For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
The pursuit of truth, I have come to learn, is not an easy path. It is very tempting – as so many are content to do – to find a comfortable, sheltered place along the road and settle there. Sometimes it does seem attractive to me, I need to admit, to just cling to the... Continue Reading →
I hope my regular readers will pardon my relative silence lately. I have been trying to get all my ducks in a row, workwise. To be honest, I am not even sure I own ducks anymore. Certainly we don’t seem to occupy the same farmyard. So I haven’t had time to do a lot of... Continue Reading →
Alexei Yurchak, in his book Everything was Forever, Until it was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, describes what it was like to live in the Soviet Union prior to its collapse. He argues that its flaws were readily apparent to everyone, and that people could see that the system was failing them. But because... Continue Reading →
Last week I outlined some of the key reasons why I cannot accept a penal substitution understanding of the cross. In other words, I do not believe that what happened at the cross was God punishing Jesus in our place. Now don’t misunderstand me. That does not mean I reject the idea of Jesus dealing... Continue Reading →
Penal Substitution Atonement theory has almost become synonymous with Christianity. So much so, in fact, that I suspect most Christians in the West are not even aware that there are alternative ways of understanding Jesus. I say “in the West” because the Eastern Orthodox churches do not (indeed, never have) understood the Passion of Christ... Continue Reading →
It takes a big effort to wrap one’s head around it. And it is something I haven’t fully managed yet: God is a servant. It makes sense, if you think about it. If God is love, then God must serve. Service is where love finds its practical expression. If we want to find God, we... Continue Reading →
I don’t know if you have been watching the Winter Olympics. Out of a sort of morbid curiosity, I have been following on and off. Truth be told, the sports are entirely foreign to me. Living in South Africa, where the climate is beautifully tropical pretty much all year round, playing in the snow is... Continue Reading →
Newton’s First Law of Motion states that an object will remain in a state of rest unless it is compelled to move by forces acting upon it. I don’t think it is a law that has applicability only in the physical realm; I think it is true of our social and ideological worlds too. People... Continue Reading →
One of my favourite television series is The Big Bang Theory. If you are unfamiliar with the programme, one of its central characters, Dr Sheldon Cooper, is a freakishly intelligent physicist who has absolutely no social skills. As brilliant as his mind is, he simply cannot relate appropriately to other people. Sheldon regulates his relationships... Continue Reading →
During the Gold Rush in California, untold numbers of Native Americans were forced off their land or murdered. In 1851-52, the US government signed 18 treaties with the indigenous people of California, which essentially allowed the government to take all of the land except for the reservations, which served as homelands for the indigenous people.... Continue Reading →
Vapors In The Wind 