In the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas revitalized Christian theology by applying principles of Greek philosophy to the explanation and defense of the Christian faith. Thomism, or the philosophical application of Aquinas’s thought, has a privileged place in the Roman Catholic Church and has been embraced by a growing number of Evangelical and Protestant Thomists. Among non-Christians, Aquinas is usually encountered in first-year philosophy textbooks via excerpts of his five ways of proving th...
Aug 13, 2020•42 min
Words have meaning, but culture can impact word meaning and connotation. In an increasingly post-truth and relativistic society, words can mean anything we feel like they should mean, with seemingly no consequence and virtual acceptance of whatever meaning we choose. Today, caution is needed concerning how hijacking a word’s definition can marginalize others, especially faith communities, recognizing that we, as Christians, play a significant role in how words are used and perceived. Christians ...
Aug 06, 2020•1 hr 9 min
Long-time Christian Research Journal author Dr. Douglas Groothuis writes, “I am getting older, and I lament the recent loss of so many Christian leaders who have shaped my thinking. I also am disturbed by so many recent deconversions of well-known Christians. So, I need to write about what I have not written much. Autobiography can be an apologetic for what matters most—the Christian message and way of being. My narrative relates my conversion and intellectual development.” Join us for this conv...
Jul 30, 2020•47 min
In this episode, guest Anne Kennedy author of articles for the Christian Research Journal on Rachel Hollis, Glennon Doyle and Jen Hatmaker tells listeners why they are in the news again. Please see the following articles Anne has written, Have You Considered Trying Harder: The Theology of Rachel Hollis, Gods, https://www.equip.org/article/have-you-considered-trying-harder-the-theology-of-rachel-hollis/ Gold, and Cheetahs: The Theological Vision of Untamed by Glennon Doyle , https://www.equip.org...
Jul 23, 2020•34 min
What is Christian worship? Does the substance, sufficiency, and effect of worship hinge upon the emotions of the participants? God’s presence in Christian worship does not hinge on subjective experience. God is the author of beauty and yet earthly beauty fades. The human soul yearns for eternal beauty. Ancient forms of worship, often eschewed as dead ceremonies by moderns, employ the beauty of earthly things to draw the soul to contemplate eternal verities. Scripture provides the model. The eart...
Jul 16, 2020•41 min
Glennon Doyle stepped into the spotlight in 2012, like so many, with a single post on her blog, Momastery, entitled “Don’t Carpe Diem.” In a single witty, incisive missive she wrote what every mother thinks silently to herself as she muscles a full cart of children through Target only to be interrupted by well-meaning grandmotherly types who declare, among other things, “I hope you’re enjoying every moment.” You can’t seize the day, she says, that way lies madness. Therein arises Doyle’s undenia...
Jul 09, 2020•49 min
In May 2020 FX and Hulu released the documentary AKA Jane Roe promoting the deathbed confession of Norma McCorvey, the woman publicly known as the Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 legal decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States allows abortion to be legal. McCorvey allegedly confided to documentarian Nick Sweeney that her pro-life work, spanning more than two decades, was a lie. In her own words, “I took their money, and they put me o...
Jul 02, 2020•1 hr 4 min
A meritocracy insists that a person’s sense of identity and value is grounded in his or her own performance or action. For Christians, however, being is a divine gift. Thus, identity and value are determined by divine action, not by personal effort. If we rest in this divine action, we can withdraw from competing identities and from the perpetual and exhausting demands of ambition. But meritocratic values And their attendant anxiety have spread, in part, because the notion of vocation has all bu...
Jun 25, 2020•51 min
Having burst into popularity on the millennial and younger social media platform TikTok, the phrase “OK Boomer,” whose true origins are lost in the murk of the back pages of the internet, is used by many millennials (those born between about 1981 and 1996) to dismiss their parents’ generation of baby boomers (those born between about 1946 and 1964) as out of touch and self-centered. And, in a sign that its use has expanded beyond mere internet meme-dom and into the public sphere, one New Zealand...
Jun 18, 2020•54 min
COVID-19 has been incredibly costly — it has cost millions of people their jobs, thousands of people their lives, and has changed the shape of our lives in countless ways. In the midst of all the anxiety and uncertainty, it can be difficult to stay hopeful. However, if Christians really believe that God works all things together for good for those who love Him (Rom. 8:28), we should expect God to provide us opportunities to grow in our relationship to Him. One of the clearest good things that ha...
Jun 11, 2020•45 min
In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 shelter-in-place series, JOURNAL Author J. Warner Wallace gives a word of encouragement to Christian students in Gen Z and their parents about how to think biblically about their new normal as students and their grief and lament over missed milestones in their academic and social lives. We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. When you to subscribe to ...
Jun 08, 2020•17 min
More than 50 years ago, Star Trek began its journey when it premiered as a television program in 1966. Since then it has spawned several motion pictures, most recently Star Trek Beyond (2016), as well as a number of television series. Star Trek as a franchise became a cultural phenomenon, making its way into popular culture with phrases such as “beam me up”, conventions for fans, and recognizable characters such as Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. Created by Gene Roddenberry (1921–1991), the longevit...
Jun 04, 2020•30 min
In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 shelter-in-place series, JOURNAL Author Matt Kennedy gives a word of encouragement to Christians about unity in the church when beliefs about how churches should handle worship during the pandemic are so varied and why Christians need to worship in person together. We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/...
