By: Jennifer Vernam on April 8, 2024
In today’s reality, there is an epidemic of church leadership failures-to the point where it has almost become the expectation rather than the exception. In this current climate, J.R. Woodward steps in with his Scandal of Leadership: Unmasking the Powers of Domination in the Church[1] with the intention of compelling church leaders to intentionally adopt…
By: Jana Dluehosh on April 8, 2024
A Good Kill? A Good Death? They are connected and cannot be severed in my mind. A Bad Kill, a good death? A good kill, a bad death? It seems to me that Just war is in the nuance of those connections. For myself sitting in my lovely home, writing a doctoral blog on an…
By: Jeff Styer on April 8, 2024
Welcome to our pluralistic society, where everyone seems to have different thoughts and ideas and each one claims theirs to be true. Like I stated in an earlier post, I teach my Analysis of Social Policy class some of the basic philosophies with the purpose of helping them understand what people are using to make…
By: Christy on April 8, 2024
I have seasons of being politically engaged, and then increasingly longer seasons of political disengagement. When I was in my early twenties, politics were simple (so I thought). It was about ensuring the US constitution was upheld and that people would maintain the liberties provided through it. As I got older, I realized some complexities…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on April 7, 2024
Introduction The great cost of Christianity is clearly described in this captivating book by Tom Holland. I have found an incredible source of information and I intend to continue reading as the Blinkist gave me a quick summary of the book. “Whether or not you believe that Jesus was the son of God, Christianity has…
By: Akwese on April 7, 2024
Focusing so much on reading, writing, and synthesizing this semester ( all things im not exceptionally skilled in) meant learning new skills, creating new processes of support, and facing many unknowns. Doing this meant utilizing what Daniel Kahneman calls System 2 thinking, which requires much more consideration, awareness, energy exertion, and conscious thought than System…
By: Daron George on April 6, 2024
I’m not sure where to begin. I initially listened to “Dominion” on audiobook, but an hour into it, I knew I needed a physical copy to fully engage with it. Tom Holland’s exploration is a captivating journey that reevaluates Christianity’s role in shaping Western civilization. While the book has its critiques, it undeniably sheds light…
By: Caleb Lu on April 6, 2024
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… and in you all the families of the earth shall…
By: Elysse Burns on April 6, 2024
Dr. David Rock kindly reminds his readers that our brains have performance limitations. He writes, “As you learn more about your brain, you begin to see that many of your foibles and mistakes come down to the way your brain is built.” [1] In Rock’s Your Brain at Work, he explains the mechanics and purpose…
By: Tonette Kellett on April 6, 2024
Introduction This week, I read Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland. Although it was a huge book, it was an interesting read. Holland explains that his book explores what made Christianity so “subversive and disruptive” and how it saturated the West so that many of its “good and ill instincts…
By: Dinka Utomo on April 5, 2024
“It is only through love that a warfighter can flourish as a warfighter qua just warfighter” -Marc LiVecche- Some Christians have an understanding of original sin, the sin resulting from acts of violation of God’s commands committed by the first human parents, Adam and Eve, as something that has a destructive impact, not only…
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: Julie O'Hara on April 4, 2024
After five days of lying in the dark, something surprising happened. I washed my hands and I noticed how the warm water flowing over my hands and wrist and it was good. I realized I was present in the moment. How long had it been since I experienced being present? I remembered chewing an apple…
By: Daren Jaime on April 4, 2024
I remember being the last person seated and taking my seat at the back of the plane. Exhausted from the conference, I quickly buckled in, began to rest my head against the window, and fell asleep before takeoff. In the midst of my sleep, the flight attendant woke me up and said, I’m sorry, sir,…
By: Todd E Henley on April 4, 2024
Monday, July 12, 2021, my new client showed up to his first session and the first words out of his mouth were, “I heard you can help people heal from the devastating impact of trauma. I am going to tell you things I have never told anyone. After you hear my shitful story, I am…
By: Adam Harris on April 4, 2024
My best friend, who I’ve known since kindergarten, was in the U.S. Marines. If you’ve ever seen the show Reacher, he is a leaner more charismatic version of Alan Ritchson’s character from the show. We attended the same church, went to the same school, and played football together in a “Friday Night Lights” kind of…
By: Debbie Owen on April 4, 2024
I was at a loss. At an impasse, actually. I had read most of David Rock’s Your Brain at Work over the last couple of days. I could see lots of connections to my NPO project. But when it came to starting a blog article with a story about this book I was stuck. When…
By: Ryan Thorson on April 4, 2024
“Slow down, you move too fast You got to make the morning last Just kicking down the cobble stones Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy” (The 59th street by Simon and Garfunkel) One of the reasons I decided to enroll in a doctoral program was because I wanted to learn the discipline of writing. As…
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: Nancy Blackman on April 4, 2024
In 2013, I was bedridden for 6 months. Not only did I need to step away from my work as a missionary, I couldn’t do much of anything but lie in bed. The energy needed to sit up was sometimes too difficult. With so much free time, I began to search the internet for answers.…
