All knowing begins with what Michael Polanyi calls a "fiduciary framework." (fiduciary = pertaining to fides, "involving trust"): an interpretive framework that one takes initially on faith until it proves itself by yielding a harvest of understanding...If Polanyi is right, Christian theology is no worse of than modern science. Everyone has to have faith in something…
Conversion [to Jesus Christ] may be a crisis; it may be a process. Even a crisis like birth is really a process...It would be stupid to argue whether birth or growth is the more important element in our experience. We are born to grow. And so it is in the Christian life. Some can remember…
Why is it that one likes being moved to grief at the sight of sad or tragic events on stage, when one would be unwilling to suffer the same things onself?...But how real is the mercy evoked by fictional dramas? The listener is not moved to offer help, but merely invited to feel sorrow --St.…
In vice there lurks a counterfeit beauty: pride, for instance--even pride apes sublimity, whereas you are the only God, most high above all things. As for ambition, what does it crave but honors and glory, while you are worthy of honor beyond all others, and eternally glorious? The ferocity of powerful men aims to inspire…
What are you, then my God? What are you, I ask, but the Lord God? For who else is lord except the Lord?, or who is god if not our God? You are most high, excellent, most powerful, omnipotent, supremely merciful and supremely just, most hidden yet intimately present, infinitely beautiful and infinitely strong, steadfast…
[Atticus says], ‘As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from,…
We are unlike the Christians of the New Testament. Our approach to life is conventional and static; theirs was not. The thought of 'safety first' was not a drag on their enterprise as it is on ours. By being exuberant, unconventional, and uninhibited in living by the gospel, they turned their world upside down...Why are…
Imagine all humanity had a committee meeting to establish what God would have to go through to truly understand human suffering. The poor would say he should be homeless, frequently hungry, and constantly moving from place to place. Bereaved people would say he should lose a parent and perhaps a close friend as well. Holocaust…
The Christmas associations of an inn and an innkeeper, however, do not reflect the language of Luke's text in 2:7. Rather, the word usually translated as "inn," seems to refer to either some type of reception room in a private home or some type of public shelter. Since this place was full, refuge was sought…
The prevailing view of life today is that of an individual standing on his or her own, heroically juggling various responsibilities—family, friendships, career, leisure, chores, and money…From time to time the pressures overwhelm us and we drop one or more of the balls. All too often church becomes one of those balls…An alternative model is…
Raising Lazarus 