Blog - Page 163 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Religious Liberty Misunderstood

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:13-05:00February 17th, 2010|Categories: Separation of Church & State|

Perhaps no subject is more commonly misunderstood, by both political conservatives and liberals, than the separation of church and state and the even broader issue of religious liberty in American life, both public and private. We often fail to get the church-state, religious freedom and religion and politics equation right. One reason for this failure is that the vast majority of people have not thought about this equation seriously at all. They not only fail to understand America’s religious history but they do not understand the principle of church-state clearly.

Some History

Religion in America has expressed itself in manifold ways, making America the most religious nation in the world and the freest. Much of our religious expression, and most of its rich variety, came initially from Europe. More recently it has come from the Middle and Far East as new waves of immigrants have come into the nation. What is often forgotten is that the European discoverers of America found religion already in place when they arrived here, only adding […]

An ACT 3 Seminar on Film and the Kingdom of God

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:13-05:00February 16th, 2010|Categories: ACT 3, Film|

Regular readers, and my personal friends, know that I have a great love for film and movies. I came to a deep appreciation of film, as art and as a medium that could powerfully move people in positive and negative ways, later in life. My background was not anti-film but I had very little intelligent appreciation of its great value. I enjoyed an occasional film in the theater, especially in the dead of winter when getting out of the house was a desirable short-term adventure. I would watch a DVD if someone told me it was really worth seeing. That was about it. I never studied the art of film-making and never knew much about how a film is conceived, a script written, a project undertaken and financed, a finished product produced and a film finally sold.

It was only after studying the theology of film, and reading a number of really great books on the subject, that I took a much deeper interest. Then, about three years ago, my friend Andrew Sandlin invited me […]

The Wheaton College Student Ecumenical Society

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:13-05:00February 15th, 2010|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism|

When I was a student at Wheaton College (1969-71) the idea of a student ecumenical society would have never crossed our collective minds. Times have changed and today's students have formed such a group. One of the leaders of this student group, senior Rick Morris, is also my personal intern this year. Rick has allowed me to learn a great deal about how this group contributes to the culture that is the Wheaton College student body.

For the past four years one of the primary events in the society has been to connect with a similar group at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. Franciscan University has become a center for Catholic faith and life in the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit. Under the influence of its former president Father Michael Scanlan, an evangelist with a wide impact throughout North America, the school developed into one of the truly fine Catholic universities in America. It has a first-rate faculty with some well-known theologians and authors, including the highly regarded former Protestant, Dr. Scott Hahn. […]

Rowan Williams on Wall Street

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:13-05:00February 14th, 2010|Categories: Economy/Economics|

The archbishop of Canterbury is an extremely likable Christian gentleman, a first-class Christian scholar. He is also a leader who often fails to address some of the more difficult issues in our time with a straight, clear answer. There can be no question that the man is brilliant. My question is how he uses this brilliance in his service of the kingdom of God. Like so many modern leaders Rowan Williams seems intent on being nice while avoiding those kinds of issues that desperately need a courageous and wise Christian response. This has been seen time and again in his response to issues like homosexuality and the challenge of Islam to the West.

Rowan Williams recently visited New York City and addressed the subject of economics on Wall Street. My friend John Couretas, at the Acton Institute, has reflected on Rowan Williams’ comments with measured and helpful criticism. What […]

Things Small Can Change the World

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:13-05:00February 13th, 2010|Categories: Culture, Current Affairs, Politics|

My good friend Michael Craven directs the ministry of the Center for Christ & Culture based in Dallas, Texas. Michael also serves as the chairman of the board for ACT 3. No one more directly impacts how I think about contemporary cultural issues than Michael Craven. Michael and I both believe that the church has misdirected its energy and effort into partisan politics with the result being a massive failure to truly change culture in the process. In fact, the exact opposite is happening and wise Christians can see it if they look carefully. Michael writes an excellent weekly article, available from the Center's Web site by subscription. Today I reprint his article that was posted on Monday of this week. I urge you to sign up for Michael Craven's weekly articles. They are truly outstanding.

