A Virtuous Wife … Who Can Find?
by Megan Morgan Recently, I was having a discussion with a young lady in college. She was asking me several questions about life in general, and more specifically about marriage. “Is it true that life only gets busier and more hectic after college?” she asked. I responded that there will always be different seasons of life. Some seasons will be busy and hectic, but in whatever season she should keep Christ as the center and try her...
Does God Care About Justice?
Recently in the news, stories came out about two separate men (both now 93 years of age) who are being indicted for a combined 470,000 counts of accessory to murder in the Nazis’ Auschwitz death camp.[1] Elizabeth Kolbert writes in The New Yorker about a delay in some of the cases.[2] She writes that Germany’s central office for investigating Nazi crimes is looking to build cases against fifty former Auschwitz guards. Unfortunately,...
Five-Dollar Couches and the Church’s Future
What is the one staple that you can find in virtually every youth group across America? You’re right: the (overly) pre-owned couch. Whether you’re in Idaho or Illinois, California, or Connecticut, it would seem that the perennial signature of any well-christened youth room is an old couch. One can only imagine the stories behind the acquisition of these couches. For some, the youth minister bought a couch from the local thrift sore,...
Gregory the Great on Spiritual Theology
by Kevin Hester Gregory I, Bishop of Rome (590-604 C.E.), was perhaps the most important hinge figure between late antiquity and the early medieval period.[1] Though not recognized as a great theologian, his gift was in understanding and expressing earlier exegetical and theological ideas. In this way, Gregory gave a certain “tone” to theology that highlighted images and concepts that would become more important as the medieval period...
Augustine on Desire and Music
The role of desire has received much attention in recent Christian thought. Largely this turn stems from James K. A. Smith’s writings. Smith wrote in 2009, “[W]e are primarily desiring animals rather than merely thinking things.”[1] He contends that we are primarily lovers and not knowers, thus churches should aim to shape and form the congregation’s desires by appealing to them. He intends to draw the congregant into a gut-level,...
Overthrowing the Serpent: Gregory of Nazianzus & Philanthropy
Christian philanthropy is no modern Christian invention or conviction. For early church theologian Gregory of Nazianzus (329/30–390/91), the eternal welfare of one’s body and soul hinges upon one’s loving care for the poor and oppressed.[1] Gregory is convinced that loving care for another’s physical needs, be they paupers or lepers, is a binding obligation on the believer. A failure to care for the oppressed is to have lost “sight of...
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