Category: Culture
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O day of peace that dimly shines
Sometimes familiar tunes with new words can be surprising. I had such a moment in 2017 at a remembrance service in St. James Cathedral, Toronto. As the first notes of the tune commonly associated with Jerusalem (Blake’s “And did those feet in ancient time”) rang out—a melody deeply tied to English patriotism—I was jolted from my reverie.…
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Belle (2021) as a metaphor for Worship
[Spoilers for Belle ahead] How do we worship when we don’t want to worship? What is the point of church? Why do we even need others as Christians? Early this year I watched the movie Belle in theater and have been playing with this draft in my mind ever since because I think that the climactic scene…
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A Word to New Students
Fall is just around the corner and school has started. Six years ago, I started university and since then I like to think I’ve learned quite a bit (and yet the more I learn, the more I realize just how little I actually know). Both in my faith, and in my knowledge of the world…
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Do we really have a “Relationship” with Jesus?
As Evangelicals, as Christians in the modern West, we very much have a view of the Christian life that equates faith to relationship. However, this relationship itself is poorly defined and at best, when pressed about it, all we can say is that it amounts to “knowing God and not just about him.” Fundamentally though, I think…
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Thanksgiving & Eucharist
Perhaps the biggest lie of our age is that “we can do anything that we put our minds to.” It is the biggest lie because it is the very lie that has caused our downfall; it is the statement that is the epitome of our human hubris. The very first sin, the original sin of…
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The Christian Life Is the Unintentional Life (Pt. 2)
Previously I talked about how the Christian life is the unintentional life, one where the natural response is godliness and we no longer require effort to be ungodly. This is the nature of sanctification. Now I want to talk about how God also interrupts and destroys any notion of the centrality of intention to Christianity.…
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The Christian Life is the Unintentional Life (Pt. 1)
“Intentional” seems to be a buzzword among Christians these days. Phrases like “intentional relationships” appear in discussions about the nature of dating. Intentionality has become a part of how some Christians define what it means to have friendships or our relation to God. Intentional seems to be this buzzword that seems to be this positive thing…
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The beauty of catholicity
As a protestant, the word “catholic” is not the first word I’d use to describe myself. Indeed, for many of us who do consider ourselves to be fairly conservative protestants, holders of the gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone (with some measure of asterisks around the word “alone”), the very word “catholic” might…
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Remembering 9/11 and the Church
I am American and I am just old enough to have remembered the events surrounding 9/11 (which are now closer to the fall of the Soviet Union than today) and the world I live in has been shaped by this pivotal moment, even if I may not be one of the many who have lost…
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Let’s stop calling the ESV a literal translation
The Bible is the most important text in Christianity and people grow attached to whatever version they do use. I most often use the ESV Bible (though not really on this blog which tends towards NRSV) because it is the Bible I find at once most accessible, somewhat familiar, and used by those around me.…
Defined Faith 