Mark Penn, author of Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes (Hachette Book, 2007), is widely regarded as one of the most perceptive pollsters in American politics. It was Penn who identified "soccer […]

Is Gnosticism Making a Comeback?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:13-05:00February 12th, 2010|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church Tradition|

The most pernicious and troubling of all heresies that the Christian church has battled against since the days of the church fathers has been Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a term used to describe a religious movement of the early Christian centuries which laid special emphasis upon knowledge (Greek: gnosis) of God and of the nature and destiny of man. This knowledge—"of who we were or where we were placed, whither we hasten, from what we are redeemed, what birth is and what rebirth" (Clement of Alexandria)—was believed by ancients to have redeeming power. It could liberate the soul from the sway of cosmic forces. The earliest information we have about Gnosticism comes from the writings of Christians who opposed it; e.g. Irenaeus (iconic image above), Hippolytus, Epiphanius, Tertullian, etc. They saw it, and its unique gospel, as a deadly enemy of the true gospel of Christ. The famous scholar Adolph Harnack called Gnosticism "the acute Hellenization of Christianity."

A one-sentence description of Gnosticism, offered at a popular Web site on the subject, […]

Cardinal Kasper’s Appeal for an Ecumenical Catechism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:14-05:00February 11th, 2010|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism|

Speaking at a Vatican symposium, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said that an ecumenical catechism would help Catholics and members of major Protestant communities adhere more faithfully to the foundations of the Christian doctrine. Such a catechism would promote "an ecumenism of basics that identifies, reinforces, and deepens Christians' common foundation in Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity as expressed in our common creed and in the doctrine of the first ecumenical councils."

At the site www.Catholic Culture.org I found the following comments from people who are donors to this conservative Catholic voice. The range of reactions below will give you a good feel for how many conservatives in the Catholic Church react to the idea of "ecumenism." If I took these same comments, changed just a few words in them, and then posted them with Protestant "fear" words towards the idea that we could actually learn from deep relationships with Catholics it would provide the same sense that you get from reading […]

Why Did the Haitian Government Arrest Christians Who Were Attempting to Help Orphans?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:14-05:00February 10th, 2010|Categories: Current Affairs, Ethics|

I have followed the unfolding story of ten Americans, all Christians from Idaho who were arrested for trying to take children out of Haiti after the earthquake struck, with great deal of interest. What has made this seemingly unique story so intriguing to me is that numerous non-Christian journalists and radio talk show people here in Chicago have reacted fiercely against the Haitian government. Their stridency on this issue is rarely seen in defense of Christians from Idaho. While this story has been unfolding I have generally have "felt" that there has to be much more to this story than most of us really know and understand. Then I read an article by my good friend Jim Tonkowich and saw why I was unsettled about this story. With permission I reprint Jim's story and urge you to also read it. It is, as Jim originally titled it, a story of missionary zeal and practical wisdom. I think the story represents a common problem found among many conservative Christians in America. Our zeal is genuine, our knowledge is often limited […]

The Four Marks of the Church

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:14-05:00February 9th, 2010|Categories: The Church, Unity of the Church|

The classical theological view has always been that unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity are the "four marks" of the Christian church. Various evangelicals attempt to add "other" marks to these, some even popularly speaking of "nine marks of the church." I have no dispute with this notion in terms of a general consideration of the work of the church but there are not "nine" marks of the church in the confessional and historical sense. The danger comes when "nine marks," or any other number we come up with on our own, becomes a new form of sectarianism, adding to the confessional life of the church a list of items that a few individuals believe are central to faith and practice when the church catholic has deemed otherwise.

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Here Is the Church and There Is the Steeple, Open the Door and See All the People

By John Armstrong|2010-02-08T04:00:00-06:00February 8th, 2010|Categories: Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

As a small child there was a quaint little saying that was common. We folded out hands and said, "Here is the church." We then put our two index fingers together and said, "There is the steeple." Then we turned our hands over and wiggled our fingers and said, "Open the door and see all the people." I know, it's dumb, really dumb. But I do remember it. There was one thing we felt really good about, back in the 1950s and 60s. The church was full of people. Some things do change.

I have documented here before the simple, identifiable fact that the church is in numerical decline in the West. Europe is already post-Christian and America is going down the same road, just not quite as rapidly. There are many theories about this decline. One is the impact of secularism on the culture. Another connects this loss to the way the boomer generation failed to disciple its own children, leaving them to the local church to do that job. Other theories have […]