Reformation21

I've been preaching through Acts and have been making some references to the "meat offered to idols" issue. And it crossed my mind, "This has some bearing on sneakers and church!" Right! The connection is tenuous, to be sure. Let me explain. Paul's argument with the tenderloin at knock-down prices...

It's been called the greatest hoax ever played on the classical music recording industry. Several years ago, a British pianist that hardly anyone had even heard of, and who had recently died, Joyce Hatto by name, had, so we were led to believe, been in the recording studio shortly before she died...

I remember the first time I was asked whether I was a presuppositionalist or an evidentialist in apologetics. That was on my first visit to the USA, more years ago that I care to dwell on. The questioner put me on the spot, for I had never even thought about such a thing. It was rather like being...

Christians often strike me as the most Freudian of people. Say what you like, I have a sneaking suspicion that Freud, rather than Augustine, Luther, or Calvin, probably offers the best insights into the way that Christians really think and act. Let me explain with some examples. The other day I was...

It's a tad late for this, but the story only broke a few days before Christmas. The London Times ran with the headline, "Wise Men seek a virgin Mother." Another newspaper ran the headline, "Lizard's Immaculate Conception." The story was not about Mary and the baby Jesus born in a stable in...

I recently had the pleasure to be present at the Bar Mitzvah of the son of a good friend. The pleasure was enhanced by the fact that the friend and I both hail from the UK and have found ourselves in exile in Philadelphia. Only those who have emigrated to a foreign country can understand what a...

One of the questions I have been asked with some frequency over the last month or so is why my contributions to the Reformation 21 blog tend to have something of a facetious edge to them. I am tempted to answer simply that that is the kind of person I am. If you want a bland blog, there are plenty...

70s rock behemoth, Led Zeppelin had no greater track than Stairway to Heaven . Indeed, so secure is its position at the apex of rock music that many radio polls on the greatest rock music of all time frequently exclude it from consideration simply because the battle is really for second place. In...

Returning home late one night in the early summer, I found that my van's transmission had died. Fortunately, it happened on my driveway; unfortunately I needed to be at the airport at 6am the following morning, which meant that I was placed almost permanently in the debt of the colleague who kindly...

Teaching history is probably one of the more depressing activities in which one can engage in the current climate. At an academic level, the discipline has been in self-destruct mode for some time, losing itself in a morass of hyperspecialised narratives, nihilistic epistemologies and general...