[Note: Jeff Mallinson has invited his wife Stacie to take the wheel this week, and reflect on what she encountered at the recent Christ Hold Fast conference.]
This past weekend, while attending the Christ Hold Fast conference, I found myself sitting in a small, no-frills side room of a church. I never thought that would be the beginning of one of the most transformative moments of my life.
By Jeff Mallinson –
This week, I have the privilege of speaking at the Christ Hold Fast Conference in Orlando, Florida. I’ll be talking about the ways in which Luther’s call is for us all to become theologians of the cross. This is no mere academic concept. It is a revolution in the way we think about religion and theology itself. Theologians of glory seek to reach God through their own effort. Theologians of the cross receive the grace of God, accomplished by Christ alone. All of this is outside of us, and insists that there is no good speculative theology: we must approach the divine only through the Incarnate One who was crucified for our sake.
By Jeff Mallinson –
When a wall of sound floods our consciousness, when visual images bombard our eyes from flickering screens, when endless online chatter creates a virtual din in our minds, something is lost. Silence is lost.
By Jeff Mallinson –
Is he the one? Is she the one? These are age old questions that some college students still ask today. This thinking is wrongheaded. Not just ill-advised, but fundamentally disastrous to a healthy relationship.
By Jeff Mallinson –
What do we mean when we call something good or bad, whether in aesthetics or ethics? These days, it seems that children tend to have a quicker and more genuine response. The rest of us these days, find locating goodness, truth, and beauty far more problematic.
By Jeff Mallinson –
“If it were easy someone would have explained The Way to the ruler,” so says the ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi. He was right. Even with educated advisors, experts, and commentators, no one really seems to know what’s going on. The nations rage. World leaders seem incapable of keeping up with complex conflicts of our age.
By Jeff Mallinson –
When I first see a new Star Wars episode in theaters, I almost always dig it. Later, in the case of episodes 1-3 at least, I start to grow cold. Then, I become embarrassed that I wasn’t more discerning and critical the first time. For The Force Awakens, something nifty happened.
By Jeff Mallinson –
Urgency leads us to wake up and get busy. That’s not a bad thing. Ours is an era of urgency, because of the increasingly rapid speed of change in technology, the economy, politics, and international strife. Nonetheless, urgency can distract us from threats that, while far ahead on the horizon, may be more important than the things that are right in front of us.
By Jeff Mallinson –
We celebrate Christmas around the time of the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. It is a time when our ancestors had to remind themselves of an age old promise that the light would not go out permanently, and that the light would soon return. The problem is,
By Jeff Mallinson – Imagine it’s 2 in the morning on a Thursday evening. You’re deep asleep when […]
