On September 19, 2016, I received news so shocking that the world stopped. I was walking across campus when the text came through. For a few seconds I am not sure what happened. I remember the sky flashing blue above me; I remember the sound of falling water from the nearby fountain. I had been…
Several months ago I heard a catchy phrase preached in a sermon. But it wasn’t until recently, when I began to compare popular medieval Bible verses with popular modern bible verses (thanks Bible Gateway!), that I began to think about the phrase more critically. So what is the phrase? “Information does not equal transformation.” Not…
My husband recently noted in his Facebook series on local church highlights in Waco, TX, (yes, we live–literally–in the middle of the Fixer Upper world) how modern Protestants characterize the Medieval church as keeping people from the Bible. I have talked about medieval views of the Bible on this blog several times, including “Banning the…
According to Bible Gateway, the top Bible verses in 2016 were John 3:16, Jeremiah 29:11, Philippians 4: 6 and 13, Romans 8:28, and Psalm 23:1-6. So modern Christians with access to Bible Gateway focus on how God saves us and how God promises to take care of us (even during times of anxiety and difficulty)….
Recently, Karen Swallow Prior spoke out against the “Billy Graham rule”–married men distancing themselves from women to avoid temptation and the appearance of evil. For those of you who missed Prior’s article, she eloquently argued that good moral character is better than rigid behavioral rules. As she writes, “Virtue ethics relies on moral character that…
I bet that, for those of you attending church on Easter Sunday, at least half of you will sing “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” Christ, the Lord, is risen today, Alleluia! Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia! Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia! Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia!Vain the stone,…