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OK, OK. I get it. Claiming that every Christian should read these 5 books is a bold claim. But, honestly, I think that these reading recommendations stand up to the scrutiny. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with just the top 5 books that a busy Christian should read if she wants to learn the essentials about: Productivity and Time Management Bible Study Theology And, I think I’ve arrived at a pretty good shortlist if I do say so myself. If you read and understand these 5 books, you’ll be well on your way. ...

Do you want to live a more meaningful and purposeful Christian life, but you feel like it’s hard enough just to get everything done on your to-do list each day? I’m right there with you! That’s why I’ve made “Get Your Act Together (Productivity and Time Management)” the first of my Steps to Find Purpose and Meaning in Life. Thankfully, I think I’ve found something that can help. I’d like to introduce you to the “Pareto Principle,” also known as “the 80/20 Rule,” the “law of the vital few,” or the “principle of factor sparsity,” if you want to get all technical about it. ...

INTRODUCTION Theological hermeneutics – human understanding and interpretation in light of the identity and acts of the triune God – faces two problematic questions that, I believe, every biblical and/or theological scholar must be prepared to address. First, should the Bible be read in some special sense as divine revelation, or should we read the Bible like any other text? And second, should biblical and theological studies be one discipline, or two? ...

Why write out a list of principles? For one thing, it’s my birthday. And, although I’m only in my twenties, I’m feeling a bit reflective. For another, I’ve just been given a copy of Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio (affiliate link). According to Dalio (ix), Principles are fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for behavior that gets you what you want out of life. They can be aplied again and again in similar situations to help you achieve your goals. ...

The following is an attempt to tell my testimony, the story of my Christian faith, in approximately 500 words. It was challenging to do, but also a helpful exercise! I challenge you to write out your own story in approximately 500 words. Testimony For as long as I can remember, I have known and followed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. However, there has been a lingering problem in our relationship – on my end. Of course, this problem is called “sin.” But, I mean an even more specific problem: my struggle to know Jesus, and not merely to know about Jesus. ...

Podcasts: An Introduction Although podcasts (think “iPod” + “broadcast”) have been around for over a decade, we’re living in a bit of a golden age – or a least a Rennaissance – of the medium. For the uninitiated, here’s a nice video about what podcasts are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oerm5Q_9u2A Currently, podcasts are one of my very favorite ways to consume information about a wide variety of topics. Sure, gun to my head, I’ll choose books over podcasts as a way to learn. However, unlike books (or videos), you can easily listen to podcasts while doing other things – whether folding laundry, washing dishes, or going for a run/walk. ...

The following is an “It is Finished” sermon preached on Ascension Sunday, 2017. You can listen to the sermon here: https://joshuapsteele.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/05-28-17JS.mp3 GOODBYES SUCK You know, if there’s one thing I hate, it’s goodbyes. Anyone else here hate goodbyes? Yeah, and the fact that I hate them so much means I’m not really very good at goodbyes. Sometimes I get awkward and silent. Sometimes I get awkward and really chatty! Heck, sometimes I get awkward and I make poor choices, like the one time when I was getting ready to say goodbye to my family when they dropped me off at college. ...

https://joshuapsteele.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/04-13-17JS.mp3 There is something special about last meals, isn’t there? I’d like to show you a series of photographs. These photographs, except for the last one – which I added, are from a piece called “No Seconds,” and they were put together by Henry Hargreaves. I don’t want to belabor the artwork with my commentary, so I’ll give you a few seconds to take each slide in. [](https://joshuapsteele.com/maundy-thursday-sermon-the-lasting-supper-luke-2214-30/slide2/) [](https://joshuapsteele.com/maundy-thursday-sermon-the-lasting-supper-luke-2214-30/slide11/) [](https://joshuapsteele.com/maundy-thursday-sermon-the-lasting-supper-luke-2214-30/slide10/) [](https://joshuapsteele.com/maundy-thursday-sermon-the-lasting-supper-luke-2214-30/slide9/) [](https://joshuapsteele.com/maundy-thursday-sermon-the-lasting-supper-luke-2214-30/slide8/) [](https://joshuapsteele.com/maundy-thursday-sermon-the-lasting-supper-luke-2214-30/slide7/) [](https://joshuapsteele.com/maundy-thursday-sermon-the-lasting-supper-luke-2214-30/slide6/) [](https://joshuapsteele.com/maundy-thursday-sermon-the-lasting-supper-luke-2214-30/slide5/) [](https://joshuapsteele.com/maundy-thursday-sermon-the-lasting-supper-luke-2214-30/slide4/) [](https://joshuapsteele.com/maundy-thursday-sermon-the-lasting-supper-luke-2214-30/slide3/) [](https://joshuapsteele.com/maundy-thursday-sermon-the-lasting-supper-luke-2214-30/slide12/) Now, I don’t know about you, but those pictures affect me deeply. The whole idea of a criminal’s last meal affects me deeply. Why? I think it’s because these last meals combine the familiar with the unfamiliar. They combine the expected and the unexpected. I mean, on one hand, you’ve got comfort food. On the other hand, heinous crimes. The stuff of life right next to life’s untimely end. ...

