Failure to flinch… In today’s touchy world of tolerance, people recoil at being told they’re lost. It’s an affront to suggest that someone is arrogant. It’s intolerant to tell a friend that Jesus is the way. Yet this past week, tens of millions of people – many who wouldn’t darken the door of a church…
Mind or muscles? Thomas Edison said great ideas originate in the muscles. Kant, Descartes, Hegel – and most Western Christians – say great ideas originate in the mind. Jesus probably doesn’t care if great ideas come from the mind, muscles, or your mom’s minestrone. But he might say Edison knew something that faith communities don’t.
Missing two leaflets… When you imagine the expansion of Christianity, where is the geographical center in AD400? …600? …800? Most of us imagine a straight line – from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean to Europe. But Christianity from its earliest days blossomed like a three-leaf clover, expanding first into Asia and Africa before Europe. The Asian…
Flanking strategy… Darwin might be 2009’s debate du jour. This year is the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of the Species and there will be plenty of Christians attacking Darwin. What if we instead adopted a flanking strategy, just as Darwin did after he published Origin? He explained familiar experiences, but I bet we…