A few notes from our vacation in Hilton Head, South Carolina and our education in the history of racism. The kids were out of school, but learning in a different way about their world and our calling as Christians. … More A Holiday of Racism: Education Beyond the Classroom
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
This Reformation Day, I’m thinking about reformation as a form of deconstruction. “Always reforming” can too easily feel like it’s about re-shaping something, renovating it, giving it a make-over. It sounds too clean, maybe even bureaucratic — like a policy change. But if reformation is like deconstruction, it can be messy. … More Reformation Day Math: Dividing, Subtracting, and Adding as God’s Messy Arithmetic
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
A meditation on Psalm 139 for our polarized times using a neologism of “anthropological math.” … More Honest to God: A Meditation on Psalm 139
I teach World Religions at Redeemer University and require my students to visit a non-Christian house of prayer: a temple, mosque, gurdwara, or synagogue. Many of them are conservative Christian students, and many have never been to such a place, and some are worried and anxious about the assignment. Here I delve into the reasons why this is such an important experience for a Christian. … More Why Enter A Temple of Another Religion? Crossing the Threshold into Your Neighbour’s House of Prayer
“Moving Forward Together: The Future of Science and Faith” was the title of the annual conference for the ASA and the CSCA July 28-31 2023 at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus. Attendees engaged each other over a host of wicked problems that confound and intrigue humanity today, and did so with a depth of realism and hope. … More Science and Faith Conference Tackles Wicked Problems: 50 Years of Christian Scientific Discussions
Here I explore Canadian sociologist Sam Riemer’s book Caught in the Current: British and Canadian Evangelicals in an Age of Self-Spirituality (McGill-Queens 2023). His argument is that concerns over church decline, sexual ethics, and the exit of youth from church are just the surface of our cultural sea. The underlying current that drives all the visible issues is self-spirituality, and more specifically, a shift from a locus of external authority to internal authority. … More “To Thine Own Self Be True”: A Pathway to Liberation or Loneliness?
Leo Van Arragon argues that our children are being done a deep disservice if they only receive anemic religious classes that are sanctioned only to benefit the state. He posits a new critical form of religious literacy that helps students develop a deeper sense of meaning in their life–while understanding others’ religion more accurately. … More State Control of Religious Education in Public Schools: The Need for Critical Religious Literacy Beyond State Interests
What is happening in Russia that it would sacrifice its young men, military budget, Ukrainian relatives, and Western relations in an attack on Ukraine? Global Scholars Canada asked a few of its scholars and some academic friends to weigh in on the larger historical, political, and ecclesiastical context behind the war that continues to rage in eastern Ukraine. … More “Letters from Moscow”: The Opening and Closing of Russia, a Thousand Year History
Sensus Divinitatis 