Have you ever had a problem finding a reliable resource for recommendations? I have. Certain Google searches are a piece of cake, but the “best resources for ______” ones can be hit-or-miss. And don’t even get me started on the decision fatigue. As a serial over-thinker, I start to hate myself a little bit after reading through the upteenth list of “5 Best ____s.” It makes it so hard to make a decision! Then, when you pick something, you end up doubting your decision. Not fun. ...

https://joshuapsteele.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/01-29-17JSGeetingAheadinGodsUpsideDownKingdom.mp3 [MP3: Getting Ahead in God’s Upside-Down Kingdom] [PDF Sermon Manuscript: Getting Ahead in God’s Upside-Down Kingdom] Opening Prayer God, our Refuge, I ask that your Holy Spirit would move in our lives, so that we would: promote your justice embody your steadfast faithful love and humbly obey Your will, even if it costs us our reputations, and even if it costs us our lives. I ask that this transformation would begin with me. In Jesus’ name. Amen. ...

(Note: Read more about my work on Barth, Bonhoeffer, and the Bible here.) Christian theologians Karl Barth (1886-1968) and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) inherited a particular understanding of religion. In the broadly post-Kantian milieu, nineteenth-century thinkers such as Friedrich Schleiermacher, Albrecht Ritschl, and Adolf von Harnack defined religion essentially, anthropologically, and subjectively. That is, religion has a particular essence, and is in some manner inalienable from our humanity. The emphasis of this conception is on the experience of the religious subject, instead of the knowledge of religion’s object (let alone its reality).[1] It is this notion of religion that both Barth and Bonhoeffer challenged. ...

Good morning! And Merry Christmas! Together, let us pray: O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Almighty God, who wonderfully created us in your own image and yet more wonderfully restored us through your Son Jesus Christ: grant that, as he came to share our humanity, so we may share the life of his divinity; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. ...

