Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
This post is taken from the current Cor Deo website. Please offer any responses there. Thanks! The stir for this entry comes from Martin Luther. What caught my attention is a revisit to Tuomo Mannermaa’s intriguing work, Christ Present in Faith: Luther’s View of Justification (Fortress, 2005). Luther, according to Mannermaa, held that a believer’s …
Read More Experiencing GodHere’s a question that rarely surfaces these days but it still needs to be asked: How many professing Christians will Jesus receive as his own on judgment day? And how many will be told, “Depart from me, I never knew you!”? Along with this basic two-sided question let me ask a related but more applied …
Read More An Unspoken DebateI’ve been reading Re-Thinking Dionysius the Areopagite (Coakley & Stang, eds.). The “re-thinking” in the title caught my attention. Most of us have never had a first thought about Dionysius so the idea of a re-think is odd. Never mind, though, whether we know him or not. It’s very likely that he has helped shape …
Read More A Divine StirPaul wrote of two competing laws in Romans 3 as he scolded some of the Jews in Rome for the moralistic demands they placed on Gentile believers. In his view a “law of works” set up self-focused “boasting” about the role we have in faith: “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By …
Read More Reflections on RomansThis entry repeats my entry at the Cor Deo site. Please post any responses there. Thanks! What role does the Holy Spirit play in our salvation? I ask because most formal conversations about salvation feature the Father and the Son while largely ignoring the Spirit. This Spirit-light tradition features the Father’s saving plan for the …
Read More The Saving SpiritThe spiritual formation movement—popular among many Christians today—has certain attractions. Ignatius Loyola, the 16th century founder of the Jesuits, inaugurated this theme as he promoted a disciplined spirituality in his Spiritual Exercises. Spiritual Directors applied these exercises to aspirants during quietist retreats. Loyola, a former soldier, meant to spread the Catholic faith—and to suppress the …
Read More Spiritual FormationThis article is our current Cor Deo blog. Please offer any responses there: thanks! The Jesus who shows up in a bold, fast-paced, Bible reading is remarkably demanding and incredibly delightful. He overwhelms us both in what he offers and in what he asks for. The problem is that we’re not ready for it. So …
Read More The problem with JesusIn the deeply immoral and anti-Christian environment found in Europe and North America today concerned Christians leaders and communities are offering very different responses. Some seek to engage unbelieving societal leaders in ongoing conversation with an ambition to redirect cultural mores and values through personal presence and winsome reason. Others move in the opposite direction …
Read More Faith OptionsWhat if Adam had told Eve, “No, my love, we won’t eat that fruit—it’s been forbidden to us. Our lovely God told me very directly, ‘Don’t eat from that tree’ and he’s to be trusted and obeyed no matter what the serpent said.” Or what if, as considered in 1 Samuel 13:13-14, Saul had proven …
Read More What if we loved God?After dinner our conversation turned to the social and moral changes we’ve seen over the years. We were all baby boomers—children of WWII era parents—so the memories of life as Christians in the 1950’s and 60’s were easy to recall. It’s a scene often repeated among aging adults throughout human history. Even in Moses’ day …
Read More A Dinner Conversation