The Shepherd."
Lookadoo is to be commended for this organized look at the Shepherd of Hermas. Particularly for those unfamiliar with this writing, the section-by-section overview provided by chapter one will be useful for quickly coming to terms with the whole of the writing. The Shepherd of Hermas is usually described as one of the more popular writings of... Continue Reading
J. I. Packer on the Hub of Christian Life
There can be no genuine or transformative holiness in life until a person has for his primary and ultimate aim the glory of God alone.
There can be no genuine or transformative holiness in life until a person has for his primary and ultimate aim the glory of God alone. This is not optional, as if some who claim to know him in a saving way might choose to move in a different direction, with a different goal or aim.... Continue Reading
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