How have Christian teachings on gratitude added basic ideas to the founding of Enlightenment institutions and the modern world we live in? [Read more…] about The Revolution of Christian Ingratitude in Western History: A Talk by Peter Leithart
gratitude
Not What I’d Planned (Scholar’s Compass)
My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. – Psalm 73:26
Reflection
Chronic illness is not what I’d planned. Chronic illness is not the path I would’ve chosen. Yet chronic illness is the laboratory where I’m learning to be a better wife, mother, daughter, professor, and friend. [Read more…] about Not What I’d Planned (Scholar’s Compass)
Who Am I? Bonhoeffer as a Historical Mentor in Prayer: Part 2
Preface
In the process of completing the Christian Devotional Classics series, I was inspired to dig into material which I wrote on the prayer life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for Theology and Practice of Prayer[footnote]SF/ST 777: Theology and Practice of Prayer. Laurie Mellinger, Ph.D. Evangelical Seminary. Summer 2012. Course Description: This course explores various aspects of the interplay between theology and prayer. What we believe about God determines how and why we pray; this has also been true for Christians throughout the history of the Church. We will examine both historical persons and methods of praying from a variety of Christian traditions, and discuss their potential for deepening our own relationships with God. This course provides the opportunity for students to study and experience a variety of Christian prayer forms, and to discern the theological foundations upon which they rest. We will take a historical approach, discussing prayer in the Scriptures and its application in the lives of persons of prayer throughout the Christian era. We will also consider the place and practice of prayer in the contemporary church, both for individuals and for corporate gatherings.[/footnote] Click here for Who Am I? Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a Historical Mentor in Prayer: Part 1. As you read Part 2, reflect upon how you respond to your
- upbringing: familial — including expectations and educational/cultural power (or lack of it), cultural, educational, ethnic, religious, socio-economic . . .
- your international/cross-cultural relationships
- academic mentors and gatekeepers, particularly when one’s conscience is challenged.
- community — how do you understand/define your closest/deepest community?
- Lord (i.e., Jesus the Christ) with your head, heart, and hands in all aspects of life (including vocation).
- “legacy” as you perceive it to be developing.
Who Am I? – A Glimpse of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Context
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was born into a “middle-class,†aristocratic Prussian family which moved to a Berlin suburb when his father Dr. Karl Bonhoeffer (1868-1948) was appointed Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at University of Berlin, the most highly-regarded chair in Germany at the time. Karl and his wife Paula (1874-1951) valued education, the arts, the state, the church as an institution, the family, and the Protestant work ethic. The children’s early schooling began with Paula and was continued by governesses from the Herrnhut community. Paula’s mother was a German countess. Her father was a practical theology professor and a military chaplain, who briefly served Kaiser Wilhem II. She had a grandfather who had been a famous church historian at the University of Jena. [Read more…] about Who Am I? Bonhoeffer as a Historical Mentor in Prayer: Part 2
A grateful heart
Thou has given so much to me
Give one thing more – a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleases me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days;
But such a heart, whose pulse may be Thy praise
- What Are You Thankful For? The Spiritual Discipline of Gratitude (Mike Hickerson. ESN Blog. 11/20/2012).
- Living the Christian Year (Mike Hickerson. ESN Blog. 11/28/2010): interview of Bobby Gross, director of InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries, regarding material he delves into in Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God (InterVarsity Press. 2009).
What Are You Thankful For? The Spiritual Discipline of Gratitude
All this month, my Facebook feed has been filled with friends participating in 30 Days of Thanksgiving, posting each day about something for which they are thankful — their family, their friends, the goodness of God’s provision, etc. The regular practice of gratitude is an important guard against cynicism and self-righteousness and something that I endorse. Even so, it was hard for me not to laugh at the Facebook post of a friend, who recently left a PhD program in Second Temple Judaism and is currently struggling to find meaningful work:
Well I know I’m late and that I’m a novice at it, but here goes; Day 8:
“…God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.” For what are you grateful for today? [1]
Gratitude as a Spiritual Discipline
Gratitude is hard. When things are going well, it’s easy to believe that we have accomplished our success entirely through our own effort and that we owe nothing to anyone else, least of which God. In his book The Beauty of God’s Holiness, my InterVarsity colleague Tom Trevethan writes of people he has known whose careers have taken off quickly or who have given themselves entirely over to someone or something else, ignoring God and, like the praying Pharisee of my friend’s joke, becoming deluded in their quest for success apart from God. [Read more…] about What Are You Thankful For? The Spiritual Discipline of Gratitude