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Category Archives: Religion
Of What Purpose Is Interreligious Dialogue? (2)
Evangelical Christians are slow to embrace thinking about dialogue with non-Christians and their religious faith. One profound reason, as we saw yesterday, is our deep fear. We are often fearful that unless we preach the gospel to others we are … Continue reading
Posted in Current Affairs, Religion, Roman Catholicism
10 Comments
Of What Purpose Is Interreligious Dialogue? (1)
One of the great insights of Vatican II was the Catholic Church’s expressed desire for dialogue with non-Christian religions. This insight is generally misunderstood by most evangelicals and rarely appreciated by many Catholics. As an active ecumenist, working from within … Continue reading
Posted in Current Affairs, Freedom, Religion, Roman Catholicism
8 Comments
Boyd Crowder: Justified or Apostate?
You can gain wisdom from a lot of sources. Now and then a script writer for a television show actually speaks truth more powerfully than many of the children of the light. (I have no idea about the faith of … Continue reading
Posted in America and Americanism, Religion, Television
5 Comments
Non-Voluntarist Protestantism and the Dangers of Secular Modernity
There are two types of churches which constitute the visible expression of Christianity in the modern age. For the sake of simplicity let me call these two expressions of the church the non-voluntary and the voluntary models. If these seem … Continue reading
Secularization: Its Impact Upon America and Americans
Various theories of secularization have been advanced to explain what has happened to the cultures of the West. It seems fairly clear that social secularization has caused religion to lose its power and influence over and within Western society. This … Continue reading
How Exile Came About: Theological and Cultural Developments in the Nineteenth Century (2)
Near the end of the nineteenth century the evangelical experience of Christianity in America changed things in the church even more radically than previous movements had done within historic Protestantism. While the paradigm of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress remained deeply … Continue reading
Why Politics Matters and How We Got the Wrong End of the Stick (1)
Two weeks ago I sought to show how the church in America has become subject to a condition of moral, cultural and spiritual exile. Like Israel of old, we are now living away from our true home, separated from our … Continue reading
Living as Aliens in a Post-Christendom Culture (2)
If living the Christian life as “aliens” really describes Christian community/church then we can understand why we are a “colony of heaven” in a “strange” land. The biblical portrait of the Christian church is one in which the church “exists … Continue reading
Posted in America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Discipleship, Emergent Church, Faith, Ideology, Kingdom of God, Lordship of Christ, Love, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Politics, Religion, Renewal, The Christian Minister/Ministry, The Church, The Future
9 Comments
The Babylonian Captivity of the American Church (5)
Hope Floats A 1998 movie starring Sandra Bullock bore the title: “Hope Floats.” The movie features an unassuming housewife who learns of her husband’s infidelity on a national television talk show. In shock she returns to her small home town … Continue reading
The Babylonian Captivity of the American Church (4)
A Colony of Heaven James Moffatt’s translation of the New Testament translates politeuma, in Philippians 3:20, as: “We are a colony of heaven.” The Jews in the Dispersion, and living in Babylon, understood this very well. They knew what it … Continue reading