Before the Fall, we were all artists and poets
“Can our churches be beautiful again, and not just promote goodness and truth?... It’s one thing to make our work, our business, our arts and our political endeavors good and even ‘successful.’ It’s another to aspire to make them beautiful. It’s one thing to try educate and raise our children to be good and ‘successful,’ but it’s another to try to raise them to be beautiful.”
Listen in as we sit down with Makoto Fujimura, author of, “Art + Faith: A Theology of Making” and discuss the living and beautiful reality of God and His image bearers. Makoto gives no quarter mere Theology-as-a-hobby or for a truncated Gospel (or “plumbing theology”). In sitting down with Makoto we don’t get novel and new, rather, we get the original telos and tangibles that concern the implications of creation and new creation. This interview is for humans seeking full humanity.
By Steve Bishop
There is a wide range of varieties of what has loosely been termed Calvinistic philosophy. This family tree is an attempt to identify some of these strands and their relationships. Inevitably, it is an oversimplification...
He Named things We Pastors, Creatives and Rank-and-Files Couldn’t Name
“The Bible became alive to Him, it was not as some Elizabethan artifact but as a living book, appropriate for the gritty lives of butchers, cement layers, radio-preaching mothers, and the drunks who lounged in the alley behind his father’s Butcher shop. People around the world were picking up books with his name on it--picking them up and sensing they’d found a voice that spoke their language. Vast numbers of readers recognized in Eugene’s words a hunger they’d forgotten, a craving for an authentic encounter with God. They were hungry for a vision calling them into the wondrous expanse of a life that honored what it meant to be a beloved (yet finite) human living under the mercy of God. They found all this in the words of Eugene Peterson.”
The Heart of Dogmatics: Christology and Christocentrism in Herman Bavinck
Listen in as we sit down with Dr. Bruce Pass and discuss his book “The Heart of Dogmatics: Christology and Christocentrism in Herman Bavinck”. Here we are guided by the hand of Bavinck and Dr. Pass into a Theology that is no mere academic hobby but where Theology is a living-being animated by true religion. Like a heart this living-being pumps blood and life to the needed areas in the body. Dr. Pass shows us how Bavinck’s though that, much like the Universe is the center of the solar “system”, Christ is the center of the Christian theological system.
By Steve Bishop
Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck were the main instigators of the movement that became known as neo-Calvinism, however, they stood on the shoulders of others. One of these was Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer (1801–1876). Harry van Dyke describes him as a “godfather” to both Kuyper and Bavinck; and Bratt describes him as “something of a surrogate father to Kuyper”. He was visited by several abolitionists from Britain. They had heard of his ideas for social reform, they hoped he would become “Holland’s Wilberforce”. Many of Groen’s embryonic ideas were taken up and developed by Kuyper...
Get the Lounge in your inbox!
Before the Fall, we were all artists and poets
“Can our churches be beautiful again, and not just promote goodness and truth?... It’s one thing to make our work, our business, our arts and our political endeavors good and even ‘successful.’ It’s another to aspire to make them beautiful. It’s one thing to try to educate and raise our...
By Steve Bishop
There is a wide range of varieties of what has loosely been termed Calvinistic philosophy. This family tree is an attempt to identify some of these strands and their relationships. Inevitably, it is an oversimplification...
He Named things We Pastors, Creatives and Rank-and-Files Couldn’t Name
“The Bible became alive to Him, it was not as some Elizabethan artifact but as a living book, appropriate for the gritty lives of butchers, cement layers, radio-preaching mothers, and the drunks who lounged in the alley behind his father’s Butcher shop. People around the world were picking up books...
The Heart of Dogmatics: Christology and Christocentrism in Herman Bavinck
Listen in as we sit down with Dr. Bruce Pass and discuss his book “The Heart of Dogmatics: Christology and Christocentrism in Herman Bavinck”. Here we are guided by the hand of Bavinck and Dr. Pass into a Theology that is no mere academic hobby but where Theology is a...
By Steve Bishop
Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck were the main instigators of the movement that became known as neo-Calvinism, however, they stood on the shoulders of others. One of these was Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer (1801–1876). Harry van Dyke describes him as a “godfather” to both Kuyper and Bavinck; and Bratt describes...
"Sanctification" or "Transformation by Participation"
We need to say more about this transformation, which in classic theology is usually called sanctification. We differ from this tradition on terminology but not as to content. In fact, by using “transformation,” we hope to inject the concept with new meaning. As we further reflect on the nature of...
A Baptized Imagination of Storytelling
“I immediately saw that neither pious homilies or straightforward religious education were cutting it. Instead, I brought in albums, video and newspaper clips. By exploring the stories behind pop music, entertainment and sports reporting with them I was able to unpack the underlying worldview. Not only does this approach work,...
Worship as A Pot Luck vs. Worship as Fast Food
“Our weary hearts long to hear the gospel reverberate around us in surround sound. We hear the voices of our fellow church members and remember that were not in this alone. God has welcomed us into his family.” Listen in as we sit down with Matt Merker, author of “Corporate...
A Faith of Half-Truths
Not long ago, Dr. Michael Kruger came across a list of ten principles set forth by proponents of progressive Christianity. They are, in effect, a new Ten Commandments. What’s striking is that they are far less about God revealing his desires and far more about man expressing his own—less Moses,...
