By: Shawn Cramer on February 3, 2020
Vincent Miller’s subtitle of Consuming Religion captures an easily overlooked aspect from his book. The subtitle reads, “Christian faith and practice in a consumer culture.” While this book obviously unpacks and critiques consumer culture, it is also (and just as much) an articulation and reflection on the connection between “faith and practice” with consumer culture…
By: Nancy VanderRoest on February 2, 2020
Religion can be a difficult topic for many. In Hospice work, my patients will often say, “I don’t want any of that God stuff.” So, I don’t give them any of that “God stuff” verbally, but I always let them know I’m praying for them and interject little stories about my faith in our conversations.…
By: Digby Wilkinson on February 2, 2020
This is a little late, but hey, it’s here 🙂 Over the last decade or so, Christian authors from a wide range of backgrounds have been pushing back on the secular narrative that Christianity has no right to a public voice, given that enlightenment thinking has caused the decline of interest in the mystical traditions…
By: Wallace Kamau on February 1, 2020
It’s common knowledge that human beings will make good of every opportunity for fame and recognition and go to any length to gain them. History is full of men who would not hesitate to kill others or use other crude and unjust means in order to gain power, fame and all that goes with positions…
By: Harry Fritzenschaft on February 1, 2020
Will Jones emphasizes how Spencer recounts the pivotal role that Christianity has played in the formation of Western ideas, values, institutions, and culture in his book, The Evolution of the West. Through a series of essays developed through his work with Theos, a Christian think tank based in Westminster, UK, Spencer is careful not to…
By: Mary Mims on February 1, 2020
It is no surprise for those who know me, that I am a lover of all things relating to science. It started with the third-grade science teacher who defended me from students teasing me about the giant baby shoes I wore to correct my pronation. Since that time, I loved him and the class…
By: Sean Dean on January 31, 2020
My oldest and youngest seem to hate each other a large portion of the time. Of course they do not hate each other, it just seems that way. Frequently the situation plays out where JT asks JP if he can play with a particular toy because it is his turn. JP rejects JT’s request out…
By: Tammy Dunahoo on January 31, 2020
I live in a realm of policies, protocols and bylaws with a three-inch-wide “Guide to Services.” When questioning the curators of this knowledge, “Why does this exist?” one quickly discovers that every policy has a story behind it. A narrative about a situation where someone made a decision that had consequences, sometimes for many people.…
By: Jenn Burnett on January 31, 2020
The rise in populism in the west at times leads me to wonder whether the democratic system has run its course. At its best, democracy safeguards against extremism as elected officials presumably represent the majority centre of a given state. Unfortunately, we are seeing increasing polarization in many places resulting in election results that are…
By: Karen Rouggly on January 30, 2020
“At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, how good and pleasant it is…
By: Andrea Lathrop on January 30, 2020
I am three days into the Context, Culture and Mission intensive course with Dr. Len Sweet at Southeastern University. I would be lying if I did not admit that my brain is hurting. Several years ago I had a conversation with Dr. Sweet where he remarked that Jesus did not come to make us more…
By: Harry Edwards on January 30, 2020
The year was 2004. The Olympics were held in Athens, Greece where a total of 10,625 athletes from 201 countries competed in 301 sporting events. NASA successfully landed the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) on Mars. U.S. President George W. Bush beats John Kerry in the elections garnering him a second term. His political platform was…
By: Steve Wingate on January 30, 2020
If I am doing well in business, then God’s love will shine on me. Is that true? Or is God’s love predestined for a select. The proverb, “Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men” [1] would seem to confirm the above questions. However,…
By: Greg Reich on January 29, 2020
Max Weber a German sociologist and political economist in his book The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism was looking into the foundational ideas that created the perfect storm for Capitalism to thrive. To Weber these ideas came from Protestantism, specifically from Luther’s concept of calling and Calvinism’s view of Predestination.[1] Weber noticed a…
By: Rev Jacob Bolton on January 29, 2020
The germination story of Christianity is a marriage of two cultures and the theological struggle holding them both in tension. On the one hand we have the Hebrew culture, the culture that originated in a nomadic, tribal people; whose history consisted of grand stories of Exodus and Exile. The people rarely had autonomous political power…
By: Jer Swigart on January 28, 2020
Observing that many of the most successful and well-educated business people of his day were Protestants, Max Weber, in his essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, sought to answer the question: what is the connection between Protestantism and the emergence of the capitalism of his day? Drafted less as an economic expose,…
By: Dylan Branson on January 28, 2020
Reading through Weber’s The Protestant Ethic raised a lot of questions and contained a lot of thought provoking ideas. I can honestly say that the notion that Calvinism serves as one of the roots of Capitalism has never crossed my mind, so this was a deep dive into new territory. As I was reading, one…
By: Darcy Hansen on January 28, 2020
There is a deep hunger within each person, a wondering, a longing for a grounded Presence. For millennia, we’ve been searching. We want to know there’s more to this life then what is visible. So, we look about for the Divine, the God of Creation, Who spoke and all we see came to be.…
By: Shawn Cramer on January 27, 2020
Capitalism at is worst develops suffocating monopolies. The field of innovation is currently monopolized by the Mammonic grip of the evolving spirit of capitalism. Furthermore, innovation has been taken hostage by the Protestant ethic, and “the common good” requires innovation to be rescued from its inclusion as an agent of perpetual commodification and resituated as…
By: Karen Rouggly on January 26, 2020
*Please note, this blog was written while in the middle of the flu. Not just any flu, THE flu. The one that hit hard this week, spiking my fever to 103 and then took my entire body down to the depths of depravity with it. While I have been fever-free for 24 hours, it’s only…
