“Mission without spiritual formation and virtue is impossible. But spiritual formation without mission is solipsistic.” – Greg Thompson, heard by author Reflection In my last post I suggested that vocation is God's invitation for us to join Him in His mission of restoring the world's ecology of shalom by using our gifts, talents, credentials, resources, and opportunities to make culture that is rightly ordered by love of God and love of neighbor. If this is the case, how then should we think of our distinct … [Read more...] about Vocatio Christi: The Contours of Our Callings (Scholar’s Compass)
Missio Dei: The Context of Our Callings (Scholar’s Compass)
“Mission without spiritual formation and virtue is impossible. But spiritual formation without mission is solipsistic.” - Greg Thompson, heard by author Reflection What, if anything, does my spiritual life have to do with my work life? Better yet, what does my spiritual life have to do with my life's work? Is my specific vocation incidental or irrelevant to my spiritual formation? Or do these aspects of my life converge somehow? Similarly, are evangelical witness and the integration of faith and scholarship mutually … [Read more...] about Missio Dei: The Context of Our Callings (Scholar’s Compass)
A Spirituality of Graduate School: Mission and Formation (Scholar’s Compass)
Greg Thompson once said in my hearing, “Mission without spiritual formation and virtue is impossible. But spiritual formation without mission is solipsistic.” Head pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, associate fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, and Executive Director of New City Commons (a think tank devoted to exploring the intersections of the Church's mission and contemporary culture), Greg is the consummate pastor-scholar and generally when he … [Read more...] about A Spirituality of Graduate School: Mission and Formation (Scholar’s Compass)
C.S. Lewis on Scripture. God’s Word in Human Words. Part 2 of 2
In my last post I highlighted C.S. Lewis's take on what it means to approach the Bible humbly: namely, we should first ask honestly and with an open mind, What sort of book has God actually given us and how has He given it? When we do that, we find that God has given us a Book not at all like what we might have expected if we had formulated a doctrine of Scripture a priori. Instead He has given us something else entirely, something far more extraordinary: The same divine humility which decreed that God should … [Read more...] about C.S. Lewis on Scripture. God’s Word in Human Words. Part 2 of 2
C.S. Lewis on Scripture. God’s Word in Human Words. Part 1 of 2
I am always thankful that the first theology book I ever read was C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. I stumbled upon it in the B. Dalton Bookseller at the local mall early in the summer before my senior year in high school, was intrigued, took it home and devoured it in less than a day. From then on I read anything I could get my hands on by Lewis: Miracles, The Great Divorce, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, The Abolition of Man, you name it. Lewis's clarity, cleverness, creativity, intelligence, and … [Read more...] about C.S. Lewis on Scripture. God’s Word in Human Words. Part 1 of 2