Articles

The title of David Jasper ’s new book, The Sacred Body: Asceticism in Religion, Literature, Art and Culture, promises a survey of the topic of asceticism in art and literature. More enticingly, it promises the reader that she will embark on a historical pattern-finding mission with the author. (What is this “sacred body”? What is…

What is the relationship, if any, between Christian theology and the visual arts? Does this relationship need to be “contentious”? Should Christian theologians think that the Apostle Paul’s critique of images “made by man’s design and skill” (Acts 17:29) applies to all objects considered “visual art”? In Visual Theology: Forming and Transforming the Community Through…

David Smith, professor of German and director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College, has a knack for inducing discomfort in his audience. At the professional conference during which we interact each year, I consistently look forward to Smith’s talks, knowing that they will be engaging, witty, and insightful; yet…

That we Americans live in a radically pluralist society is no secret. For some time now, there has been concern among thoughtful Christians that America may be heading down the same road that Europe trod in recent decades – the road to a radically secular, post-Christian society. However, this trend is called into question, increasingly,…

Richard Horsley attempts to employ a more nuanced, historically and socially contingent approach to the interpretation of Scripture in order to lead us to embrace a call for economic justice. The end result is an interpretation of Scripture that portrays modern market capitalism as a violation of the original covenantal principles of economic justice. For…

At bottom, this is a wonderfully simple book. It gathers essays from scholars of high academic standing to tell us what we learned in kindergarten: we need to listen in order to understand; we need to put ourselves in another person’s shoes; we need to see things through another’s eyes. This collection of authorities gives…

Rodney Stark sums up the argument of God’s Battalions tersely: The thrust of the preceding chapters can be summarized very briefly. The Crusades were not unprovoked. They were not the first round of European colonialism. They were not conducted for land, loot, or converts. The crusaders were not barbarians who victimized the cultivated Muslims. They…

Initially, the title of this book made me think it could provide a much-needed critique of the ubiquitous notion of “human development” that, for centuries, has influenced a variety of fields from psychology to education to political science to philosophy to history. “Development” is indeed a commonplace term that deserves significant analysis, but this book,…