I thought a winsome faith would win Christians a place at Vanderbilt’s table. I was wrong. I thought I was an acceptable kind of evangelical. I'm not a fundamentalist. My friends and I enjoy art, alcohol, and cultural engagement. We avoid spiritual clichés and buzzwords. We value authenticity, study, racial reconciliation, and social and environmental …
Fuller theology professor Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen thinks Catholics and Pentecostals are doing today’s best theology. It is rare these days for a theologian to write a full systematic theology—a complete inventory of their theological understanding of all major areas of Christian doctrine and how they relate to one another. Rarer still is someone who incorporates disciplines …
We can’t defeat shame by whittling down God’s law to fit our behavior. We need the good news of God’s forgiveness instead. A few years ago I was listening to NPR while driving, and I almost pulled the car over to a stop, so great was my enthusiasm for what I’d just heard. When I …
The academy’s debate over black church differences is more than a numbers game. ‘I’m not trying to be argumentative, but there are obvious differences,” says Jason Shelton, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Arlington. He repeats his concern: “I don’t want to be provocative.” Shelton, 42, grew up in the black church in …
I read Charles Martin’s Bible retellings with a critical eye. But the more I read, the more I found myself overcome with their spiritual power. When I was seven, I was fascinated by an elderly man at my church. This gentleman spoke in normal English every time we interacted, but when he prayed he let …
As states push for pro-choice protections, Christians have a growing obligation to defend the lives of babies born as “burdens.” Over the past month, pro-lifers have been compelled to speak openly and loudly about the possibility of infanticide being permitted by our laws. On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, video spread of New York’s …
The Early Church didn’t make a distinction. So why do we? It is an oddity of contemporary Christianity, at least in the West, that the churches that emphasize the sacraments generally do not emphasize spiritual gifts, and vice versa. This Sunday, thousands of believers will enter a sanctuary in which all eyes are drawn to …
Aristotle taught that outrage can be a natural response, but Christ reminds us that it should be rare. This weekend, Super Bowl LIII pits the New England Patriots, a team with the most successful coach of this generation and one of the best quarterbacks of all time, against the Los Angeles Rams, featuring the hottest …
How African Americans outpaced the country in Scripture-savvy—and why ministry leaders expect even more from them. African Americans have held tight to their Bibles over the years. Amid cultural shifts in beliefs and reading habits, their demographic consistently outranks other racial groups for their reliance on the Word. Last year, the American Bible Society (ABS) …
The global and local conditions that have provoked this long-running aggression. ISIS has claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 20 churchgoers and soldiers at a Catholic church in the Philippines. Two bombs exploded at a church in the city of Jolo on Sunday, “the first blasting through rows of pews and the second shooting …