Created to be a Burden

In Radical Disciple, John Stott says God designed us to be burdens to each other. If so, then Paul’s admonition to bear each others burdens (Galatians 6:2) not only involves helping each other with the burdens we have to carry due to our sin; it also requires assisting each other in carrying the loads we have that result from our finitude. In that case, it seems that the best way we can prepare for eternity is to become as adept at the art of burden-bearing as we can - since this skill will be central in the eternal Kingdom community.

Augustine on the Divine Origin of the Bible

In The City of God, Augustine argues Christians are justified in believing the Bible is God’s word because of the agreement of the human authors of Scripture. He contrasts this consensus with the disagreements between the philosophers. Whereas there is concord among those God chose to speak on his behalf, there is discord among those who employed reason alone to determine the truth about reality. Augustine also says there are just enough biblical authors to make it reasonable to think their agreement is due to God’s speaking through them without there being so many as to make their contribution superfluous.

What is Hell Like?

Hell is not a place but a condition in which a person experiences separation from loving communion with God. God made us to be fulfilled only when we are lovingly united with God and other God-lovers. Anyone who lives outside this loving fellowship will suffer as a result. The biblical pictures of hell are metaphorical ways of portraying this unhappy condition. Since we are embodied souls, we experience our separation from loving communion with God in physical and mental ways. So the biblical imagery, though metaphorical, is fitting, and dramatizes the reality of living apart from loving communion with God.

Nāgārjuna & Jesus

In the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, the Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna argues for an ontological middle way as a basis for salvation from suffering. He rejects nihilism (according to which nothing exists) and essentialism (according to which objects have an enduring existence). He reasons that “things” are merely products of our conceptualization, and that we need to cease reifying our experience to find peace. Since suffering is based on attachment due to overvaluing things (including oneself), one can avoid suffering by realizing that nothing endures as an appropriate object of desire. But Jesus calls us to suffer in order to love God and others.

Academic & Spiritual Disciplines in Augustine's "Confessions"

Augustine’s Confessions consists in a blend of honest personal narrative, serious intellectual inquiry, and heartfelt devotional prayer. From the first to the last line of this classic work, he addresses himself to God. The entire book, in which Augustine tells the story of his conversion to Christ and engages in profound and extensive theological and philosophical reflection, takes the form of a prayer to his Lord. Augustine believed the study of academic disciplines can be regularly, deliberately, and explicitly combined with the practice of the spiritual discipline of prayer. As a result, both his mind and his heart are transformed.

Why Bodies are Good Things

Though we can survive without our bodies, we cannot thrive in a disembodied state. Assuming we can have memories without brains, we can think as mere minds or souls and we can pray, but we cannot sense and we cannot perform actions that require a physical means; we are unable to see without eyes and we need legs in order to dance. Though bodiless communication with other humans might be possible through telepathy, we would not be able to see, hear, or embrace each other. In sum, without bodies we would be crippled. Embodiment is a wonderful gift from God.

Stewarding Our Sexuality

In Homosexuality and the Christian, Mark Yarhouse advocates that Christians “steward” their sexuality. Just as we don’t own our money or other "possessions," we aren’t the owners of our bodies (First Corinthians 6:19-20). Instead, God owns these things and he has entrusted them to us to use them wisely for his purposes. Stewarding our sexuality means behaving sexually in ways that serve others, further God’s Kingdom, and bring honor and glory to God. Both Christians who struggle with a homosexual orientation and unmarried heterosexual Christians have a special burden to bear in this area. For them, sexual stewardship means celibacy.

Apologetics & Anthropology

Dave Tetrick, a former student of mine who is with the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, told me he values his Westmont education now because of how it has enabled him to learn how to understand those he has been called to serve. He said his philosophy course on “The New Atheists” provided an opportunity to understand and appreciate those with whom he doesn’t agree. When I discuss the New Atheists with students, my emphasis is on an apologetical defense of belief in God. What Dave told me convinces me that an “anthropological” understanding of unbelievers would also be valuable.

