Summary: American Christianity has slowly adopted a Jesus that looks and acts a lot like John Wayne, and that has distorted Christianity. When I first heard about Jesus and John Wayne, I had it connected to books on Christian Nationalism, like Taking America Back for God, maybe because that is how Matthew Lee Anderson framed … Read more
Summary: Pop culture connections to the gospel and biography the way it is supposed to be done. I have long been a subscriber to Christ and Pop Culture Magazine. Seeing glimpses of God in art is one of the best ways I know of to communicate about Christ to people who are not Christians. But … Read more
Summary: An exposure of how “˜White American Folk Religion’ and Christianity are not the same things. It is not surprising at this point, or it should not be, that many Christians seem to be confused about how Christianity and the American Dream overlap and contradict. Often Christians are discipled to believe that the abundant life … Read more
It is the time of the year when everyone is posting their “˜Best of’ lists. This is not going to be a “˜Best of 2018′ because less than half of these were published in 2018. And I think that is a good thing. Books should have a life of longer than a year, and even … Read more
Takeaway: Spiritual practices are not magic bullets. Over the past few years, I have become a disciple of spiritual practices. I have a spiritual director. I regularly use the Book of Common Prayer. I do think that the eucharist and baptism should be central to worship. This makes me the target audience of Lauren Winner’s … Read more
Takeaway: Discernment is about practice, wisdom, and intention. For regular readers of my reviews, it will be repetitive to say that Christianity is not just about being saved from our sins and going to heaven. It is also about abundant life on earth now. When Jesus gave his commission after the resurrection, he said, “Make … Read more
Takeaway: I have no idea. One of my reading projects this year has been to read all of Flannery O’Connor’s fiction this year. I have previously read A Good Man is Hard to Find, but I will probably re-read it again. But I have no idea what to think about O’Connor now that I have … Read more
Summary: A realignment from attendance based worship to participatory Christianity. I was both interested in reading the Eternal Current and hesitant to read it. In some ways I feel like I have been on a similar journey as Aaron Niequist. I have been following him for years on social media and through his wife’s (Shauna … Read more
Summary: In order to be a Christian within culture, we need to understand what the culture is. Which means we need to be rooted in historic Christianity as a means of disrupting the effects of culture. The old illustration about two fish being asked how is the water, and then one asking the other, ‘what is … Read more
Summary: An evangelical historian approaches why so many Evangelicals voted for Trump. I am a fan of the John Fea’s history podcast, The Way of Improvement Leads Home. I do not remember how I ran across it, but I have listened to it almost from the very beginning. Some of the ideas of Believe Me … Read more