It seems like every time I turn around I am hearing something about Sherry Turkle’s new book, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. Whether it is an interview, a podcast, an article or a review, this book appears to have hit a nerve with the general public. Indeed, concern about how…

Michael Horton’s book, Ordinary (Zondervan, 2014), is an important conversation partner in our exploration of achievement. Horton sets out to critique the American church’s obsession with the immediate and extraordinary. We want big results—sooner rather than later—and there is an impatience and disdain for the ordinary. According to Horton, “We’ve forgotten that God showers his extraordinary gifts…

The ‘downward pull,’ an idea that I previously developed, threatens to pull individuals and institutions towards decay and possible destruction if it is not properly recognized and respected in terms of its impact. To limit its damage, nothing short of the grace of God is required, both to maintain vigilance when decay begins creeping into and…

Over the last three weeks I have explored the biblical accounts of creation and the fall in Genesis 1–3, and their significance for thinking about achievement. This is a natural place to pause and reflect on some more of the literature related to the theme, before pressing forward in the biblical narrative. Andreas Köstenberger’s book,…

As I dig into my year-long discussion of a theology of achievement, I will be developing several conversation partners—both Christian and secular. In this post, I begin to survey the literature out there that relates to the theme.[1] Most of the literature does not address the theme of “achievement” directly—or, at least, it doesn’t use…