Truth as a Person
It’s no secret that John’s Gospel often cloaks depth with simplicity. That is part of the beauty of his prose, which carries over from the Greek into many English…
Pierce Hibbs
Oh Night Divine
Years ago, one of my favorite Rainer Maria Rilke poems gave me a new perspective on the night, and I’m reminded of this at Christmas time whenever we sing “Oh…
The Vigils We Keep
I always see the fresh flowers, hanging by the roadside in the fleeting dark of the morning—mostly red and white roses. They raise and lower their heads with each passing…
The Death of Dogs
I went to public school. For those of you who did the same, you will know immediately the sort of apologetics you are forced to do, or at least think…
The Ladder
Strange, that as I drove to the ultrasound for our second child, I received news that my ninety-two-year-old grandmother would begin hospice care. As I sat in a hospital room…
Solipsism or Empathy?: Beating the Devil with His Own Tricks
Perhaps one of the most pervasive spiritual problems in human history is solipsism: extreme preoccupation with one’s self. In philosophy, it is the theory that only the self exists. In…
Sound and Perspective
It’s never going to end, you know—the construction on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Cranes will keep swinging, dump trucks dumping, drills drilling, backhoes clawing. By the time the roads are paved…
Looking for Rewards in All the Wrong Places
The songbirds always manage to get up before I do, so by the time I start my morning run they have already been carrying on their lyrical dialogues, mostly the…
A Note on Trinitarian Analogies
I just put down Robert Letham’s The Holy Trinity, and while I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it as an introduction to the history and development of the doctrine, there…
Dead, Dying, and Dying: The Strange Hope of the Christian Life
When did you die? Michael Allen Rogers wrote recently that he died in 1957, when he was just eight years old.[1] Personally, I’ve had several near-death experiences, but I didn’t…
Chinese Chestnuts: A Reflection on Sin
When my wife and I moved into our house in the early spring, the two trees in the back yard were charming, their trunks splitting and winding like strands of…
The Greatest Threat to the Gospel
The greatest threat to the Gospel in our age is not unbelief. It is not relativism or open hostility to the “narrow” Christian tradition. It is not even the hypocrisy…