When it comes to an ideological battle between nationalism and cosmopolitanism, the New Testament is entirely on the side of cosmopolitanism. Nationalists are the villains! Nowhere is the story more powerfully told than in the martyrdom of Stephen. Yet, if you learned to read Acts 6 and 7 the way I did, you probably think about this pivotal, bloody, highly political event in our faith history with a distracted yawn. Stephen is appointed, does some stuff, goes to court, gives a... Read more
It’s clear that justification by faith in Galatians is rightly understood as general and eternal doctrine. But it’s too easy for distant readers like us to perceive a watered-down, bloodless abstraction of the “works of the law”. Paul wrote of a specific conflict with the apostle Peter over discrimination against Gentiles. Read more
God Himself, incarnate with human nerve endings, complete with adrenaline, cortisol, and endorphines, was being fiercely provoked to show Himself. How did He react? Read more
Do pastors, entrepreneurs, managers, and supervisors have anything to do with the controversy over Wheaton College Professor Larycia Hawkins? Absolutely. This is not an obscure and bizarre academic controversy. It’s very relevant to your job and your company and your church. Read more
Faced with the scandal of his fiancee's pregnancy, Joseph was a good man with honorable instincts. But good wasn’t enough for God, who challenged Joseph to take Mary's humiliation upon himself. Read more
What is a Canaanite prostitute from Jericho doing right next to "our father Abraham" as an example of "faith with deeds" in the best-known passage of the Biblical letter from James (2:14-28)? Read more
Research findings show achievable benefits from a growth mindset and avoidable costs of believing people can't grow. Read more
Find your favorite religious (or irreligious) group in political space! Introducing a powerful interactive visualization of the 2007 Pew Religious Landscape Survey data, with a 2014 update to come soon. Read more
How's this for a scary Halloween story: bullies in the workplace will destroy a culture of cooperation and replace it with cutthroat competition. Read more
The problem with the church is not that we aren't holy enough, that we aren't set apart. It's that we too easily come to behave as if holiness and spirituality mean we act strangely on Sundays and look down on everyone else all week. That's not being set apart. It's a simple, straightforward reflection of worldly, corporate, popular culture that does exactly the same thing with the workplace. Read more
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