Sometimes, and all too rarely, a theologian can soar in writing. I have been working my way, very slowly, through Katherine Sonderegger’s Systematic Theology: Volume I, The Doctrine of God, and savoring passages like this one: This is what we mean by compatibilism in theology. The One Light that enlightens all creatures is truly here, truly shining […]
It’s not often that the ending of a book makes me moist-eyed. And I can’t ever recall when the acknowledgements did that. But there it was in the final sentences on page 289 of Sing, Unburied, Sing, the 2017 National Book Award-winning novel by Jesmyn Ward: “In closing, I’d like to thank everyone in my […]
The recent shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas got our attention because of its grisly violence and its location – a church in the midst of Sunday worship. It was a church like many of ours on the Eastern Shore. A video of the church’s service the week before the shooting made the rounds on the […]
The season is over. The World Series is receding to a mischievous gleam in Jose Altuve’s eyes. Carlos Correa proposed to his girlfriend on the field as the confetti was still falling. Verlander married Kate Upton. It’s time to wish them well and sit by the hot stove and set baseball aside until pitchers […]
For many years, I taught Reformation history as part of the Course of Study School at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas. I didn’t want the course. My interests were medieval and contemporary, not the stodgy theological arguments of Luther and Calvin. But there was a year when the regular faculty member couldn’t teach it. […]
Heartlands 