Category Archives: Faith

Advent and the Clash of Calendars

Today marks the beginning of the Advent season which, in turn, marks the beginning of what is known as the church calendar.  That church calendar is not much of a Baptist thing, is something kept and nurtured by more liturgical … Continue reading →

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Faith and Politics

It was a strange thing, reading Smith’s Awaiting the King off and on throughout “Christ the King” Sunday.  Smith is taking his argument about the Christian faith’s political implications much farther than I anticipated, which has made it a good … Continue reading →

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Smith and the Benedict Option

I haven’t seen much in Awaiting the King (by James K. A. Smith) that deals with Rod Dreher’s “Benedict Option” aside from one or two “so-called Benedict Option” lines.  So I was a little surprised to see a longer mention … Continue reading →

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Our Liturgical/Political Reality

I’m slowly making my way through James K. A. Smith’s Awaiting the King, hoping to have it read through once before Thanksgiving.  It’s a good read that brings a lot of threads together (along with some nice nods to pop … Continue reading →

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Monks without a Monastery

Joshua Gibbs, who teaches at a classical Christian school in Virginia, recently recounted what happened when he challenged his sophomore students to consider the “rule” of St. Francis in the context of adopting their own “rule” for living for one … Continue reading →

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Waiting for the King (but not for the book)

Thanks to the kind folks at Hearts and Minds Books, I was able to get my copy of James K. A Smith’s Awaiting the King a few days before the actual release day.  And so I waited for Thor:Ragnarok by … Continue reading →

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Misery and the Absence of Company

A few days before Halloween, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat posted an op-ed that hit at something I’ve been thinking about for a while, particularly as it relates to Christian faith & practice and the seeming inability of Christians … Continue reading →

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Our Shared Life and the King

Part of me thinks the stakes are quite high for James K. A. Smith’s Awaiting the King.  That’s partly because of the cultural and political climate in which we find ourselves.  Attached to that is the seeming “attack approach” that … Continue reading →

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Face-to-Face Faith and Practice

As an extension of his talk of “the Benedict Option,” author Rod Dreher recently posed the following questions to the clergy who read his blog and who agree with some version of the dire situation in which today’s church finds … Continue reading →

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Experience and Bridges

Last week I spent much of the flight from Amsterdam to Los Angeles reading about expeditions to the South Pole.  I hadn’t anticipated that, but I’m glad it happened.  And it happened because I was able to buy a copy … Continue reading →

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