Knowing a God Who is Worthy of Worship

Recently I attended a talk by philosopher Paul Moser about his latest book, The Evidence for God: Religious Knowledge Reexamined. In this book he argues that traditional philosophical arguments for God’s existence (ontological, cosmological, teleological) fail to justify belief in a God who is worthy of worship. He contends that we acquire adequate reasons to believe in such a God by means of an ongoing experience of interacting personally with God as God discloses himself to us and we submit our wills to his transforming love. Moser says we can know God only as participants and not as mere spectators.

Work: Job, Career, or Vocation?

How should we think about our work? At the “microscopic” level, it is a series of actions ordered to a particular end. This definition applies to the simple tasks we perform during our workday. But these tasks add up to a project and a series of projects can constitute a job. We think of a job primarily as a means of making money. When a job is a career, we consider it as a more permanent and more meaningful mode of employment. But when our career becomes a means of fulfilling our vocation, it becomes a way to serve God.

Non-Rational Atheism

Carl Sagan created a TV series about the universe entitled “Cosmos.” He later wrote a book with the same title based on the series. The premise of both the TV show and the book is Sagan’s pronouncement that “The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.” The unmistakable implication of this quasi-religious slogan is that there is no supernatural God. The book Cosmology: A Very Short Introduction begins with a similar presumption. The author defines “cosmology” as the study of everything but he never mentions God. In both cases, atheism is simply presupposed without argument.

Idolatry and Salvation

Idolatry involves putting something that is not God in the place of God. An alternative god is whatever we value most. Since we tend to esteem most what we believe will satisfy us best, our idols are those non-God things we turn to most often for fulfillment. And our fulfillment requires not only getting more of what we need but also getting rid of what prevents us from wholeness. If we are unable to free ourselves from such obstacles, we need a savior. So idolaters will usually seek salvation apart from God. But salvation is found only in Jesus Christ.

Home is Where the Lord Is

In In the House of the Lord, Henri Nouwen writes, “Prayer is the most concrete way to make our home in God.” The more we practice the discipline of prayer, the more we experience our home as being in God and with God. If we pray regularly and deeply we will never really be homeless, and we will always be at home wherever we are. This ubiquity of our divine home is due, not only to God’s omnipresence, but also to God’s Son, Immanuel, having pitched his tent with us and having prepared an eternal place for us with God.

How Did God Create?

All Christians agree God created the universe and everything in it. So all Christians are “Creationists” in a broad sense. But Christians disagree about how God created. At one extreme, Young Earth Creationists believe God created the universe, life, and every species directly and supernaturally. At the other extreme, Theistic Evolutionists (or better, “Evolutionary Creationists”) believe God created all these things indirectly and naturally. Old Earth Creationists think God created the universe by means of a natural process (the “Big Bang”) but humans by means of a supernatural process (special creation). The Bible won’t settle this debate; only science can.

Tuning In to God

In The Jesus Prayer, Frederica Mathewes-Green likens our ability to perceive God to a “little radio” inside us that we can tune in to the divine presence while tuning out the static of distractions. She uses the Greek word ‘nous’ to name this receptive and perceptive faculty. That’s the theory. The practical question is how we can learn to adjust the tuner to find the right frequency and how we can attend to the divine signal once we have located it. She recommends a regular rehearsal of the Jesus prayer for this purpose: “Jesus have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Why Science Needs Philosophy & Theology

Scientists can tell us what the facts are but we need philosophers and theologians to help us figure out what the facts mean and how to evaluate them. For instance, psychologists can determine how much satisfaction people derive from an activity. However, we need to think philosophically about why people enjoy that pastime and that will require that we find out what it means to them. We will also need to discern whether the involvement in question is genuinely worthwhile. And that will require us to ask if engaging in it contributes to the purpose for which God created us.