Blogs by Phil Ryken

The first week of September (!) I received my first piece of Christmas mail: a holiday subscription offer from Time magazine.  This week I received a similar offer from Christianity Today.  That's evangelical Christianity for you: a couple of weeks... continue

One of the many books I enjoyed reading this summer was Original Sin, by Alan Jacobs.  The book included this gem of a quotation from novelist Rebecca West: "If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on... continue

After three months on sabbatical, I am back to blogging again.  I start with a quote from Time magazine's Joel Stein, who made a guest appearance with the improv troupe at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church.  The group's leader explained that... continue

I have been doing a fair amount of reading on sabbatical, including Thabiti Anyabwile's The Decline of African American Theology, which I enjoyed immensely.  Thabiti uses original sources to document the ways in which African American theology has moved from... continue

 I have the unfair advantage of a sabbatical this summer, but my summer reading so far includes: Gilead and Home by Marilynne Robinson - great contemporary novels on the life of ministry and the possibility of grace for prodigal sons.... continue

The English journalist and essayist A.N. Wilson, who abandoned the Christian faith some twenty years ago, reports that he has found his way back to Christianity.  In a recent essay for the New Statesman he writes:... continue

"From dullness of conscience, from feeble sense of duty, from thoughtless disregard of consequences to others, from a low idea of the obligations of our ministry, and from all half-heartedness in our office;      Save us and help us, we... continue

"I lived at a time when a huge change in the contents of the human imagination was occurring. In my lifetime Heaven and Hell disappeared, the belief in life after death was considerably weakened, the borderline between man and animals,... continue

I too have joined the list of Carl Trueman's colleagues who have signed the "Statement to Commissioners at the forthcoming General Assembly of the Church of Scotland."  Further, I believe that Dr. Trueman's response in "It must be spring. .... continue

"True faith acts on supernatural facts and gets supernatural results" -- Donald Grey Barnhouse.... continue