Chaplainmike

Saturday Ramblings, July 25, 2014

Hello imonks, and welcome to the weekend. Ready to Ramble? Good thing he doesn’t have to run for re-election. Pope Francis’s approval rating in America has plummeted in the last year. The drop-off has been especially sharp among American conservatives: “This decline may be attributable to the pope’s denouncing of ‘the idolatry of money’ and attributing climate changeContinue reading “Saturday Ramblings, July 25, 2014”

You’ve Gotta Hear This. It’s Amazing.

You’ve Gotta Hear This. It’s Amazing. By Damaris Zehner Jeff Dunn insists that American readers will refuse to read poetry. He’s always counseled me to leave the poetry out and in fact removed all the poems I had snuck into the manuscript of the book he’s publishing. I trust Jeff’s experience , but sometimes IContinue reading “You’ve Gotta Hear This. It’s Amazing.”

“A cohort of wonder”

William P. Brown serves as a great example of someone who has integrated biblical studies with scientific and technological progress so as to promote a “theology of wonder.” This portion from one of my favorite books on the Old Testament, The Seven Pillars of Creation, explains how Brown first caught that sense of wonder. I’ve included the video heContinue reading ““A cohort of wonder””

A Lost Imagination for God

We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn or scoff at the totality of being. Sublime grandeur evokes unhesitating, unflinching awe. Away from the immense, cloistered in our own concepts, we may scorn and revile everything. But standing between earth and sky, we are silenced by the sight. . . . • AbrahamContinue reading “A Lost Imagination for God”

Another Look: Who Is Christ for Us Today?

Note from CM: I am reading Letters & Papers from Prison because I want to explore more of what Bonhoeffer said about the “completely religionless time” he said was coming. Yesterday’s metaphor, which I realize came across with mixed results, was one small attempt on my part to begin working through my own sense thatContinue reading “Another Look: Who Is Christ for Us Today?”

Kansans in Oz

We Christians don’t often make the connection between progress and ideas. We live in a world of our own, where we think it’s all about ideas, about “what you believe,” and we fail to see that advanced technology and the freedom and autonomy it has brought to much of the world has dramatically changed the way people todayContinue reading “Kansans in Oz”

Sundays with Michael Spencer: July 19, 2015

Note from CM: I know we just posted a portion of what Michael Spencer had to say about Young Earth Creationism last Sunday, but another disturbing situation was reported this past week, which shows me that we need to keep beating this drum at Internet Monk. Deborah Haarsma at Biologos writes about Jim Stump’s resignationContinue reading “Sundays with Michael Spencer: July 19, 2015”

Saturday Ramblings, July 18, 2015

Hello, imonks, and welcome to the weekend. Shall we Ramble a bit? Of course the big news in foreign policy was the agreement with Iran, which puts their nuclear program under international oversight. “This deal offers an opportunity to move in a new direction”, the President said on Tuesday. The GOP candidates fell all over eachContinue reading “Saturday Ramblings, July 18, 2015”

3 Kinds of Grace: A Heuristic Chart

While writing a sermon on Psalm 103, I was concerned that sometimes we Christians have a deficient view of the role of grace in the Christian life. I showed the following clips from Saving Private Ryan to illustrate one deficient view: that grace is something God saves us by, but we must then pay thisContinue reading “3 Kinds of Grace: A Heuristic Chart”

Another Look: The Second Turning — or How JT, a Field of Dreams, a Marble Tomb, and Learning to Do Nothing Saved My Life

Note from CM: Thought I’d revive this post from 2013 for today, since last night we went to see James Taylor in concert once again. • • • This is a book about the second turning. In the first turning, a Christian experiences the transformation from a natural person to a spiritual person. Instead of “self” beingContinue reading “Another Look: The Second Turning — or How JT, a Field of Dreams, a Marble Tomb, and Learning to Do Nothing Saved My Life”