Happy weekend, dear readers! Here is a round-up of different religion, theology, and current events articles from our own authors and across the internet. The following articles do not necessarily reflect the views or mission of Conciliar Post. These articles have been selected based on their prevalence across popular blogs and social media and their relevance to current events. We invite you to engage in friendly and positive discussion about these articles. If you read a thought-provoking

If you drive through any appreciable stretch of the United States, you are bound to come across churches. In some sparse locales, these places of worship are few and far between, much like the dwellings of those who attend them. In other places, churches abound, with nearly every street seeming to possess its own house of God. When my wife and I lived in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, one of our favorite pastimes was driving through

How does one know if they are following God’s will for their life? How can one discern his will for them? Is there a planned route for each individual that God really hopes they will follow – and we had better be careful that we don’t accidentally miss it – or is everything in life already pre-rigged by him and no matter what we do in life we are still in “God’s will” since it

“There are no absolutes,” one says. “Are you absolutely sure?” The other might respond. Those who wish to argue that there are no absolutes must hold to at least one absolute principle: that there are no absolutes. However the very nature of that contradiction proves its falsehood.  The statement must be an absolute value that nullifies its own premise. Even if a person is willing to argue that such a statement is the only exemption

Ancient texts are not irrelevant to today’s debates for the plain fact that they are ancient. Rather, ancient texts prove that today’s debates recapitulate eternal questions of the human condition. Last week I had the pleasure of reading The Wisdom of Solomon and viewing Avengers: Age of Ultron, both for the first time. These artifacts are separated in birth by two thousand years but united in one purpose: to describe the nature of God, and

Dr. Wesley Hill is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Trinity School for Ministry and author of Washed and Waiting, Paul and the Trinity, and most recently Spiritual Friendship. He is also the co-founder of spiritualfriendship.org, a website that cultivates theological and personal reflection from celibate, gay Christians. Ironically, the dialogue from that website has been an incredible source of wisdom for my future marriage. As a follow-up to my review of his excellent book

Happy weekend, dear readers, and happy Memorial Day and Pentecost weekend! Here is a round-up of different religion, theology, and current events articles from our own authors and across the internet. The following articles do not necessarily reflect the views or mission of Conciliar Post. These articles have been selected based on their prevalence across popular blogs and social media and their relevance to current events. We invite you to engage in friendly and positive discussion about these

Catholicism Undervalues Women? More like Frank Bruni and the New York Times Undervalues the Catholic Church and Women (Again) Frank Bruni, an opinion columnist at the New York Times, is quite fond of taking shots at the Catholic Church. He has sniped at Her when it comes to Her teachings on marriage, and his most recent attempt was in a column penned a few days ago1. The column focused on the relationship between women and

Ridges of foothills rise and swell, then swirl away in the fog filling the valley. Streams of melting hail run off the eaves with the sound of endless rain—and the look of thick snow. My neighbour’s flower box is one puddle of icy water. The gravel parking lot is more like a muddy-red pond than solid ground. All at once, a wave of thunder shatters the air, makes the ground shudder. Lightning flares pink and

A Baffling Story Christians need a coherent account of the Fall, but our forebears have not given us one. If they had, 20th century biblical scholars would not have written things like this: “The sheer irrationality of the command, not to eat of the tree, and of the threat to deprive of life if it was eaten, has had great effect on the history of understanding. . . . God . . . is placed

“ ‘I’ll be darned!’ said Douglas. ‘I never thought of that. That’s brilliant! It’s true. Old people never were children!’ ‘And it’s kind of sad,’ said Tom sitting still. ‘There’s nothing we can do to help them.’ ”1 If you’ve read Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine before, then you probably recognize this poignant surmise on aging. Ten year-old Tom’s insight is based on his interactions with the seventy-two year old Mrs. Bentley, a widow who moved

You come to the well because you’re thirsty And that’s where the water is You come to the well with your wishes The ones that are yours, not his You come to the well because you have to For the water you need to live You come to the well for the water It’s all you have left to give And he tells you what you have done And he tells you what you are

Ignatius, the second or third bishop of Antioch in Syria, wrote seven letters on the road to Rome before being martyred under the Emperor Trajan in the early second century. In his Epistle to the Magnesians, Ignatius especially emphasizes obedience to the bishop. He also stand opposed to the “fables” of Judaism, calling it “outlandish to proclaim Jesus Christ and practice Judaism.” For Ignatius, Christianity was devoid of the complexities of Gnostic logic or Jewish-Christian

A merry weekend to you, dear reader! Laura and her husband are moving to the West Coast this week, which means your weekly reads have been entrusted to my care and may have a slightly different flavour. I invite you to curl up with a mug of piping hot tea or coffee to enjoy some quiet reading this weekend.   [The following articles do not necessarily reflect the views or mission of Conciliar Post. These articles have been

Ignatius of Antioch remains one of the most important characters of early Christianity, as the letters he wrote on the road to his martyrdom in Rome contain important insights into the faith and practice of the early Church. The Epistle to the Ephesians is one of seven letters Ignatius wrote to churches in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) before being martyred under the Emperor Trajan sometime between 107 and 117 AD. In Ephesians, Ignatius stresses

Artificial intelligence is clearly the menace of the cinematic hour. The old menace posed by the Skynet of the “Terminator” franchise has taken on additional credibility in the era of “big data,” which offers the possibility of algorithmic analysis on a heretofore undreamt-of scale. Alex Garland’s recent thriller “Ex Machina,” however, trades guns for words and explosions for psychological turbulence, raising fundamental questions within a deeply intimate context. “Ex Machina” opens as Caleb Smith (Domhnall

The figure of Mary in the Christian faith is quite controversial today.  It seems, however, that the role she plays has been quite confused by both those who do and do not reverence her in their respective traditions. Further, these two parties often falsely accuse one another with regard to Mary due to great historical and linguistic misunderstandings and variances.  The Christian faith has, however, given Mary a significant place of endearment in its structure

There is a God. There is a person at the back of the universe, fiddling with things for the benefit of people who are listening to him, even in the midst of horrific things. And this person, who apparently doesn’t attach as much importance to life and death as we do, is nevertheless intensely interested in us as people. And if we doubt him, he stands back and lets us doubt, until we are ready

About this time of year a decade ago, on a moonlit highway that snakes south of Santa Fe through hills of juniper and cholla and dirt, a troubled young man drove an old Jeep Cherokee with flaking red paint and a whining A/C. Night had fallen and his headlights, their luminance obscured by a coating of dead insects, cast a faint light on the road ahead. I don’t know if that young man fit the

The following fictional conversation brings together two influential figures on completely opposite ends of an intellectual spectrum. On the evangelical “right,” we have John Piper, Baptist pastor and theologian, co-editor of the influential work Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. The central claim of the book is as follows, “The Bible reveals the nature of masculinity and femininity by describing diverse responsibilities for man and woman while rooting these differing responsibilities in creation, not convention.”1 On