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Responses to our January/February issue.

Source Image: Stefan Coders / Pexels / Edits by Rick Szuecs

The Cosmos Is More Crowded Than You Think

A very important and enjoyable article about heavenly beings I don’t ordinarily think about. What’s so strange is that the illustration associates angels with wings, something the Bible never does! If someone wants wings and Biblical examples, they must consider cherubim or seraphim, not angels.

Jeffrey Wurtz Cupertino, CA

John Stott’s Global God

John Stott taught two classes, Sermon on the Mount and Pastoral Epistles, for one quarter in 1972 at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois. I was fortunate to take both. Along with John’s compassion, I sensed his unique God-given authority and mission described in the article. John strove to help build the global church and study birds in joyous combined adventure.

James Hilt Sheboygan, WI

If I Had to Bow to an Idol, It Would Be the Sun

I have pondered such thoughts myself for years, wondering what it would have been like to worship some natural object. I too have found that meditating on the sun shows me God’s nature in a unique way. I appreciated Wilson’s point that the sun gives us an image of God’s “mysterious combination of immense distance and felt presence.” I thank him for putting such a clear reminder of himself in the sky where we can see it every day.

Martha Knutson St. Paul, MN

How White Rule Ended in Missions

I don’t disagree with the article’s content. However, the title seems incongruous with the content of the article. My concern is not only the lack of harmony between title and content but that those who notice the prominently displayed title and do not read the article may well come away with the impression that white rule in global missions has fully ended.

Barney Ford Wake Forest, NC

Evangelicals Have Made The Trinity a Means to an End. It’s Time to Change That.

In “Evangelicals Have Made the Trinity a Means to an End,” Matthew Barrett includes me, along with others, as a culprit. After summarizing what I say about the Trinity and the church, he concludes: “To meet the agenda of the church, the Trinity has been redefined.” It is a serious charge to say that someone is deliberately crafting and using God for their own ends. To make the charge stick, Barrett takes the title of my book After Our Likeness (a quote from Genesis!) as his important “argument.” Barrett also claims that I insist that “there must be a direct correspondence between the type of community we see in the church and the Trinity.” In that book and elsewhere I say the exact opposite. In explaining that I intentionally use God as mere means for my own ends, he has used me as mere means to his ends.

Miroslav Volf New Haven, CT Yale University Divinity School Yale Center for Faith and Culture

Thank you, CT, for Barrett’s article engaging in “The Battle for the Trinity,” the title of a book by the late Donald G. Bloesch, theologian and past CT corresponding editor—who also warned of the “drift” away from the historical understanding of the ontological nature of the Trinity, which in Moltmann’s view has led to a “panentheism” where “God and the world are not identical, but interdependent”! I hope Barrett’s critique of these revisionists will challenge us to consider the negative consequences.

Charlene Swanson Isanti, MN

When we bend to societal or cultural views and manipulate the gospel to satisfy society or present culture viewpoints, or the viewpoints of liberation theology, we are limiting the scope of the gospel and ignoring how the gospel may apply to many others, not just those under oppression.

Dennis Wright Dunnville, Ontario

It’s one thing to draw applications from the Bible regarding current issues and policies. It’s something else altogether when we forget that our interpretation of the Bible may not be as accurate as the Bible itself. I cringe when I hear people citing the Bible to justify things which may reflect more of their ideology than Christ.

David Graf (Facebook)

The Poet Who Prepared the Ground for the Sexual Revolution

A one-sided presentation of the unregenerate male’s self-centered wishful thinking, such promiscuous behavior costing him nothing. Though not aimed at moralizing, it’s to be hoped the article didn’t succeed in only presenting a tantalizing lifestyle to the unwary reader.

Richard Strout Sherbrooke, Quebec

Learning to Love Your Limits

I found myself frustrated reading your interview. The focus of Kapic’s responses was entirely on how our individual theology can help us make better individual choices. However, much of modern life is overwhelming because of circumstances beyond our individual control. I would like a theology that helps me cope within systems designed to drive me bonkers at best and into depression at worst while pointing Christians toward how to support just societal changes that help everyone thrive.

Stephanie Pease Boulder, CO

I Entered Prison a ‘Protestant.’ I Left a Christian.

Thank you for sharing this article. The Gideon Bible has shown up a few times in my journey too.

Guillermo Acosta (Facebook)

Correction: In the March issue article “Hard Labor,” the incorrect location was given for New Horizons Ministries. Its headquarters are in Cañon City, Colorado.

Also in this issue

A church is always more than the space in which it meets, but it is never less. Congregations cannot help being shaped by the places and neighborhoods they inhabit, as editor Kara Bettis explores this month in her reporting on the concept of “spiritual gentrification.” Churches are usually birthed around a shared vision for ministry. When the world around a church changes—gradually or suddenly—one of the most difficult challenges is discerning how, if at all, that shared vision should also change. PLUS: Rediscovering the Jewish roots of Easter.

China’s Public Schools Are Failing Christian Families

Faith Is More than a Feeling, but Not Less

Black Christian Homeschoolers Are Redefining the Movement

Don’t Expect Instant Gratification from Your ‘Quiet Time’

When the Congregation Leaves Town, Should the Building Follow?

Why We Need the Evangelical Jeremiad

Editorial

Don’t Make the Church Leadership Crisis Worse

Christ Conquered Death. He Didn’t Cancel It.

Our April Issue: How Place Shapes Church

What Atonement Theories Tell Us About Our Politics

Visiting Prisoners in Jesus’ Day

New & Noteworthy Fiction

Testimony

The Booze-Filled Business Trip That Made Me a Christian

News

More Ministries Seek Alternatives to Child Sponsorships

News

Gleanings: April 2022

News

Embezzlement Bedevils Global Church Giving

News

Are the Precise Words of Baptism Important?

News

Who Is My Neighbor? For Christians in the Balkans, the Answer Might be Troll Farms.

Help! I’ve Stopped Caring About God.

Review

Jesus Is Risen! Now What?

Review

Fearing God Means Living with the Grain of Reality

5 Books on the Connection Between God and Animals

View issue

Our Latest

News

Ghana May Elect Its First Muslim President. Its Christian Majority Is Torn.

Church leaders weigh competency and faith background as the West African nation heads to the polls.

Shamanism in Indonesia

Can Christians practice ‘white knowledge’ to heal the sick and exorcize demons?

Shamanism in Japan

Christians in the country view pastors’ benedictions as powerful spiritual mantras.

Shamanism in Taiwan

In a land teeming with ghosts, is there room for the Holy Spirit to work?

Shamanism in Vietnam

Folk religion has shaped believers’ perceptions of God as a genie in a lamp.

Shamanism in the Philippines

Filipinos’ desire to connect with the supernatural shouldn’t be eradicated, but transformed and redirected toward Christ.

Shamanism in South Korea

Why Christians in the country hold onto trees while praying outdoors.

Shamanism in Thailand

When guardian spirits disrupt river baptisms, how can believers respond?

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