By: Lynda Gittens on March 16, 2017
BAD RELIGION by Ross Douthat Douthat shared his views on the American Christianity, i.e. Contemporary and Liberal. He shares how Christians integrated within the political arena, and it was a negative impact. Can a Politician force their Christian views and values on the country they lead? Douthat addressed the history of Christians and their…
By: Rose Anding on March 16, 2017
Introduction Adrian Thatcher’s book, God, Sex and Gender: An Introduction, is an engaging account by a highly respected theologian. The author is well known for his works related to human sexuality and theology[1] and has become an important voice on these themes.[2] The book is written with the aim of comprehensively introducing readers to the…
By: Aaron Peterson on March 16, 2017
True story: After church a few years ago I eavesdropped in on a conversation a few Hub pre-teens were having about homosexuality. The youngest in the circle, my 9-year old son exclaimed, “Of course there is gay marriage in the Bible! It says in Genesis that God created Adam and Yves.” I laughed so hard…
By: Stu Cocanougher on March 16, 2017
I need to confess something. When given a choice, I would rather eat ice cream than eat broccoli. Yes, I understand fully that broccoli is low calorie, packed with vitamins, and also has fiber. But ice cream tastes really good. I know that I am not alone. Think about this, when was the last time…
By: Claire Appiah on March 16, 2017
Adrian Thatcher—God, Sex, and Gender: An Introduction This book is a great educational resource in which Adrian Thatcher provides readers with complex, comprehensive, and compelling arguments surrounding the theological implications of sex and gender as they have been understood and controverted throughout ancient times and the history of the church. I think the overall value…
By: Jim Sabella on March 16, 2017
Douthat, Ross Gregory. Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. New York: Free Press, 2013. Summary I think that there are few who would argue that Christianity in the USA looks different than it did just one generation ago. Many would argue that Christianity in America has lost its cultural influence altogether; church…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on March 15, 2017
As I read through the pages of “Bad Religion”, a comment from our last chat haunted my thoughts. It was remarked how we as Christians can stand back and criticize without really making significant world changes. Ironically, this seemed to sum up “Bad Religion”, where the author lived up to his title. He seemed bent…
By: Katy Drage Lines on March 15, 2017
Ahh, where to begin in my exploration of Bad Religion? Perhaps in introducing a comparison between Ross Douthat’s text and James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World. Hunter introduced us to ways American Christians engage the world from the left (“relevance to the culture”), right (“defensive against”) and neo-Anabaptist.[1] Whereas Hunter introduces three (really, two)…
By: Mary Walker on March 15, 2017
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ Martin Luther King. For the last few weeks we have been discussing ways to change our culture. If we accept that “To be Christian is to be obliged to engage the world, pursuing God’s restorative purposes over all of…
By: Marc Andresen on March 15, 2017
In God, Sex, and Gender Adrian Thatcher covers a number of topics under the enormous umbrella of God, Sex, and Gender. He discusses “desire” in general and how it pertains to our sexuality and our desire for God. “You may have just agreed with me that desire has an object.” [1] Following Taylor and Luhrmann,…
By: Pablo Morales on March 11, 2017
One day a psychological anthropologist from Stanford University shows up at your church with a brilliant idea. She wants to spend two years attending your services and participating in your small groups in order to better understand how people experience their Christian faith. She attends Bible classes, church retreats, and everything that can help her…
By: Kevin Norwood on March 10, 2017
All leading to this thought, Does God still speak? How? God speaks through thoughts and we must learn to discern between our thoughts and His thoughts. The authors wrote about developing a “new theory of mind.”[2] This concept of hearing things that are perceived is a very clinical perspective of how God speaks. Learning to…
By: Kristin Hamilton on March 10, 2017
Anticipation. Excitement. Trepidation. Anxiety. These are a few of the things I felt when I boarded the plane headed to London to join my cohort of 10, two previous cohorts, professors, administrators, and our lead mentor for the Doctor of Ministry in Leadership and Global Perspectives England Advance 2016. That’s a huge title,…
By: Jason Kennedy on March 10, 2017
As a pastor with a Pentecostal persuasion, I cannot tell you how many times I get asked the question, does God speak to us today? I have been asked in a variety of different ways. Whether it is being asked the question directly or when people ask me to speak in tongues on command, people…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on March 9, 2017
“The big deal is we think the power is in us individually the power is in us collectively. It is in the church.” John M. Perkins [1] It appears that in our current American culture the church is divided. We are either siding with the “conservative right” or the “progressive left”. Depending on how one views…
By: Kristin Hamilton on March 9, 2017
About 50 times each week, I ask myself what the heck was I thinking when I gave up my career to go back to school. I mean, I know I did it out of a sense of calling and purpose, but can one middle-aged woman really make a difference in the world? After reading the…
By: Phil Goldsberry on March 9, 2017
Introduction Tanya Luhrmann’s work, When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God, is one woman’s perspective and premise on, “How can sensible, educated people in an invisible being who has a real effect on their lives?”[1] My first objection is her broad use of the “American Evangelical” Church when her reality her…
By: Aaron Cole on March 9, 2017
When God Talks Back, Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God by T.M. Luhrmann is a compilation of stories, interviews, scientific data and research gathered and assembled from people of all walks of life and backgrounds. The pages are the result and assimilation of Luhrmann who is a an accomplished author and award winning psychological…
By: Aaron Peterson on March 9, 2017
Tanya Luhrmann shows how the Vineyard is attempting to create social imaginaries to break out of Charles Taylor’s immanent frame that was created as the secular solution to the problem of how humanity 500 years ago started the transition from not making sense of the world without talking about God and arrived at our current…
By: Stu Cocanougher on March 9, 2017
Hunter, James Davison. To change the world: the irony, tragedy, and possibility of Christianity today. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. To Change the World was a well-written text authored by an accomplished sociologist James David Hunter from the University of Virginia. The ironically titled book is a critique of modern Christianity’s assumption…
