As Rodney Stark has shown, one of the great contributions of the first Christendom was the development of free markets. And I would want to maintain that one of the great results of the next Christendom will be the restoration and preservation of them. Free markets are the economic expression of the apostolic teaching that …
Seven Reason Why “The Deep Things of God” Is an Important Book
This evening a group of men from Christ Church are meeting at our home to discuss our reading of The Deep Things of God, by Fred Sanders. A month or so ago, when I started reading this book, I wrote to a friend at Crossway to thank him for publishing such an important book. Here …
The Touchdown Dance with the Fist Pumps
I noticed some interesting connections this morning in James 2. Believers are told not to have faith in Jesus in a way that displayed “respect of persons” (v. 1). The meaning of this is illustrated by the scenario he sets for us. If some resplendent rich guy comes into your church, a potential big tither, …
Creation is Thick, I Tell You
Think of this another way. In the gnostic order of things, the material world is always convicted, damned. It is the problem. In the Christian world tugged on by gnosticism, the material world is not condemned — the orthodox faith forbids this because God made the world, and Jesus rose from the dead in it. …
The Barkity Barkity Midnight Dog
In order to sort some important things out, we have to do some further work on the relationship of giver and gift. I propose to begin by discussing the relationship between created giver and created gift, and then moving up to the much more complicated relationship between the Uncreated Personal Giver and the created personal …
And What God Turns Upside Down Stays Upside Down
These are strange economic times, and nothing is stranger than the fact that many appear to think it is normal. So, what are Christians to do? How we arrange our affairs? What do we invest in? There are two principal points to make here. The first concerns what we are not to invest in. Do …
A Pleasant and Instructive Afternoon
It has been a while since I have said anything much about Girard, but this is not because I haven’t been thinking about it. Once you see the mechanism (of mimetic envy) that Girard outlines, it is difficult not to see it everywhere. Now there are some Girardian fan boys out there who do to …
Wells They Did Not Dig
Rodney Stark’s book, The Victory of Reason, is a wonderful assembler of pieces. He pointed out a number of things I already knew, but had not considered the implications of before, and then added greatly to the number of such facts — and all with the same implications. For those who understand that economic liberty …
Free Markets and Free Grace
In Rodney Stark’s very fine book, The Victory of Reason, he notes a problem with using the word “capitalism” in discussions of economics. He says capitalism “is very difficult to define, having originated not as an economic concept but as a pejorative term first used by nineteenth century leftists to condemn wealth and privilege. Adapting …
Stewardship Schmoowardship
There are many things that are exasperating about the soi disant stewards of the environment, but the central exasperating thing about them lies right at the heart of their claim. This is especially true of Christians who tell us that Jesus requires us to be “stewards of the earth,” and that being green is a …