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Reformation 2009: Biblical Challenges to Leadership

By Timothy R. Butler | Oct 10, 2009 at 22:25:38

As we find ourselves approaching Reformation Day on the five hundredth year of Protestant Reformer John Calvin’s birth, it may be good to spend some time looking at the issue of Biblical leadership and challenges to that leadership’s authority. One of the interesting things about the Bible is that it never is keen on presenting authorities as those who are always right.

Torture and Eucharist

By Jason Kettinger | Aug 31, 2009 at 23:32:56

William T. Cavanaugh’s Torture and Eucharist is a fascinating look at the Catholic Church’s response to the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The work is, if nothing else, a provocative effort at thinking theologically about what in most minds is a political problem.

Book Review: The Lamb’s Supper

By Jason Kettinger | Jun 19, 2009 at 15:36:20

The best thing that anyone could say about Dr. Scott Hahn’s book, “The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass As Heaven On Earth” is that he writes about worshipping, meeting, celebrating, and proclaiming—even eating—a God who is really there. I would say just that.

The View from Mudsock Heights: A Sad Anniversary Sparks a Brief History of the Last 40 Years or So

By Dennis E. Powell | May 28, 2009 at 15:18:45

My father died 42 years ago last week. The anniversary gave rise to various emotions — a little sadness, of course, though we’ve had time to get over it — but chiefly I thought about how much he has missed.

The View from Mudsock Heights: A New Bug Going Around Has Me Pinin’ for an Evergreen

By Dennis E. Powell | Apr 15, 2009 at 22:47:52

There is a very unpleasant little bug going around. It’s like the flu or the bubonic plague or something. It causes fever, makes breathing a chore, and makes one abnormally stupid. And I’ve got it. Which means that this would be the perfect time to run the “evergreen” column in this space. What is an evergreen column? Well …

The Horror We Confess: He Was Crucified

By Timothy R. Butler | Apr 10, 2009 at 21:28:47

“He was crucified,” the Apostle’s Creed declares. As the Church has confessed these three words pointing back to a day that seemed anything but “good” two millennia ago, we recall the most unjust, horrid execution of all time.

Economic Savior, Part 2: Predisposed to Belief

By Brad Edwards | Mar 31, 2009 at 23:2:37

Last week, Brad Edwards looked at the New Scientist’s claim that religious beliefs such as the rise of “New Calvinism,” is a mere survival reflex we are biologically disposed to. The potential problem he pointed out with the claim is that it assumes that a biological survival mechanism must be irrational. Christianity claims otherwise.

Not Our Problem

By Ed Hurst | Mar 4, 2009 at 22:30:3

At the Last Supper, Jesus demonstrated how the Kingdom faces her enemies. He could easily have exposed Judas. Even as soon as Judas began embezzling from the treasury shared by the group, Jesus could have acted, because He knew. He did not act.

The Triumph of Acts

By Timothy R. Butler | Feb 25, 2009 at 21:57:24

“A poem should not mean, but be.” So said one of the great poets of the twentieth century, Archibald MacLeish. Meaning is important – direction and description are crucially important to life, but few people are motivated by “meaning” alone. The cliché about actions speaking louder than words gets at the heart of it. Luke seemed to know that quite well and he applied that lesson in the Book of Acts. As we begin the Lenten season today, it seems an appropriate time to meditate on the growth of the Early Church.

A Starting Point of Faith

By Ed Hurst | Feb 18, 2009 at 23:30:35

The idea of faith is one that gets caricatured in the modern world. In part, that stems from misunderstanding. What happens behind that word “faith” is not easily explained to our liking. Ed Hurst writes on the starting point of faith, laying a foundation of understanding.

The Danger of Peacemaker

By Timothy R. Butler

Here is a story. The leaders of a church have a personal agenda against someone and want to quiet him, exact revenge or what have you. They not only come at him within their church, they continue by following him outside of that church to any other church he seeks refuge at and any place he works, making a wreck of his life in the process. That is the sort of thing that only happened in the past, in dusty tales of witch-hunts in Salem or the Inquisition in Spain, right? Wrong: it is happening today, perhaps at a seemingly normal church near you.

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Tap the Power of
Snow Leopard

Looking to get acquainted with Apple's latest operating system? Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible, the definitive Mac OS X reference, features OFB's own Timothy R. Butler alongside Galen Gruman and Mark Hattersley.