A Glorious Dark: Finding Hope in the Tension Between Belief and Experience by A. J. Swoboda. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Press, 2015. Summary: An exploration of living in the tension of the glorious hope of Christian faith and the dark, unsettling realities of our lives through reflections grouped around the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the Triduum of Holy Week. A great book to read reflectively during Holy Week [April 9 - 16, 2017]. … [Read more...] about Book Review: A Glorious Dark, by A. J. Swoboda
evil
Public and Personal Encounters with Evil
By any account, media coverage this week has been saturated in violence. We have been inundated by graphic and raw descriptions of the Boston bombings, a live-birth abortionist, and even the Senate's rejection of expanded firearm background checking. These are public tragedies: public displays that evoke charged words like evil, hellish, terror, moral failure. They are also riveting, partly because their scale is rare, but also because they have taken such personal forms. Each of these were made more horrific because … [Read more...] about Public and Personal Encounters with Evil
What is the biggest challenge to today’s apologist?
James W. Sire addresses: What is the biggest challenge to today's apologist? -- A question received by email inquiry. I doubt that there is a “today's apologist.†Every person engaged in presenting the Christian faith is “today's apologist.†Moreover, I can address the question but I am no longer an active traveling apologist with exposure to “today's†campuses. Among my current friends are a bitter Dawkins-type atheist and retired scientist, a mid-forties New Ager, a curious high school grandson, a … [Read more...] about What is the biggest challenge to today’s apologist?
Was Jesus Forsaken?
2012 Lenten Reflection Series While prayerfully considering Why Does God Suffer?, I came across advance material from Thomas H. McCall's Forsaken: The Trinity and the Cross, and Why It Matters (InterVarsity, May 2012). With the excerpt, InterVarsity Press Academic posted two questions on G+: Was Jesus forsaken on the Cross? What are the implications of the answer? Below's an edited version of what I shared. Was Jesus forsaken on the Cross? Yes, but it's important to define how Jesus was forsaken on … [Read more...] about Was Jesus Forsaken?
Lenten Wrestling w/God, Natural Disaster, Suffering, Good, Evil
The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? (David Bentley Hart. Eerdmans. 2005) came to my attention at last week's national staff meetings for InterVarsity Graduate & Faculty Ministries.* I've found the reflections of the Eastern Orthodox scholar and First Things contributor a timely Lenten follow-up not only to After Shock: Searching for Honest Faith When Your World Is Shaken (Kent Annan. IVP. 2011), but also an extended discussion of How Could A Good God Allow Suffering (Chapter 2 of Tim Keller's The … [Read more...] about Lenten Wrestling w/God, Natural Disaster, Suffering, Good, Evil