ABROMEIT, Hans-Jürgen. Das Geheimnis Christi: Dietrich Bonhoeffers erfahrungsbezogene Christologie. Neukirchener Beiträge zur systemaschen Theologie 8. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1991. BEINTKER, Michael. “Kontingenz und Gegenständlichkeit: Zu Bonhoeffers Barth-Kritik in ‘Akt und Sein.’” In Krisis und Gnade: Gesammelte Studien zu Karl Barth, edited by Stefan Holtmann and Peter Zocher, 29–54. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013. BENKTSON, Benkt-Erik. Christus Und Die Religion: Der Religionsbegriff Bei Barth, Bonhoeffer Und Tillich. Arbeiten Zur Theologie, II/9. Stuttgart: Calwer, 1967. BETHGE, Eberhard. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography. Edited by Victoria J. Barnett. Revised. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1967. BOOMGAARDEN, Jürgen. Das Verständnis der Wirklichkeit: Dietrich Bonhoeffers systematische Theologie und ihr philosophischer Hintergrund in “Akt und Sein.” Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1999. BURTNESS, James H. “As Though God Were Not Given: Barth, Bonhoeffer, and the Finitum Capax Infiniti.” Dialog 19, no. 4 (1980): 249–55. DEJONGE, Michael P. Bonhoeffer’s Theological Formation: Berlin, Barth, and Protestant Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. EICHINGER, Franz. “Zwischen Transzendentalphilosophie und Ontologie: Zur kritisch-systematischen Standortbestimmung der Theologie beim frühen Bonhoeffer.” In Vernunftfähiger – vernunftbedürftiger Glaube: Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Johann Reikerstorfer-, edited by Kurt Appel, Wolfgang Treitler, and Peter Zeillinger, 65–86. Religion – Kultur – Recht 3. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2005. FEIL, Ernst. The Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Translated by Martin Rumscheidt. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007. GODSEY, John D. “Barth and Bonhoeffer: The Basic Difference.” Quarterly Review 7, no. 1 (1987): 9–27. ———. The Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1960. GREEN, Clifford J. Bonhoeffer: A Theology of Sociality. Revised. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999. ———. “Trinity and Christology in Bonhoeffer and Barth.” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 60, no. 1–2 (2006): 1–22. GREGGS, Tom. Theology Against Religion: Constructive Dialogues with Bonhoeffer and Barth. London; New York: T&T Clark, 2011. ———. “The Influence of Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Karl Barth.” In Engaging Bonhoeffer: The Impact and Influence and Impact of Bonhoeffer’s Life and Thought, edited by Matthew Kirkpatrick. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2016. KAMPHUIS, Barend. Boven En Beneden: Het Uitgangspunt van de Christologie En de Problematiek van de Openbaring Nagegaan Aan de Hand van de Ontwikkelingen Bij Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer En Wolfhart Pannenberg. Kampen: Kok, 1999. KARTTUNEN, Tomi. Die Polyphonie Der Wirklichkeit: Erkenntnistheorie Und Ontologie in Der Theologie Dietrich Bonhoeffers. University of Joensuu Publications in Theology 11. Joensuu: University of Joensuu, 2004. KRÖTKE, Wolf. Barmen – Barth – Bonhoeffer: Beiträge Zu Einer Zeitgemäßen Christozentrischen Theologie. Unio Und Confessio 26. Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 2009. LEHMANN, Paul L. “The Concreteness of Theology: Reflections on the Conversation between Barth and Bonhoeffer.” In Footnotes to a Theology: The Karl Barth Colloquium of 1972, edited by Martin Rumscheidt, 53–76. Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1974. MARSH, Charles. Reclaiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Promise of His Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. MAYER, Rainer. Christuswirklichkeit: Grundlagen, Entwicklungen Und Konsequenzen Der Theologie Dietrich Bonhoeffers. Arbeiten Zur Theologie, II/15. Stuttgart: Calwer, 1969. PANGRITZ, Andreas. “Dietrich Bonhoeffer: ‘Within, Not Outside, the Barthian Movement.’” In Bonhoeffer’s Intellectual Formation: Theology and Philosophy in His Thought, edited by Peter Frick, 29:245–82. Religion in Philosophy and Theology. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008. ———. Karl Barth in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000. PUFFER, Matthew. “Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the Theology of Karl Barth.” In Karl Barth in Conversation, edited by W. Travis McMaken and David W. Congdon, 46–62. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2014. REUTER, Hans-Richard. “Editor’s Afterword to the German Edition.” In Act and Being: Transcendental Philosophy and Ontology in Systematic Theology, 162–83. DBWE 2. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996. SHERMAN, Franklin. “Act and Being.” In The Place of Bonhoeffer: Problems and Possibilities in His Thought, edited by Martin E. Marty, 83–111. New York: Association Press, 1962. TIETZ-STEIDING, Christiane. Bonhoeffers Kritik Der Verkrümmten Vernunft: Eine Erkenntnistheoretische Untersuchung. Beiträge Zur Historischen Theologie 12. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999. WITVLIET, J. Theo. “Bonhoeffer’s Dialoog Met Karl Barth.” Kerk En Theologie 16 (1965): 301–21. WOELFEL, James W. Bonhoeffer’s Theology: Classical and Revolutionary. Nashville: Abingdon, 1970. WÜSTENBERG, Ralf K. “Philosophical Influences on Bonhoeffer’s ‘Religionless Christianity.’” In Bonhoeffer and Continental Thought: Cruciform Philosophy, edited by Brian Gregor and Jens Zimmermann, 137–55. Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univ Press, 2009.

Great news! If you only have a minute to read about wealth, here’s my argument in a nutshell: Outline of My Argument Main Claim: American Christians should reduce their standards of living to what is necessary for human flourishing and give their excess resources beyond this standard to the poor and oppressed. God is the firmest advocate for human flourishing. The pursuit of wealth is spiritually dangerous and crippling. Our culture’s inclinations toward upward financial mobility go against the message of the New Testament and the life of Christ. God is revealed in Scripture to have a special concern for the poor and the oppressed. Christians will be held accountable for how they treat the poor and the oppressed. Objections: This line of reasoning is advocating asceticism and is unbiblical. Christians have every right to keep what they have earned and to do what they wish with their excess funds. Because the poor are lazy, Christians should not feel pressured to give, in case their generosity is taken advantage of. Warrant: Christians want to remain true to Scripture and submit to God’s way of life in order to find satisfaction. (For more on Christianity, wealth, and poverty, see my topical study on what the book of Proverbs has to teach us about poverty.) ...

(A chapel message in a Christian school.) There are a few things you should know about me: I am a student at a Christian seminary. Before that, I went to a Christian college. Before that, I went to a Christian high school, and a Christian middle school. Before that, I was home-schooled, and I grew up in a Christian home. Oh, also: I’m the world’s worst sports fan. I’m serious. The students in my youth group give me a hard time about it. Every week, they’re like, “Josh, did you see the game?!” “Josh, are you going to watch the game?” ...