Blogs

This upcoming semester, I’ll be taking a seminar on the Doctrine of Creation from my supervisor Marc Cortez. I’ll also be doing my “pedagogical experience” in a Christian Theology course—also with Marc Cortez. Anyways, in case you’re interested, I thought I’d share what I’ll be reading for each course. Have you read any of these works? If so, what did you think? What will you be reading this semester? Doctrine of Creation Colin Gunton, The Triune Creator: A Historical and Systematic Study. Elizabeth A. Johnson, Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love. Catherine Keller, The Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming. Ian A. McFarland, From Nothing: A Theology of Creation. Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation. Arthur Peacocke, All That Is: A Naturalistic Faith for the Twenty-First Century. Norman Wirzba, From Nature to Creation: A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World. Christian Theology Beth Felker Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically. Tom McCall, Forsaken: The Trinity, the Cross, and Why It Matters. Timothy C. Tennent (ed.), Theology in the Context of World Christianity: How the Global Church Is Influencing the Way We Think about and Discuss Theology. Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin. Note: some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that, if you click on the link and make a purchase, then, at no extra cost to you, I receive a small commission. I only ever recommend resources that I know will benefit my readers! If you’re interested in these resources, buying them through the affiliate links is a way that you can support my work! ...

While reading Beth Felker Jones’ Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically, I came across the following list of extremely helpful questions to ask while reading theology (on page 29). What are the key Christian teachings being articulated? What is the author’s driving concern or main theme? What counts for the author as authoritative (Scripture, tradition, reason, experience…)? Is the author’s theological method implicit or explicit? How does the author deal with the witness of Scripture? a. Implicitly? Explicitly? b. Does the witness of the Old Testament matter? The New? c. What biblical themes are privileged? d. What interpretive principles are at work? How do these claims relate to other doctrines? How does context (including gender, race, class, culture, and time) shape the theological voice? Is the theologian conscious of this? How does your context shape your evaluation of the piece? Practice reading charitably. What is the best possible interpretation of how the piece reflects an attempt to be faithful to Jesus Christ? How do these theological claims relate to the life of faith? Doe you bring other questions from your experience? If this theological proposal were taken seriously, how would it shape Christian practice? Would it affect our participation in spiritual disciplines? Our understanding of faithful living? Our practice of evangelism? Our life as the church? Add this to my 1 simple trick to read faster, 4 questions to ask while reading a book, and 3 questions to ask while reading the Bible. ...

This is a self-indulgently long story. The gist of it is that my wife, Rachel, was unexpectedly induced due to gestational hypertension at 37 weeks, right before we were supposed to head to Pennsylvania for her sister’s wedding. After a lengthy induction and labor, our beautiful daughter, Eva Joy Steele, was born at 5:46am on Friday, July 20, 2018. If that’s all you’d like to know, great! If you’d like to know more about what went down, keep reading. ...

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, affectionately known by some as “KJV,” has written one of the best, briefest overviews of what theologians (should) do. The entire piece is filled with gems like the following: To become a theologian, you must be willing to bear true witness and call out false witnesses, casting down idols and ideologies. That’s the shadow side of theology, but the best part is speaking light and truth in astonished indications of God’s goodness. I love John Webster’s definition of theology: “that delightful activity in which the Church praises God by ordering its thinking towards the gospel of Christ.” Being a theologian means getting to have not necessarily the last word, but the word about last things, “the end for which God created the world” (to cite the title of a dissertation by Jonathan Edwards). It’s not only a good word but the best of all possible words, namely, that God glorifies humans and all creation, magnifying his own glory and subjecting all things to the Lordship of Christ, so that “God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). It’s the privilege of the theologian to bear witness to the length, depth, breadth, and width of the cross and Resurrection. Karl Barth is right: “The theologian who has no joy in his work is not a theologian at all.” ...

Based upon my work over at Rookie Anglican, I was asked by The Telos Collective to write a blog post about the different ways that people are coming into Anglicanism. What’s drawing them in? You can read my full post over at the Telos Collective blog, but here’s a taste: Anglican Christianity, precisely because of its weirdness, can remind us that, in the words of Brad Harper and Paul Louis Metzger in Exploring Ecclesiology, “The church is a cultural community. It is Christ’s eschatological kingdom community, itself a culture that engages other cultures from Christ’s kingdom vantage point” (p. 207). ...

