M. R. Mercer invites us to reflect upon life, death and Christian faith in the latter portion of our lives. In a world that seems intent on ignoring mortality, he encourages us to engage the reality of our human limits reflectively, and with deep faith and hope. To live well, he argues, we must include in our thinking the truth that we won't live forever. ...
The statistics speak for themselves; record numbers of individuals who at one time identified as Christians are deconverting from the faith and identifying as unbelievers. Why is this happening and what can be done to prevent it? A Recipe for Disaster seeks to answer those questions by focusing on the four ways churches and parents unwittingly contribute to the deconversion process. By over-preparing, under-preparing, ill-preparing, and painfull ...
Take a Moment to Listen: Come gentle child, come rest in my heart–for I am here deep within your own. If you can still yourself just for a moment, you can hear me whisper your name. You can hear me whisper the depth of my eternal love for you, in this moment and always. Let me quiet your frightened mind, and hold your unsettled heart–for I will give you peace, the very moment you ask. Let me fill your heart with my love, and wrap my arms ...
In an age of e-books and screens, it may seem antiquated to create a handwritten, illuminated Bible. The Benedictine monks at Saint John's Abbey and University, however, determined to produce such a Bible for the twenty-first century, a Bible that would use traditional methods and materials while engaging contemporary questions and concerns. In an age that largely overlooks the physical form of books, The Saint John's Bible foregrounds ...
Anderson shows how Early Christians' faith took root in a multicultural world just as diverse and conflicted as our own. Their basic attitude turns out to have been one of astounding freedom–not a cultus of rules, but a matter of whole-hearted response; for they lived in conversation with the One whose love for all his wayward creatures is utterly tenacious. We find ourselves continually surprised by an insistent grace that treasures all ...
The book of Acts tells the story of what happened after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The book is filled with adventure and entertainment as Acts narrates God's activity among his people and the world. In this book I explore one way of reading Acts that attends closely to the plotline of the book and seek to invite readers into the story that Acts tells. Along the way, I examine some of the most important themes of Acts, including di ...
Humans are composed of poetic tissues as surely as physical ones. Our identities, worldviews, longings–all are drawn and developed from the unique relationships and texts we encounter and incorporate. We collect and imagine stories and creatively build them into the tale of ourselves. But each of these personal mythologies is irrevocably lost at death–unless it is true, as Christianity claims, that God raises the dead. Systematic Mythology: Im ...
We should not base our beliefs on some emotional experience we had, which we cannot really explain with any substance, other than to attribute the experience to something we want to believe was spiritual or God-inspired. This choice, belief and faith, should not be an unexplainable gut feeling or some thought shrouded in a cosmic concept of God that is neither specific nor explainable. Neither should we hide behind peer pressure that mak ...
Good stewardship of nature and the earth–those foundations upon which life depends–is our most pressing challenge, requiring a monumental and relentlessly single-minded unity of purpose. Yet in America, the cause of conservation suffers while the political Left and Right conduct an endless tug of war. The result is stalemate and inaction. James Krueger shows how this state of affairs stems from a widespread–and unnecessary–confusion in t ...
