By: Chad McSwain on April 5, 2024
“Do you know who painted this paining?” I was asked this as a friend held up my copy of Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World. “Salvador Dalí.” I replied. While I knew the artist, I did not know how fitting this cover art truly is for the hardback edition of Tom Holland’s expansive…
By: Laura Fleetwood on April 4, 2024
On the blog today is my review of the 2023 book, Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture by Dr. Matthew Petrusek, Professor of Catholic Ethics and Assistant Director at the Word on Fire Institute. Petrusek tackles the complex art of arguing against modern ideologies using the principles of Catholic…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on April 4, 2024
We all have some level of influence over the circles in which we live and operate. The amount of influence, the impacts of the influence, and the lasting effects of our influence varies and sometimes can’t even be felt in our lifetime but, is discovered when looking back at our history. Dominion The book Dominion…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on April 3, 2024
In his book, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, Tom Holland, historian of ancient societies, writes an extensive account of the influence of Christianity on Western Civilization. In Holland’s own words, “This book explores what it was that made Christianity so subversive and disruptive; how completely it came to saturate the mindset of…
By: David Beavis on April 2, 2024
In a recent review in the New Yorker on Marilynn Robinson’s recent book Reading Genesis[1], James Wood held back few punches.[2] Though a respecter of Robinson as a writer, Wood holds her religion in contempt. Wood entertains his readers with plentiful depictions of the Christian (particularly Calvinist) tradition that, though occasionally fair and meriting robust…
By: Becca Hald on April 1, 2024
Have you heard the song “Cross of Gold” by Michael W. Smith from the album Change Your World? I am dating myself to tell you that I remember when this album came out (and I am pretty sure I still have the cd somewhere). In the song, he asks the questions, “What’s your line, tell…
By: Audrey Robinson on April 1, 2024
Tom Holland’s book Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind is a compelling work that traces the most enduring influences of Christianity from ancient Rome to the present day. It is an ambitious work that attempts to argue about who we are and how we came to be who we are.[1] According to Holland, Christianity…
By: Greg McMullen on April 1, 2024
Western Culture is still deciding how much to let Christian Culture dominate its nation and people. In the Bible, we have two primary mindsets: the Hebrew Mindset (the Eastern mindset) and the Greek Mindset, which is the Western mindset. We see the difference in the writings of the gospel, primarily the difference between the Gospel…
By: Michael O'Neill on March 31, 2024
God is so good. Praise be to God, whose goodness knows no bounds! This Easter I’m reminded of this awesome privilege we possess in knowing God, communing with Him, and “doing life” with Him. I mean… what an honor? The creator of the entire universe is alive and active in our lives and provides everything…
By: Kristy Newport on March 28, 2024
In his book Dominion, Tom Holland draws readers into a historical account of Christianity’s powerful influence by beginning his chapter on the Enlightenment with a murder mystery story. I was deeply moved by the account of Jean Calas, the father of Marc Antoine, who committed suicide by hanging. The riveting story reveals how local “magistrates”…
By: Caleb Lu on March 26, 2024
The power of words has become more and more clear. Whether it’s starting a podcast or a blog, or having an X (when can we stop saying “formerly known as twitter”?), Instagram, or TikTok account, everyone has access to some platform for getting their words, thoughts, and paradigms out to the masses. The influence of…
By: Kristy Newport on March 25, 2024
The line that jumped out at me while reading Rethinking Leadership by Annabel Beerel was: “During times of radical uncertainty, leaders need psychological strength, emotional balance, and courage to navigate the choppy waters ahead.” [1] I believe this sums up my current leadership needs. My brother and cohort friend, Greg McMullen, recently shared a vision…
By: Audrey Robinson on March 24, 2024
Matthew Petrusek’s Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture uniquely blends Catholic Social Thought (CST) and political philosophy. Petrusek attempts to provide a methodology for arguing in our highly politicized environment. His ultimate goal is to provide culture with an “alternative to thinking – and acting – ideologically altogether.”[1] In…
By: Chad McSwain on March 23, 2024
I recently met with a colleague at Chick-fil-a to discuss the preaching calendar for the summer. While sharing lunch, she mentioned that she had not been at the restaurant in a number of years. I ask her more about this and she shared that it was because of their political positions. I quipped, “That chicken…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on March 22, 2024
Where are the differentiated, courageous, joyful, hope-filled, undefended, empowering, and powerful women and men who are willing to lead with nothing to lose? Sometimes it seems these leaders are nowhere to be found on global, national, nor local community levels. However, if one pays close attention, it turns out, there are some very good leaders…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on March 22, 2024
Introduction: As I share what I have gleaned from Dr. Petrusek’s work, I believe his work, like many other bold believers, is very important in encouraging people of faith to step out into a hostile world and engage culture boldly in faith. As someone who has seen a good share of instability due to conflicts and…
By: Greg McMullen on March 21, 2024
Intro This week, I’m just going to be me on this post. A pastors perspective, rather than an academic look. I enjoyed Matthew R. Petrusek In Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture. Petrusek tackles a difficult subject that is tearing many countries apart, especially in America. Where I live and…
By: Tonette Kellett on March 21, 2024
Cut Flowers of Morality I decided to watch a few videos after reading Matthew Petrusek’s book Evangelization and Ideology this week. One in particular was very interesting as it featured so many of our authors. This video opened with a story by Petrusek about morality in our society today, or the lack thereof. He used…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on March 21, 2024
Life seems hard, fear is rampant, there are lots of bad things and bad people, and I’m in danger… or am I? Listening to author and professor Matthew Petrusek I swayed between “Oh that makes sense.” to “Oh that’s not how I view things.” He is offering an alternative to Identity Politics with the argument…
By: Kristy Newport on March 19, 2024
Matt Petrusek, in a lecture on Wokeism- The Frankenstein of Political Ideologies (Lecture 1) shared a story from 2006 when a Duke Lacrosse Team was accused of raping a young woman. [1] I was curious about the details of this story, so I found a You tube: Presumed Guilty: Due Process Lessons of the Duke…
