Galatians was written to a group of recently-converted pagans in Asia Minor under pressure to keep the Jewish law. They weren’t just being urged to show up at the synagogue on Saturdays or to revere Moses like the ‘Godfearers’ we read about in Acts. They were being urged to get circumcised – to express exclusive allegiance to the God of Israel. And yet Paul describes all this as going back to something with which they were already familiar.
The book of Ruth opens with devastation. Nothing goes well for Naomi’s family. Nothing! The story begins with famine in the land (1:1), which is difficult for those of us living in the extravagant surplus of America to relate to. We are distant from famine. But not so in the ancient world (nor in many parts of our world today!). With famine came starvation, plague, even war. Famine meant the loss of property, as families scrambled to sell everything they had for food. A common response to famine was even to sell your children into slavery just to keep them and you alive. How do you decide which kid to sell? Every day was a fight to stay alive and find food. For Naomi’s family, they flee to Moab to escape famine and stay alive.
The insincere smile on her face couldn’t conceal the hurt in her eyes. She sat across from my in my office, recounting the details of her recent discovery. Her husband of over 30 years had been living a lie, building a family in another town, and had concealed his adultery for over three years. What was she to do? And how could she have any hope in that moment?
It is rightly said that the gathered community that comes together in corporate worship prophetically points toward a hope and future glorious kingdom in Christ. This is gathered worship as an act of hope, perhaps even defiant hope in the face of a world marred by sin. The body of believers gathered for corporate worship is united by the Spirit, and points toward the hope with have in Christ to be with God.
“I will not apologize for something I did not do.” As a facet of forgiveness, we often associate the need for apology with something for which we alone are at fault. I spoke a harsh word in my anger; I should apologize. I took what was not mine to take; I should return what I stole. But is there an obligation for the Christian to repent of sins which they did not commit? Beyond the shame of embarrassment and apology on behalf of someone else, is there room for a genuine and actionable repentance on behalf of another person?
When Eric Peterson became the pastor of a brand-new church, he quickly turned to his dad for guidance. As a result, pastor, scholar, poet, and author of more than thirty books, Eugene Peterson, began writing letters to his son reflecting on pastoral ministry in all its complexity.
Technological innovations like the Cathode-Ray tube at the end of the 19th century and the first forms LED and touchscreen technology in the 1960s changed our vision of the world. Even before the Covid shutdowns, many people would spend 6-8-12 hours in front of screens, computers and phones at work, and phones, computers, and TVs at home. Screens display our labor and our entertainment. Screens mediate much of our engagement with friends and family and the world itself.
I oscillate between despair and hope over the future prospect of evangelicalism. My reservation about it is driven by my perception of the movement’s fraught historical past and trends in its present. The evangelical past has been connected to various sorts of oppression—including exploitation and displacement of Natives, participation and preservation of chattel slavery, and perpetuation of patriarchy. Evangelicals in the present are culpable for the ghastly continuation of white male supremacy for the sake of a Christian Nationalist vision.
We are delighted to officially introduce the newest members of our Ecclesial Theologian Fellowship Program.
Hope is more than merely an ingredient of faith; hope is a co-reagent in the transformation of a human being from death to life. If we meet a person who claims to have faith, but not love, we would wonder about that faith. In the same way, if we meet a person who claims to have faith, but does not have hope—full confidence that what God says he will do he will do—we should wonder about that faith, too.
ARTICLE: Life Is Hard, Be Humble: Thomas Aquinas on Humility
NATHAN BARCZI
PODCAST: What We’re Reading — December 2024
CPT STAFF
ARTICLE: Christians and the Virtues
BENJAMIN BURKHOLDER
NEWS: Announcing Two New Learning Cohorts
CPT NEWS UPDATE
