Jordan J. Ballor's Blog, page 7
May 11, 2018
Church and politics: Necessary definitions and distinctions
A few weeks ago The Gospel Coalition ran a review of Jonathan Leeman’s book, Why Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age. A snip: Leeman’s analysis is guided by a few central convictions. Continue Reading... Related posts: Fr. Philip LeMasters on Orthodoxy and Partisan Politics L’Engle and the Church ‘What May I Expect from My Church?’
Church and politics: necessary definitions and distinctions
A few weeks ago The Gospel Coalition ran a review of Jonathan Leeman’s book, Why Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age. A snip: Leeman’s analysis is guided by a few central convictions. Continue Reading... Related posts: L’Engle and the Church Fr. Philip LeMasters on Orthodoxy and Partisan Politics Pastors, Pulpits, and Politics
March 23, 2018
Love as a tesseract
Earlier this week at Public Discourse I wrote an essay on the dangers of individualism and collectivism, illustrated with literary samples from C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L’Engle respectively. I drew the image of an individualist hell from Lewis’ The Great Divorce, citing Napoleon as an eternal exile, not on Elba or Saint Helena but into everlasting perdition. Continue Reading... Related posts: The Social Capital Project: Reviving ‘associational life’ in America If You Love Babies You Should L...
March 9, 2018
The challenges of Islam and pluralism
Last week I had an essay exploring Abraham Kuyper’s interactions with Islam, focused particularly on his tour around the Mediterranean Sea in the early years of the twentieth century. As I argue, Throughout his travels, Kuyper was confronted by the diversity, vitality, and comprehensiveness of the Islamic faith. Continue Reading... Related posts: Pizza, Pluralism, and the Rise of the Conformity Mob The Christian Post Highlights Wisdom & Wonder Video: Protesters greet Education Secretary Bet...
February 28, 2018
Black Panther has something important to offer
In this week’s Acton Commentary I examine the dynamics of marginalization and solidarity in the blockbuster phenomenon Black Panther. As so many commentators have suggested, there’s a lot to this film, and one of the important things it has to offer is a valuable perspective on the underlying unity amidst diversity in humanity. Continue Reading... Related posts: Isolationism and internationalism in Black Panther Marriage and the Black Family Issues raised by Brexit are important for Catholi...
February 27, 2018
Natural law and Protestantism revisited
One of the more pervasive myths surrounding the Protestant reformations is that they represented a wholesale rupture with the moral traditions that preceded, particularly with respect to natural law. In an influential recent study, for instance, Brad S. Continue Reading... Related posts: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Natural Law Protestants and Natural Law, Part 2 Do Plants and Animals Have Civil Rights?
February 23, 2018
Isolationism and internationalism in Black Panther
I finally got around to seeing Black Panther last night, and my early reaction echoes so much of the overwhelmingly positive response to the film. As so many superhero tales do, Black Panther weaves together complex ideas within the often deceptively fantastical trappings of science fiction and fantasy. Continue Reading... Related posts: Black Friday and Thanksgiving Thursday Marriage and the Black Family
February 20, 2018
Video: Book Discussion on Kuyper and Islam
We’ve got video available of last week’s book launch discussion about Abraham Kuyper’s travels around the Mediterranean Sea. A portion of his travel record has been published as On Islam as part of the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology. Continue Reading... Related posts: Abraham Kuyper is Dead In Praise of the Book . . . On World Book and Copyright Day New Abraham Kuyper Volume: ‘Rooted and Grounded’
February 15, 2018
Around the Old World-Sea
Later today we’re having a book launch discussion about the latest volume in the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology, On Islam. This book is a selection from a travel narrative Kuyper published after he voyaged around the Mediterranean Sea in 1905-1906. Continue Reading... Related posts: The Christian Post Highlights Wisdom & Wonder TGC Offers Free Rental of ‘For the Life of the World’ ‘Defending the Free Market’ Makes WORLD’s Top Five
August 16, 2017
Kuyper on Christians’ twofold citizenship
In 1887, Abraham Kuyper helped lead a secession from the mainline Reformed church in the Netherlands. A few months later at the Free University in Amsterdam, Kuyper delivered a speech entitled “Twofold Fatherland,” in which he describes the earthly and heavenly citizenship of Christians, and how these realities impact our understanding of our responsibility and identity in this world. Continue Reading... Related posts: Acton Institute and Kuyper College launch ‘Common Grace,’ a major Abraham...
