Round Table

Round Table discussions offer insights into important issues from numerous Conciliar Post authors. Authors focus on a specific question or topic and respond with concise and precise summaries of their perspective, allowing readers to engage multiple viewpoints within the scope of one article.

03 Oct 2020

Round Table: Free Speech

“How should Christians think about free speech?” We asked three of our editors to reflect on this question. Their essays raise fundamental issues Christians must wrestle through if we hope to facilitate real dialogue in our increasingly polarized society. These reflections center on the definition of free speech, when free speech becomes a problem, and what sort of action ought to be taken in our current moment. In the spirit of Christian charity, we have

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17 Mar 2020

Round Table: Do Animals Have Souls?

In Genesis 1, God creates the animals of the sea and sky on the fifth day and subsequently creates land animals on the sixth. On this same day God also forms a certain kind of land animal in God’s own image and likeness—humankind (Gen 1:26-27). As with the animals of land, sea, and sky, humans are told to “be fruitful and multiply,” but then receive a unique set of instructions from God: “Fill the earth

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Ohio State Library Stacks
13 Nov 2019

What We’ve Been Reading: Fall 2019

Here at Conciliar Post, many of our authors are avid readers. Below are some of the books we’ve been reading in 2019 along with a short review for each one. Feel free to join the conversation and offer your recommended readings. John Ehrett, Lutheran Restoring the Soul of the University: Unifying Christian Higher Education in a Fragmented Age (Perry L. Glanzer, Nathan F. Alleman & Todd C. Ream) The authors—professors at Christian universities—lay out a

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02 Sep 2019

Round Table: The Knowability of God

The Scriptures are somewhat ambiguous about how fully God can be known by human beings. On the one hand, the Son has revealed God to be our Father and has pioneered the path of faith—offering unprecedented access through grace. Jesus teaches that the pure in heart “will see God” (Matt 5:8). Likewise in the first Johannine epistle: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do

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08 Feb 2019

Round Table: Confession

In 1996, the independent Scottish band Belle & Sebastian released their second full-length album, If You’re Feeling Sinister. More than twenty years later, Sinister is still revered as one of the greatest albums of the 90’s—ranking alongside notable alternative rock acts such as Beck, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, and Nirvana. While the aforementioned bands were known for their use of heavily distorted electric guitars, Belle and Sebastian crafted a gentler tone, reminiscent of 60’s era folk-rock

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28 Nov 2018

What We’ve Been Reading: Fall 2018

Here at Conciliar Post, many of us are avid readers, both within and without our varied vocations. These are just a few of the good books we’ve been reading lately! Jeff Hart, Presbyterian Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age (Alan Noble) If you’ve ever wondered why it is so difficult to live out and share your faith in our modern context, you will benefit from reading Disruptive Witness. Drawing on the work of

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11 Jul 2018

Round Table: Euthanasia

The 2016 film Me Before You stars Emilia Clarke as an awkward young woman who needs employment to help support her poor working class family. After losing her job at a local bakery, she applies to become a caretaker for the adult son of a wealthy family. The son, played by Sam Claflin, was an active and successful young man before being injured in a motorcycle accident that left him as a quadriplegic. The two

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02 Apr 2018

Round Table: Can We Be Certain Of Our Salvation?

Throughout church history, the question, “Can we be certain of our salvation?,” has troubled many believers. This question naturally arises because different Christian traditions have divergent teachings on the nature of salvation itself. How one is saved and whether or not this salvation can be subsequently lost are the subject of much discussion between believers. One noteworthy response to these questions from church history was the development of the so-called “Protestant work ethic.” This idea

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Recent posts

07 Oct 2024

Life After Life After Death

In what at least one person has referred to as, quote, “the best movie scene I’ve ever watched,” in this part of Avengers: Endgame, we see the Avengers assembling for their final battle. On its own, that would be cool enough. But this scene is especially poignant because many of those gathering having just been resurrected from the dead.  Five years before this moment in the MCU, half of the universe was snapped from existence.

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30 Sep 2024

The (Actual) Good Place

In this scene from The Good Place, the gang arrives at the Good Place and finds that it’s even better than they imagined it would be. Flying puppies, the energy you had when you were twelve, and the joy of meeting people you’ve always wanted to meet—I mean, who doesn’t want to end up in a place like that? But what’s the Good Place actually like?  Is it like this? Or is it different somehow?

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23 Sep 2024

The Medium Place

At one point in The Good Place, Eleanor and the gang find themselves in the Medium Place. Now if we think of the Bad Place as more-or-less hell and the Good Place as more-or-less heaven, then the Medium Place is whatever lies in between. It’s neither good nor bad—it just kind of is, it just exists.  And while in The Good Place the Medium Place is created for one, precisely down-the-middle person who deserved neither

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16 Sep 2024

Does Love Win?

When I was in high school and trying to figure out the whole following Jesus thing, I encountered the guy in this video. He was a young, up-and-coming pastor at a church a couple hours north of us, a guy who asked the kind of questions that I was asking and gave answers that I was able to understand. He helped a lot of my friends think about what it meant to follow Jesus. And

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05 Aug 2024

He’s Not a Tame Lion

A theme throughout C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series is the idea that Aslan (the analog for Jesus in the series) is “not a tame lion.” This phrase generally conveys that Aslan (and by extension God) is not what we might expect or even want. Mr. Beaver, when asked if Aslan is safe replies, “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” Lewis here captures what is sometimes called the terror

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29 Jul 2024

A Letter to My Granddaughter

Dear Granddaughter, Your life is ahead of you. Flashes of insight will come, but real understanding takes time. My hope is that you seriously consider the path contained in this letter. The greatest conquest of your life is to defeat the foe within–your ego–and to obtain union with God. It wasn’t until I was eighty that my “aha moment” happened. It was in the reading of Sermon Ninety-Five by fourteenth century Dominican friar named Meister

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17 Jun 2024

Announcing Faith Across Traditions

Announcing Faith Across Traditions: Essays from Ten Years of Dialogue at Conciliar Post Since 2014, Conciliar Post has served as an intentional online community committed to dialogue across Christian traditions. Aiming to provide theological conversations, reflections on Christianity, and commentary on current events from a Christian perspective, Conciliar Post has sought to love God and people through the practice of humble and faithful dialogue. In this spirit of dialogue, we are tremendously excited to announce

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28 Apr 2024

Sunday

The rolling emptiness of a Sunday afternoon, The deafening silence of a vacant room, The brutal roar of a mind gone mad, After years of loneliness leave a soul unclad. Reaching a loved one in search of a friend, An unforeseen blow reveals this is the end. A vacuous pang sucking life from my eyes, But after all else this should have been no surprise. Disjointed and pondering, unsteady and shamed, Bloodcurdling abuse tearing a

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24 Apr 2024

C.S. Lewis and the Critique of Practicality

“I expect most witches are like that. They are not interested in things or people unless they can use them; they are terribly practical.” –C.S. Lewis, The Magicians Nephew My children have reached the ages of 7 and 4, which means at least two things: I am very tired, and they are beginning to be able to understand an extended story. Mostly due to the latter, though the former plays a part, I’ve been reading

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