The (Lieben)GOOD LIFE

One of the reasons I enjoy researching and teaching in the latter part of the New Testament (e.g., 1-2 Peter, Hebrews, and Revelation) is because these often unfamiliar texts say things in ways that we are not accustomed to hearing them said, especially as it relates to how we conceive of life in Christ. And sometimes this different way of saying things runs up against what we "know" to be true.  In my most recent go-around at teaching Revelation, I have been struck by this simple, pervasive, and yet often-overlooked fact: John's Apocalypse is about works!  To be even more precise,  John's Apocalypse is about being saved by works! In the midst of the fantastic and perplexing imagery of Revelation, especially in chapters 6-20, it is easy to loose the forest for the trees. But, as I will try to show (in the next three posts), the majestic extravagance of Revelation 4-5 and the shocking horror of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls are in the service of this most fun...

 Our system of education has one major: Upward Mobility.  This is the bold claim that Wendell Berry makes in a commencement address he gave in 2009 (in the midst of the Great Recession) to Northern Kentucky University graduates. His address, entitled "Major in  Homecoming", underscores the devastating effects that this form of education has had on people and the land they live on: for upward mobility also implies downward mobility; and it has proven to generate social instability, ecological oblivion, and economic insecurity.  Education, Berry laments,  has been reduced to job training and preparation for serving corporations whose only concerns are efficiency and the maximizing of profit. Pointing to the crushing reality that most of the graduates attending the commencement were coming to terms with in the midst of the Great Recession, Berry charges that the failure of the economy and its subservient institutions has become so obvious that it cannot now be deni...

We have been immersed in the work of tracking the changing context of congregational life and ministry and in walking along side churches to help them adapt to these changes from three complementary vantage points. First, our theology department teaches students who are a product of youth ministry. Our interactions with over seven hundred students (from the STEM, humanities, and professional degree programs) each year from over seventy denominations and 48 states have given us a window into the lives of teenagers and emerging adults in the United States, but also the churches in which they have been formed. For as Kenda Creasy Dean underscores in her Almost Christian , “the religiosity of American teenagers must be read primarily as a reflection on their parents’ religious devotion (or lack thereof) and, by extension, that of their congregations”. [1]   Drawing on her comprehensive research into the lives and thoughts of religious teenagers, she concludes that the kind of students...

 I continue my work on a grant for the School of Theology and Vocation at LeTourneau University. In part two, the granting body asks, What are the characteristics of thriving congregations? Here is my draft in response: At our core, we share the conviction of the Lilly Endowment, that “local congregations have been and will continue to be the primary form of Christian community”. Even though LETU is an institution of higher education, we aim all of our curriculum towards the end of “equipping the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Eph. 4.12). But it is important to underscore that by this we do not mean that we only train people for professional ministry. Rather, we encourage and prepare students from a variety of majors (STEM, humanities, and professional degrees) to embrace the way in which their faith shapes and animates every aspect of their lives, and how all of their gifts, talents, competencies, and privileges can and should be leveraged ...

I am working on a grant for the School of Theology and Vocation at LeTourneau University. The grant application asks the following questions: What are the challenges congregations today? What are the most pressing cultural and social shifts affecting congregations?  Here is my first crack at a response: Through our Lilly-supported Passage Institute for Youth and Theology , and via our engagement with a variety of undergraduate students (from the STEM disciplines, the humanities, and professional degrees programs) at LETU, we have a unique and revealing window into the life of churches within our network of influence. Additionally, over the past five years, the teaching and research that has been done through the School of Theology and Vocation (SoTV) has provided a platform in which we have been able to host on our campus enrichment events, colloquiums, semester-long seminars, theology camps, and round table discussions that have given us the opportunity to engage face-to-face with...

One of Wendell Berry's most influential articles is "The Unsettling of America", in which he (1) shows how the mentality of exploitation in deeply rooted in the American ethos, (2) how fundamentally revolutionary this way of thinking is, and (3) how this has effected the way we relate to our land, and how it has destroyed community and character. Although Berry is writing as a farmer, his insights are profoundly instructive for all spheres of culture (a term which derives from agriculture!). In this essay, Berry argues that "we are divided between exploitation and nurture". In outlining the difference between the two, Berry writes: "The exploiter is a specialist, and expert; the nurturer is not. The standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the standard of the nurturer is care. The exploiter's goal is money, profit; the nurturer's goal is health...The exploiter wishes to earn as much as possible by as little work as possible; the nurturer expects, ...