Category Archives: Culture commentary

The Singularity of Jesus and his claim for universality

Posted on March 4, 2011 by PaulVK

Wrote this as a response to Bont on CiC who wrote a response to Tim Keller’s book “The King’s Cross”. I’ve been preaching through Luke for a couple of years now. I’ve really enjoyed staying with one book for a … Continue reading →

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Egypt and the Little Apocalypse

Posted on February 3, 2011 by PaulVK

The struggle for power in Egypt has turned violent. I’m on a Sojourner’s mailing list so I got a “Dear Paul” letter from Jim Wallis demanding that the US government seek the ouster of Mubarak. I received the email just … Continue reading →

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Choice

Posted on January 20, 2011 by PaulVK

I am increasingly appreciating Ross Douthat’s work. His piece on January 2 on abortion should not be missed. The paradox of abortion in our culture illuminates the conflict between our deep drive for mastery through volitional agency and the giftness … Continue reading →

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Polygamy and the Bible

Posted on January 8, 2011 by PaulVK

Great post by Nathan Bierma on ThinkChristian on the Bible and Polygamy. I was thinking of writing a post about my sermon this week but this provided me a chance to do a comment and a post at the same … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture commentary, Understanding the Bible | 2 Comments

Why Praying Evangelistically for My Children is Painful

Posted on December 18, 2010 by PaulVK

I believe my former notions of evangelism were shallow and simplistic. I imagined evangelism to be an exercise by which someone simply switched religious allegiances. It’s easy to see where I got this idea from. Evangelism as portrayed and taught … Continue reading →

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A Christmas Comment

Posted on December 9, 2010 by PaulVK

There is no doubt that this holiday becomes an opportunity to express a variety of agendas. 1. The economic agenda: consumer spending help return us to prosperity 2. The Christendom agenda: recapture cultural dominance of a religious tradition from its … Continue reading →

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It is a marriage or a culture divide?

Posted on December 7, 2010 by PaulVK

A good piece by Ross Douthat in the NT Times on the changing culture wars. Some initial impressions. Marriage has always been an economic and social class instrument. Read Stephanie Coontz http://www.amazon.com/Marriage-History-How-Love-Conquered/dp/014303667X. She might have to write a second book … Continue reading →

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What our response to Luther’s antisemitism can teach us

Posted on October 18, 2010 by PaulVK

I wrote this responding to a blog post on a woman’s shock at discovering Luther’s antisemitism. 1. Read history. Please. This may be new to a lot of you apparently. This is hardly new information. One of the biggest blind … Continue reading →

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3 Doctrinal emphases essential to both liberalism and the Mormon world view

Posted on September 4, 2010 by PaulVK

This from Richard Mouw’s lecture given at the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the CRC. He found this comment from a Mormon scholar who was complaining that recently some Mormon scholars were beginning to sound a … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture commentary, Quotations, theological | Tagged | 2 Comments

Guiding Beliefs of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

Posted on September 4, 2010 by PaulVK

I’ve written about this before, but once just isn’t enough. This is from the book Almost Christian by Kenda Creasy Dean following Christian Smith’s fine work. 1. A god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture commentary | 21 Comments