Category: music and the arts

God Picks Up the Pieces: A Personal Journey with Calvin Seerveld

October 12, 2025

“We Canadians make massive imports of culture unawares,” warned Calvin Seerveld. “I do not believe there is a sinister American plot to take over our nation,” he continued, but he wanted to stand on guard against any kitsch slinking in from the USA. This is what he said at a CBC radio conference in May 1990, but his words, like most of his writing, continue to ring with prophetic resonance today. … More God Picks Up the Pieces: A Personal Journey with Calvin Seerveld

Reason Within the Bounds of Christian Tradition: Wolterstorff’s Covenantal Philosophizing, Together with Others

July 1, 2025

Here I review the memoir of Christian philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff. He is a kind of model Christian scholar–not only because he wrote seminal works that have championed a Christian worldview; but because he was a committed citizen of institutions and communities that in turn prompted him to write about the pressing issues of the day. … More Reason Within the Bounds of Christian Tradition: Wolterstorff’s Covenantal Philosophizing, Together with Others

Church Music, Conflict and Reconciliation: Scriptural, Spiritual, Sonic, and Symbolic Implications

December 7, 2023

Music is a common conflict source within congregations, but worship wars are not the only reason for Sunday morning to be tense. How can we work toward reconciliation through music and other parts of our worship services? In a world so torn by conflict, can the church model some peace-making? … More Church Music, Conflict and Reconciliation: Scriptural, Spiritual, Sonic, and Symbolic Implications

Discordant Notes on a Scandalized Hillsong Music Industry: When Praise Becomes Performance

October 23, 2023

Why do we sing so many songs produced by Hillsong in our churches? I did some investigating, asking lay people and experts on the value of these songs, and put it all in the context of recent scandals in this church. Is there nothing else we can sing? … More Discordant Notes on a Scandalized Hillsong Music Industry: When Praise Becomes Performance

Chinese-Christian Cross-Cultural Learning in Higher Education

August 25, 2021

This guest blog by comparative education specialist Ruth Hayhoe shows how the model of Christian liberal arts universities finds affinities and historical integration with Confucian ideals in China, suggesting that some of these integrated Chinese universities–with their commitment to moral formation, community service and global citizenship education, may be an exemplar for other cultures to follow. … More Chinese-Christian Cross-Cultural Learning in Higher Education

Jesus Laughed and So Should You

June 22, 2021

The fact is, most Christian kids are familiar with the verse “Jesus wept.” Why? In some English translations, it’s the shortest verse in the whole Bible. It stands out. What is so beautiful and comforting about this prominence is that it emphasizes the humanity of Jesus. Believers can know God cries for his friends, as his grief comes at the death of his friend Lazarus. But what is so unfortunate and misleading about the prominence of this verse is that there is no equivalent that pops to mind which reveals that Jesus’ humanity also included his laughter. … More Jesus Laughed and So Should You

Post-Christendom Ethics: Evangelism as Immoral, Confessional, Embodied and Beautiful

June 12, 2021

If sharing Good News can never be a bad thing, how come its such a turn off in North America? Can a professor “evangelize” in his university class if evangelism is understood as a form of persuasion? How does evangelism relate to sex and beauty? Here I review two books on the ethics of evangelism in a post-Christendom world. … More Post-Christendom Ethics: Evangelism as Immoral, Confessional, Embodied and Beautiful