When I first typed out my editorial on viral non-evil, the coronavirus was still novel and the panic not quite a pandemic. But as I type now, close to a 1.5 million have died worldwide and the virus proliferates relentlessly, a conflagration with plenty of wood yet to burn as we await a vaccine and…

I am grateful to the organizers of this Areopagite for the invitation to consider this spiritually demanding question, one that reaches down into the heart of our confidence in the Good God, and in our constant need for repentance, confession and renewal. Of course such a question touches on complex doctrines—of sin, of providence, of…

Before I reveal the One Correct Way Christians ought to understand the coronavirus, let’s clear some brush out of the way and establish some basic principles. It would seem that something can be neither good nor bad, just existing. An icicle hanging off the edge of a roof seems devoid of moral valence—until it suddenly…

Jesus once told a parable about a farmer who sowed good seeds in his field. Once “the plants came up and bore grain,” however, his servant discovered that the field also contained weeds. The servant approached his master and asked him, “Where . . . did these weeds come from?” The good farmer replied, “An…

Every time there is a natural disaster the question of God’s goodness and the nature of evil resurfaces. How can a good God allow bad things to happen? Is what we experience as evil bad in itself, or is our suffering from it part of the fallen order of creation? What do we say when…

Nobody thinks that the ultimate consummation of the Kingdom God will be a place where rogue viruses kill hundreds of thousands of people, or hurricanes ravage whole communities, or cancer cuts lives short. So we Christians believe it is possible for there to be that kind of place. But was creation originally a place that…

Is the coronavirus evil? Daniel Harrell posed that question as editor in chief of Christianity Today. He stirred up a hornet’s nest. His editorial begins with a poignant remark from Karl Barth near the end of his life. The German theologian was dying from kidney disease: This monstrosity does not belong to God’s good creation,…

The resurrection of the body, writes one seventeenth-century Christian theologian, is the “peculiar treasure” of the Christian church. The resurrection is peculiar because it is not a product of unaided reason but relies upon a definitive revelation in Jesus Christ. Our only confidence that our bodies are destined for glory—and not mere dissolution—lies in the…

Every time I wash my hands these days, I recite either our Lord’s Prayer or the Apostle’s Creed. This ensures that I make it past twenty seconds, of course, but it also reminds me of what is most important. As I do so, I keep thinking about the striking contrasts between the transience and fragility…

Anyone who has talked to missionaries or has heard Christians from majority world cultures give their testimonies knows the experience. Such believers often have remarkable stories to share, supernatural encounters with God and with other spiritual entities: speaking in tongues, miraculous healings, exorcisms, witchcraft, you name it. Meanwhile, here you are, trained at a Western…

One recent morning I gave my friend John Wilson, the longtime editor of Books & Culture, a copy of my new book, Introducing Evangelical Theology. By early evening he was tweeting his dissent about p. 122. There I summarize parameters from Donald Bloesch: “God’s providence is personal: we do not believe in fate. God’s providence…

We were once immortal. Not that we possessed the independent or self-generated ability to live forever. Only the triune God enjoys that honor. As human creatures, we are always dependent on God—in him we live and move and have our being. If not for his providential hand, our lives would be snuffed out in a…