Piety

Christians Should Be the Most Gracious and Edifying People on Social Media

I like Alastair Roberts. Here's some wisdom for you (emphasis mine): Progressive versus conservative evangelical spats are one of the very worst things about Twitter, which is really saying something. Such arguments illustrate just how poor a medium Twitter can be for...

Psalm 2 at Christmas

I was given the privilege of preaching briefly this morning at my church after our annual Christmas program, and I chose what might seem an odd passage for Christmas: Psalm 2. During the time of year at which we are celebrating what is in one sense the beginning of...

Condoms and Consent

Condoms and Consent

Mark Regnerus in Public Discourse: Saying that it’s all on men to change their behavior may signal progressive virtue online, but it will do little to diminish real-life grief. The realities of sexual exchange will not disappear and cannot be eviscerated by fiat or...

Dating in the Fifties, Sex in the Sixties

Probing thoughts from Kenneth Woodward, long-time religion correspondent for Newsweek (as in 1964–2002!), in his fascinating memoir, Getting Religion: Most adolescents in the Fifties were raised to observe certain sexual limits—just as lovers did in the movies from...

Rusting the Sword of the Spirit

Rusting the Sword of the Spirit

I heard Mark Noll say this a while back, and it was really striking. May it not be true of me or you (cf. Matt 7:1–5): The Bible has been a great weapon for attacking people you don't like: "You shall not crucify me on a cross of gold!" It has been a much rustier...

Pervasive Interpretive Pluralism and Recent Trinitarian Controversies

Pervasive Interpretive Pluralism and Recent Trinitarian Controversies

Just a short reflection on the argument among Reformed theologians about theology proper (read, for example, Frame’s review of James Dolezal here and here). I think some of my brothers and sisters in Christ are looking to confessions and scholastic categories and...

Tentative Thoughts on VidAngel

I am so far from telling other Christians what they should do with VidAngel. So far. I don't want to be a member of the Fraternal Order of Discernment Police. I'm just wary of my own flesh. I hate the feeling of spoiled pleasures; I love the feeling of pure ones. I'm...

Final Lecture for Asia Center for Advanced Christian Studies

In which I take students through How to Think about Others' Exegetical Fallacies and then talk through some portions of my dissertation that focused on ἀγάπη (agape) and what it "really" means. No, like, for real this time.

Review: John McWhorter’s Words on the Move

I've gone through two of John McWhorter's Great Courses on language; I've read several of his books, and I'm a faithful listener to his podcast. When I picked up this book I suddenly realized, "I know just what he's going to say. I get John McWhorter." I put the book...

Review: Andy Crouch’s The Tech-Wise Family

Andy Crouch is among the first parents to have nurtured children from clearly-too-young-to-have-a-smartphone to now-old-enough, during a time in which smartphones were in fact available for that whole period. It's only been ten years since the iPhone's debut. And in...

Review: The Passionate Preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The Passionate Preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones by Steven J. Lawson My rating: 3 of 5 stars Earnest, edifying, admirably brief. Doesn't break any new ground or offer any new insight if you've already read Murray's biography. But a great introduction for those...

Review: 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You

12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke My rating: 5 of 5 stars The best way to summarize this book is probably to let the author do it. In the last twelve chapters, I have warned against twelve corresponding ways in which smartphones are changing us and...