Karen Swallow Prior offers an assessment of what she calls the "stay at home daughter movement" (SAHD). The idea (roughly) is that women should forgo traditional college and paid work outside the home so as to be maximally available to their families and churches prior to marriage. The concept seems to be propagated within the family integrated church movement and groups like Vision Forum. Prior's brief post strikes me as both insightful and fair. … [Read more...] about The Stay at Home Daughter Movement
Christianity Today Interviews Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is a fascinating figure. Having previously reviewed Leslie Montgomery's book about the faith of Secretary Rice, I was glad to see Sarah Pulliam Bailey of Christianity Today post a good interview with Ms. Rice on her recent book, Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family. From Mongomery's book, I already knew that Rice had an extraordinary family. She was raised in the deep south during the days of segregation, and saw the hostilities erupt first-hand on more than one occasion. Yet she never seems to have succumbed to bitterness or to lose her faith in God. Here's an … [Read more...] about Christianity Today Interviews Condoleezza Rice
David Powlison on Receiving Criticism
The good folks at CCEF have graciously published David Powlison's article Does the Shoe Fit? The essay is about the ways in which receiving criticism reveals our true nature. The opening: Critics are God’s instruments. I don’t like to be criticized. You don’t like to be criticized. Nobody likes to be criticized. But, critics keep us sane—or, by our reactions, prove us temporarily or permanently insane. Whether a critic’s manner is gracious or malicious, whether the timing is good or bad, whether the intention is constructive or destructive, whether the content is accurate, half-true, or … [Read more...] about David Powlison on Receiving Criticism
Ross Douthat on Christianity, Christians and Culture
Ross Douthat has just posted an excellent NYT article on the status of Christianity in our day, as we approach Christmas. Of course, Christmas has religious significance for some, and economic or merely cultural significance for others. Douthat refers to two books, both of which sound excellent (and only one of which I've cracked): American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us by Robert Putnam and David Campbell, and To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World by James Davison Hunter. Douthat's conclusion:Putnam and Campbell are … [Read more...] about Ross Douthat on Christianity, Christians and Culture
The Spiritual Disciplines of a Book Release
George Guthrie has some good words for me as I await the release of my "baby." An excerpt: The book arrives in the mail. Elation. You like the feel of the book, the dream having become waking reality. The freebies sent by the publisher are distributed; friends and family celebrate. They assure you that your book will change the world (but will they really read it?). And now, now in this moment of the deep breath, you wait. You wait to see if anyone in the wider world will take up and hold this baby you have birthed and thrown out into the world, vulnerable; will anyone at all be drawn … [Read more...] about The Spiritual Disciplines of a Book Release
Tim Keller on Politics and Culture
Some helpful thoughts (as usual) from Tim Keller on politics and culture. He mentions James D. Hunter, author of the much-discussed book To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World as well as The City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era, a book for which Keller wrote the introduction. An excerpt: Hunter argues that ressentiment – "a narrative of injury" – has now come to define American political discourse. Both conservatives and liberals make their sense of injury central to their identity, and therefore in each election cycle it … [Read more...] about Tim Keller on Politics and Culture