Previously, I catalogued a bunch of different takes on Jordan Peterson, before giving my own take. Since that post, two other pieces about Jordan Peterson have been written that I’d like to share. “Jordan Peterson, Custodian of the Patriarchy,” by Nellie Bowles (New York Times) Nellie Bowles writes Mr. Peterson, 55, a University of Toronto psychology professor turned YouTube philosopher turned mystical father figure, has emerged as an influential thought leader. The messages he delivers range from hoary self-help empowerment talk (clean your room, stand up straight) to the more retrograde and political (a society run as a patriarchy makes sense and stems mostly from men’s competence; the notion of white privilege is a farce). He is the stately looking, pedigreed voice for a group of culture warriors who are working diligently to undermine mainstream and liberal efforts to promote equality. ...

In both my personal and coaching conversations recently, Gretchen Rubin’s personality framework called “The Four Tendencies” has really seemed to resonate with people. So, I thought I would take a few minutes to share it with you. Gretchen Rubin Explains the Four Tendencies First, here’s a six-minute video of Gretchen herself explaining the Four Tendencies and their relevance to changing one’s habits. How do you respond to INNER EXPECTATIONS and OUTER EXPECTATIONS? This is the key question that drives the framework. Here are the possible answers. ...

(DISCLAIMER: You are, of course, more than welcome to try rucking, even if you also love running.) Rucking > Running It took me a long time to “fall in love” with running. It did not take me nearly as long to fall out of love with running! And yet, even though I’ve long enjoyed doing kettlebell swings and doing the 5×5 weight-lifing workout, I did begin to miss the benefits of cardio training. ...

Tomorrow, I defend the proposal for my dissertation. For now, the dissertation is tentatively titled: “Scriptural, but Not Religious: Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and a Biblical Critique of Religion.” Here’s the “elevator pitch” for the dissertation. Feedback appreciated. Scriptural, but Not Religious: Barth, Bonhoeffer, and a Biblical Critique of Religion My project traces its origins to a single classroom discussion question in the Spring of 2015. The question was this: “In what ways is Bonhoeffer’s understanding of religion similar to, and different from, that of Barth?” ...

The following is a guest post written by my friend and former college roommate, Zak Weston. Zak’s been working in the area of food ethics, and I asked him to write up a post about why Christians should care about these issues. It’s an area in which I need to make some changes in my own life. He delivered this thought-provoking and challenging piece. I hope you enjoy. Introduction The three or so decisions you make each day about what to eat are some of the most consequential choices you make in your life. ...

UPDATE: Read my post, “Two More Pieces about Jordan Peterson.” If I remember correctly, I first heard of and listened to Jordan Peterson on an episode of The Art of Manliness podcast. (Or perhaps it was this episode.) However, I could be mistaken, because Peterson’s been popping up in conversation all over the place in my circles. Blog posts, podcast episodes, conversations with friends – Peterson has been popping up everywhere, so it seems. ...

Tim Challies begins his book, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity with a bold claim: “I believe this book can improve your life.” However, after reading the book, which is just 120 pages long including endnotes!, I believe that Challies makes good on his claim. As far as explicitly Christian approaches to personal productivity go, Challies’ Do More Better stands alongside Matt Perman’s What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done. While Perman’s book is fantastic and thorough, Challies’ book has the advantage of being MUCH shorter (120 pages vs. 383 pages). ...

Maybe you, like me, consider yourself quite the introvert. Maybe you, like me, have a difficult time walking the tightrope between feeling quickly overwhelmed by interpersonal relationships, on the one hand, and feeling incredibly lonely, on the other hand. Maybe you, like me, feel these problems acutely as a male (although I’m sure that females are having their own relational struggles as our culture increasingly pressures us all to be “alone together,” looking at our screens instead of looking each other in the eye). ...

Because good writing = good thinking, I believe that everyone could benefit from developing the habit of regular writing. However, because I Am a Ph.D. student about to begin work on his dissertation Edit a blog (Rookie Anglican) Write this personal blog I really need to develop the habit of regular writing. Up until now, I’ve largely relied upon writing in fits and starts, when the Muse descends, as it were. ...

Getting Things Done (“GTD” for short) is a widely popular personal productivity system invented and popularized by David Allen. However, as Nicole Dieker at Lifehacker pointed out in 2017, “You don’t hear a lot of people talk about the Getting Things Done productivity system anymore.” I think that’s a shame because it’s a very effective system. I first tried Getting Things Done after reading “What’s Best Next” by Matt Perman and then reading “Getting Things Done” by David Allen (in its newly revised 2015 edition) shortly thereafter. ...