Phil Steiger
What is the influence of Christianity on the culture and history of the West? It’s complicated, but it isn’t as rotten as you have been led to believe. In fact, we owe our basic moral structure to our Christian roots, whether we like it or not. And more and more, we tend not to like... Continue Reading →
In the first essay in Counting the Cost, Michael Novak updates a few of his thoughts from The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism and provides a fertile place to begin when thinking about Christianity theology and capitalism. The free market is much maligned these days. Is there anything to say about it that accords with sound Christian... Continue Reading →
I’m growing concerned about a trend in our culture that, on the face of it, may seem like just a change in economic values. That it is, but it is also a trend in a moral and spiritual direction. It may strike many as a non sequitur to see an economic belief as a moral... Continue Reading →
With the news that Eugene Peterson has entered hospice, I wanted to take some time to reflect on what his writing has meant to me and see if you have any thoughts yourself. I only heard him speak once in person. Heather and I were at a conference on spiritual formation and will always... Continue Reading →
I have a background in economics (if a B.A. in the subject and a lasting enthusiasm count as a background) and have long been interested in the ways this discipline I enjoy intersects with my faith and vocation as a pastor. So, it has been encouraging to watch this connection become a fertile field for... Continue Reading →
Andrew T. Walker. God and the Transgender Debate: What Does the Bible Actually Say About Gender Identity? (The Good Book Company, Denmark. 2017) 174 ppg. The cultural issues swirling around the American and Western church require Christians and church leaders to have a new level of theological perception. If we believe our faith... Continue Reading →
Skye Jethani. Immeasurable: Reflections on the Soul of Ministry In The Age of Church, Inc. (Moody Publishers, Chicago. 2017) 215 pgs. The American Evangelical church is easily tempted by shiny things. For decades now we have taught ourselves a theology of church and the spiritual life that is only tenuously connected to Scripture. In... Continue Reading →
Douglas Groothuis, Walking Through Twilight: A Wife’s Illness – A Philosopher’s Lament (Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books, 2017) In his memoir, Walking Through Twilight: A Wife’s Illness – A Philosopher’s Lament, Douglas Groothuis combines several things often lacking in books written on suffering and God. There are good books out there on a theology... Continue Reading →
Sally Quinn is an enigmatic figure. She was a religion column writer for many years at the Washington Post, is a Washington D.C. socialite, and most recently the author of, Finding Magic: A Spiritual Memoir, a book in which she reveals several things about herself including casting hexes on at least three people who died... Continue Reading →
Colin Hansen, Our Secular Age: Ten Years of Reading and Applying Charles Taylor (Deerfield, Ill: The Gospel Coalition, 2017). Arguably the most ambitious philosophical work in the last decade is Charles Taylor’s, “A Secular Age.” It defies simple description, but in it Taylor dissects the move toward secularism in the last 500 year of... Continue Reading →
