Imagine a young man in his late teen years. He has recently moved to the city to go to school. In the course of his study, he becomes convinced that Genesis 1 is no longer consistent with the most sophisticated intellectual trends of the day. He rejects the Christian faith in which he was raised,…

In Adam’s fall we sinned all. In spite of what this well-known pithy summary of the Christian doctrine of original sin might suggest, things are a bit more complicated. Daniel Houck will be joining the Creation Project in the second year as a research fellow to explore how the thought of Thomas Aquinas provides helpful…

Augustine (A.D. 354-430), the “Doctor of Grace” from north Africa, is arguably the most significant theologian in the Western tradition. He had once been a Manichee, during which time he would have affirmed a kind of good vs. evil dualism, as well as seeing matter as evil, and seeing creation as an act of necessity….

Keen for the Fire “Unless you’re bitten by the fire,” the angel at the top of the mountain shouts joyfully, but Dante, understandably, balks at being called to pass through a wall of flame. Dramatically, he says “I was like a corpse put in the grave, / the words I heard so touched my heart…

Reading Journal Home << Previous Entry Next entry >> Horrible Visions (Canto XXV) Cantos XXV and XXVI move quickly from thought to thought such that you can almost miss what holds the episodes together, which is the transgression of right order or proper boundaries. They both feature the poetic modesty we saw at the beginning of…

Emerging adults often have their focus directed squarely upon the future. Parents and other concerned adults regularly ask them about the five and ten-year plans they are devising for adulthood. They are preparing for a future career and, at least potentially, a future spouse and children. They develop dreams of what they hope to be and…

Recently, I had a conversation with one of my sons who works in the realm of public policy engagement. The focus of our discussion was how Christians should engage public debates particularly as it relates to values and convictions. We both agreed that convictions could be shared in public debate though tempered with wisdom that…

I have been dwelling much on the enabling grace of God as the hope and means for modeling Jubilee-like existence and practice. Through such modeling, an attempt to facilitate human flourishing while recognizing that an essential element of personal flourishing is the empowerment of others to flourish, the church could have impact on the business…

People simply do not divest themselves of power and perceived security. There is power and seeming security in having an abundance materially. In my recent explorations, I have written of the Jubilee of forgiveness. I am making a small shift here. Whether it is a restoration of land and forgiveness of debt, or forgiveness extended…

“. . . cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to…

“[I]t is more inhuman to love a man not for being a man but for being your son. For this means not loving in him what belongs to God but loving what belongs to you.” [On True Religion 46, 88 (New City Press)] Ever since I read this statement, it has bothered me. Is it…

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). The presumption of the author is that before there was creation, there was God. Beginning with that reality, my intention is not to fabricate an answer to the question posed by critics in Augustine’s Confessions 11.12.14: “What was God doing before he made…