Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (Pittsburgh: Crown & Covenant Publications, 2012). 154 pp. Rosaria Butterfield is the kind of woman she herself once bitterly opposed. The homeschooling pastor's wife and adoptive mother of four was not raised in the Reformed Presbyterian Church. She was a self-described “lesbian postmodernist,” (p. 41) a professor of English and Queer Theory conducting research on the Promise Keepers movement, when she encountered Christian hospitality at … [Read more...] about Review: The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert
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The Myth of Sodom and Gomorrah
Homecomings for Christ-following secular university students may not always be perfectly sweet. The mellow look of sympathy from a friend or loved one is accompanied by the statement that “Now that you're home, you can be with real Christian people.” Or the concerned question “How in the world can you study under professors that don't believe in Jesus?” might be followed by “Do you have friends who drink?” As Christians, we are an extremely diverse group of people. We are not marked out by our skin color or our … [Read more...] about The Myth of Sodom and Gomorrah
Story, Lent and The Life of Pi
Last week I wrote about The Oscars and Lent. I wrote that these two phenomena share more in common than is usually suggested. Today I want to move in for a closer look--at the stories themselves. If this annual cultural ritual in honor of story (The Oscars) is so telling of our culture's condition, and if we, as critically thinking Christians, want to understand and thus impact our culture, it may do us some good to examine its favorite stories. The Life of Pi is one such story. With four Academy Awards, The Life … [Read more...] about Story, Lent and The Life of Pi
Why I’m (Still) A Christian — Part II
Last time around, I wrote about some conditions which I would consider necessary to a Christian faith, but that are not sufficient for me to be satisfied with one. If you're not familiar with the notion of necessary and sufficient conditions, let's think about what you need to start a campfire. Generally speaking, kindling and firewood are both necessary elements; it's very hard to start a fire by lighting firewood directly, and kindling alone won't burn long enough. However, those two things alone are not sufficient … [Read more...] about Why I’m (Still) A Christian — Part II
Paradox and the Calling of the Christian Scholar
I am delighted to introduce a new series today from Dr. Richard T. Hughes, Distinguished Professor of Religion and Director of the Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan Studies at Messiah College. Tom spoke with Richard at the Forgiveness Conference at Elizabethtown College this past September, and he agreed to contribute this guest series for the New Year to offer advice to students or young faculty at the beginning of their academic careers. Some of the posts in this series, including the one below, … [Read more...] about Paradox and the Calling of the Christian Scholar