Discipleship, becoming Christ-like, empowered by the Spirit to image God to the world is not magic. Nor is it merely intellectual. It's a matter of re-forming our loves, re-narrativing our identities, re-habituating our virtue. And that is centered in the practices of the people of God gathered by the Spirit around Christ's Word and the table. Love takes practice. Worship is our gymnasium. . . . -- Conclusion to James K.A. Smith's presentation Liturgical Discipleship: Worship as the Center of Spiritual … [Read more...] about James K.A. Smith on “Liturgical Discipleship”
Augustine
Is Evolution Compatible with belief in God as the Creator?
This is the third in a series of blog posts concerned with Christian questions about evolution. In my last post we saw that science does not rule out God because it is not competent to address the question of God. But, is evolution compatible with belief in God as the Creator? That is the topic of this post. A major concern for some Christians is that there is no need for God in the process of evolution. Ironically, this is also the view of atheists. In his book The God Delusion, the atheist biologist Richard … [Read more...] about Is Evolution Compatible with belief in God as the Creator?
The Best Christian Book of All Time: One Year Later
About a year ago, we announced our call for nominations for the Best Christian Book of All Time, and you —our readers —responded with great enthusiasm. From a nomination pool of over 140 worthies, we first narrowed the bracket to 64 contenders, voted out lesser lights (such as Luther, Calvin, Chesterton, Aquinas —I hope they make something of themselves some day!), and crowned our winner: Augustine's Confessions, the Best Christian Book of All Time.[1] You may have heard of the runner-up, a short tract by C.S. Lewis … [Read more...] about The Best Christian Book of All Time: One Year Later
Book Review: The Passionate Intellect (2)
Alister McGrath holds a doctorate from Oxford and is an atheist convert to Christian faith. This book is an attempt by McGrath to demonstrate both the value to the Christian of an engagement with Christian theology and to directly engage the critique of Christianity advanced by the new atheism. In the first section of his book, McGrath contends that rigorous theological reflection liberates us from the confines of our own narrow spiritual perspectives by engaging us in a conversation with the greatest minds of two … [Read more...] about Book Review: The Passionate Intellect (2)
Late Have I Loved You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxaCs3vRpG0 In last night's Christian Devotional Classics (Evangelical Seminary) a fellow student shared how much he appreciated Gungor's "lifting" of the words of Augustine's Confessions in Late have I loved you. As you may remember Augustine's Confessions won ESN's Best Christian Book of All Time and this is a beautiful selection from the text. Belatedly I loved thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, belatedly I loved thee. For see, thou wast within and I was without, and I … [Read more...] about Late Have I Loved You