Jun 02, 2020•16 min
In Dr. Clay Jones’s new book, Immortal: How the Fear of Death Drives Us and What We Can Do About It (Harvest House, 2020), he writes about how all people cope with the fear of their own death. In the fourth chapter of Immortal, Jones examines what he calls atheist “mortality mitigation projects.” By that, he means the ways that atheists try to turn death into something good or, at least, not so bad. This episode’s conversation examines a mortality mitigation project that has seen quite a revival...
May 28, 2020•52 min
In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 shelter-in-place series, JOURNAL Author Nicole Howe gives a word of encouragement to Christians about what it means to lament during the quarantine lockdown. We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister...
May 26, 2020•17 min
“Public Shame to the Rescue” blazed the headline of a prominent website barely a week into the American version of the worldwide coronavirus shutdown. “What could be more effective than a little public shaming?” the author asked in the first paragraph, going on to try to document the rise of shame on social media as a tool for curbing undesirable behavior. If there was an ever a moment to pause and consider the use of such a powerful phenomenon as shame, this is it. Into the breach steps self-st...
May 21, 2020•45 min
In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 shelter-in-place series, JOURNAL Author Michael W. Austin gives a word of encouragement to Christians about what it means to develop spiritual disciplines during the quarantine. We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/ When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid...
May 19, 2020•15 min
In America, nothing seems to validate pop culture success and permeation more than a Super Bowl commercial. When the animated television program Rick and Morty accomplished this feat in February 2020 in a commercial for Pringles chips, it reached more than 100 million viewers. Currently, in its fourth season, Rick and Morty first aired on the Cartoon Network in 2013, and in 2019 it was renewed for 70 more episodes guaranteeing it will be on TV for years to come. It’s a fast-paced series that pac...
May 14, 2020•33 min
In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 quarantine series, JOURNAL Author ANNE KENNEDY gives a word of encouragement to Christians about what it means to worship together in person as the body of Christ. We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that mi...
May 12, 2020•16 min
Once upon a time, Veggie Tales was an entertaining effort in animation to teach children about virtue and faith. It may have been a bit fluffy and superficial, but since the mid-1990s, a more pernicious, heretical version of Veggie Tales has sprung up. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) ran a billboard campaign in 1999, claiming that Jesus was a vegetarian. PETA imposed a vegan agenda on the Scriptures. After all, PETA’s founder Ingrid Newkirk wasn’t exactly affirming the image o...
May 07, 2020•50 min
In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 quarantine series, JOURNAL Author CLAY JONES gives a word of encouragement to Christians about what it means to live in a fallen world and how we are to have hope. We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/ When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions...
May 05, 2020•17 min
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, business entrepreneur, fashion designer, and husband to reality television star, Kim Kardashian (a.k.a. Yeezy) has flirted with Christianity in the past, but in 2019 when he announced his faith in Jesus there was something different, something that at least on the surface seemed real and genuine to many in the watching world. As the months passed, the way that Kanye is publicly living out his Christian faith, has caused some Christians to celebrate and has...
Apr 30, 2020•47 min
In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 quarantine series, JOURNAL Author JAY WATTS gives practical encouragement to Christians about what it means to love our neighbors (Mark 12:30-31) while sheltering-in-place. We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.or...
Apr 28, 2020•18 min
In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 quarantine series, JOURNAL Author Dr. Philip Tallon talks about Saint Augustine’s commentary on Jesus calming the storm in the gospels. We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/ When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources ...
Apr 23, 2020•14 min
COVID-19 is the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, a particularly dangerous form of the coronavirus. Thus far, 30,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and it will get worse. Just how much worse remains to be seen. There are too many unknowns. Some medical experts predict millions of deaths worldwide unless we lockdown society and enforce strict social distancing for 12 to 18 months. Given these unknowns, how should pro-life Christians respond to COVID-19? Do doctors have a corner on how we structure...
Apr 20, 2020•57 min
Tertullian, the toughest and most uncompromising of early church fathers, once asked a question that is still with us today: What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? That is to say, is there— indeed, should there be—a meeting ground between the Judeo-Christian strain that proceeds out of Jerusalem and the Greco-Roman (humanist) strain that proceeds out of Athens As far as Tertullian was concerned, the answer to his question was simple: nothing. Nevertheless, despite Tertullian’s rejection of the li...
Apr 16, 2020•53 min
This is the first short podblast episode in a special new Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 quarantine series. On this episode, JOURNAL Author Ellen Mary Dykas talks about biblically faithful sexuality during the pandemic. We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/ When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide...
Apr 14, 2020•17 min
It is sometimes thought that while Mormonism and Christianity differ significantly, they both are Christ-centered. After all, the Mormon Church is named The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But appearances can be deceiving. Mormon leaders and teachers add to the confusion of Mormon theology with statements made in both their public dialogue and written commentary. While there may be many similarities between Christianity and Mormonism, such similarities are miniscule when analyzing t...
Apr 09, 2020•44 min
The New Age Movement has made a resurgence in 2020. Particularly popular for those claiming to be spiritual and not religious, we cannot write off New Age spirituality as something of the past. It is in the here and now, and even Christians are enticed by it. Astrologer Chani Nicholas is popular among the social media generation seeking spiritual enlightenment. Nicholas, who just released her first book, You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance, has one million monthly visit...
Apr 02, 2020•33 min
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” wrote Thomas Paine in his rousing call to Americans to fight for independence. “The Crisis” was the title of Paine’s work from 1776; and now we face another crisis — not a war of man against man, but of a virus warring against all of humanity. Previous scares about Ebola, swine flu, and other viruses seem — to Americans, at least — small compared to the threat of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which is currently terrifying the globe in March 2020. H...
Mar 26, 2020•48 min
