Exploring Faith and Spirituality

Religion

Why Being Anti-Nazi Isn’t Enough for Ethics

While our family was out eating dinner, my 11-year-old sister, Katie, was eager to share what she’d learned at school that day. Taking her napkin, she began to draw a few crisscrossed lines. Sudden...

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John Van Deusen’s ‘Joyful Noise’ Pushes Boundaries of Worship’s Sound

What is the worship music “sound”? Most of us probably conjure a similar aesthetic when we ponder that question. But John Van Deusen wants to expand our horizons, giving Christians a bigger vision ...

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Announcing the Inaugural Class of The Carson Center Fellows

I am happy to announce the inaugural class of fellows for The Carson Center for Theological Renewal. Senior Fellows: G. K. Beale J. Gary Millar Fellows: J. V. Fesko Mary Willson Hannah ...

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Pursue Missions for the Long Haul

In our church in Dubai, there are several airline pilots who regularly fly 12-hour, even 16-hour, flights in some of the biggest, most sophisticated aircraft in the world. They tell me that long-ha...

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How Should Christians Evaluate Fictional Magic?

The fantasy genre has experienced a significant resurgence, due in no small part to the success of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies in the early 2000s. And while various forms of magic and ...

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Appointment of New Archbishop Continues Tragic Slide into Irrelevance

This week, the Church of England’s leadership continued its tragic slide into irrelevance as it announced the appointment of Sarah Mullally as the next Archbishop of Canterbury. Anglicans around t...

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Operation Pope review – hard-bitten thriller about a true-life papal assassination plot

Audiences will obviously be aware the secret plan to kill John Paul II did not succeed, but despite a baggy narrative the high-stakes espionage is still compelling‘You want me to shoot the pope?” T...

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The first female archbishop of Canterbury faces a tide of misogyny | Letters

Keith Griffin hopes Sarah Mullally can settle the church’s tangles over gender, sexuality and race, while Andrew Groves calls out misogyny. Plus letters by Mark Ynys-Mon, Rev Dr Nicholas Bradbury a...

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The Power of Dhikr for Healing a Broken Heart

There are moments in life when the weight of loss, betrayal, or disappointment feels too heavy to carry. Hearts ache, tears fall in silence, and even daily routines feel like climbing mountains. Wh...

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The next archbishop of Canterbury has no time to waste in making change – this is what she will be up against | Martine Oborne

Sarah Mullally is known to be wise, intelligent, courageous and compassionate. That should serve her well in the battles aheadThe Rev Martine Oborne is the chair of Women and the Church (Watch) and...

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Tahajjud Prayer: Secret Night Worship That Transforms the Heart

When No One Else Can Help, the Night Can There are moments in life when no advice helps, no friend understands, and no success fills the void inside your chest. You lie awake in the middle of t...

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Why Churches Need ‘Magnetic Spaces’

Picture a group of immigrants and students gathered in a warm church room, sipping tea and stumbling through English conversations. This is the ministry of 2:19 Teach to Reach, a conversational Eng...

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The Real Reason You Can’t Quit Porn

“That’s it,” he said. “I’m done with porn.” We’d sat in the same two chairs in my church office and had this same conversation many times—so many times that I had my doubts. Why does repentance of...

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The Pastor and Counseling (with Deepak Reju)

Every pastor wants a culture of care, but not every pastor feels equipped to counsel—much less to equip others to counsel one another. In this episode, Deepak Reju—a Delaware pastor who served for...

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Why We Need to Talk About Body Image in Women’s Discipleship

When we disciple others, we want to help them know God deeply and live faithfully according to his Word. That often means helping women navigate various types of struggles. As a biblical counselor,...

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Ick Lists Aren’t Harmless Fun

“When a guy runs with a backpack on and looks like a prepubescent turtle.” “Yes! Or has his rain jacket draped over his backpack.” The group of girls sprawled in the living room of my dorm burst ...

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The Real Threat to Faith Isn’t Science

If not for the revelation we have received from heaven, no one would be debating science and faith. God says things in the Old and New Testaments that are hard, if not impossible, to reconcile wit...

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When ‘Evangelical’ Means Everything but the Gospel

For the past 30 years, I’ve pushed back against the critics who’ve said Christians need to abandon the label “evangelical.” I’ve argued that we shouldn’t let political associations or cultural bagg...

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Samson: A New and Unimproved Moses

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” This line—frequently attributed to Mark Twain—captures something deeply true about how the Bible tells its stories. Biblical authors carefully...

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Is Textual Criticism . . . Cool?

“So, what’s your dissertation about?” When I began my PhD work at the University of Edinburgh in 1999, I can remember dreading this question from my evangelical friends. I’d try to explain to them...

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Raging Against the Machine, Longing for Eden

There are many ways to describe modernity and the feelings it inspires: malaise (Walker Percy), disenchantment (Max Weber), deathworks (Philip Rieff), liquid modernity (Zygmunt Bauman), after virtu...

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