Worldview and Perspective on Christian Tradition

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Author

Jaroslav Pelikan

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Scripture

Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 15:2-6, Mark 7:3-13, Colossians 2:8, Galatians 1:14

Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.

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Author

Gustav Mahler

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Scripture

2 Timothy 1:6-7, Psalm 78:4, Hebrews 12:28-29, 1 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15

Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire.

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes — our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely ha...

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Author

Robert Frost

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Scripture

Proverbs 18:19, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Micah 6:8, Galatians 3:28, Psalm 133:1

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence.

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K. I. S. S.

Author

Sarah Puryear

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Scripture

1 Corinthians 15:

Have you heard the acronym “K. I. S. S”? It stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” Paul doesn’t exactly call the Corinthians stupid (in 1 Cor. 15), though elsewhere Paul sounds tempted to do so, when ...

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Psalm 19 | Creation Reflects God

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Matthew 5:17, Psalm 19:

Introduction During my time in seminary (and the year after I graduated) I spent a lot of time at a church in southern New Jersey. It’s actually how I met Scott Bullock, TPW board member and creator...

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What is the Christian Imagination Deficit? How Do We Fix It?

Author

Brian Brown

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There Are No Ordinary Things J. R. R. Tolkien tells a short story about an ordinary fellow who just wants to finish a painting. Over time, he is constantly distracted by the requests of his neighbors...

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A Righteous Car Dealer

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Timothy Keller

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I knew a man who was the head of a set of car dealerships in the South. The way in which things were done was you could come in and negotiate, and the salesman had a pretty big window of what they cou...

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His House of Cards

Author

Austin Fischer

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A few years ago, a pastor of an evangelical-fundamentalist church with whom I’m acquainted announced on the Sunday after Easter that he had become an atheist. He told his stunned congregation that he ...

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Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

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Christianity is without doubt the earthiest of all religions. Unlike most other religions, it doesn’t call you out of the physical, out of the body, or out of the world. Rather it tells you that God e...

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The Earliest Known Uses of the Trinity

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Many of us are aware that the Trinity is not specifically referred to in scripture, though it would eventually become accepted among all major branches of the Christian faith as an authentic interpret...

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The Birth (or Re-Emergence) of Evangelical Social Action

Author

Soong-Chan Rah

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In 1947, budding theologian Carl F. H. Henry wrote a short book titled The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. In it he surveys the American fundamentalist movement’s engagement with the most ...

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Short Term Missions, Long Term Partnerships: Reevaluating Mission Trips

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Scott B. Bullock

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What Value is there in Short-Term Missions? Over the years, I have had people ask me why my family and I go on short-term mission trips. Some of the more cynical have wondered aloud, “Isn’t it reall...

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Preaching in a New Key: Crafting Expository Sermons in Post-Christian Communities

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Mark R. Glanville

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Kate's Crisis: Values vs. Church One damp afternoon during the fall of 2016 I was sharing a pastoral conversation with Kate, a professional artist in her late 20s. Over years of meals and convers...

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The Charge "Fundamentalist"

Author

Alvin Plantinga

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Alvin Plantinga, the Christian philosopher, endorses a view inspired by Calvin and Aquinas, against which he anticipates the objection that the view is "fundamentalist. But isn’t all this just ...

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An Agnostic Psychologist (and Bestselling Author) Changes His Mind on the Existence of Evil

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N. T. Wright

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The famous American psychotherapist M. Scott Peck was for many years an agnostic. He learned his psychiatry according to the standard model in which there was no such thing as evil. But at around the ...

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Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Is God just a nice person who created the world, tells us to be “cool” to people, helps out with some of our problems (but otherwise leaves us alone), lets us do what makes us happy, and then takes us...

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Christian Faith Proved by it’s Fruit

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The current context of cultural and religious pluralism magnifies this development. After the disintegration of Christendom-a historical topical apparatus that gave cultural pride of place to Christia...

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Psalm 22 | Feeling Forsaken by God

Author

Scott B. Bullock

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Scripture

Psalm 22:, Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34, Hebrews 2:12

Ancient lens What’s the historical context? A Structured Complaint The Psalmist organizes his complaint against God in three sections. The first two sections dramatize the complaint (vv. 1-11 and...

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A Triumphal Procession

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:8-11, Luke 19:36-44, John 12:16-19, Revelation 19:11-16

Two thousand years ago, triumphal processions were massively popular. It was, in all likelihood, the only chance most people would have to see the leaders and heroes of the day. For the Romans they t...

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Prayer for the Unity of the Church

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Scripture

Romans 12:4-5, Colossians 3:14, Galatians 3:28, John 17:20-23, Ephesians 4:3-6

O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace to take to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred and prejudice...

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Author

E. James Wilder

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Western Culture

Western Christianity has long taught that we are changed by what we believe and what we choose—that is, by the human will responding to God. Attachment to God would functionally replace the will as th...

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What is Wrong with Us according to Traditional and Modern Cultures

Author

Timothy Keller

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Scripture

Luke 18:14, Proverbs 29:23, Isaiah 2:11, 1 Peter 5:5, Romans 12:3, James 4:6, Proverbs 16:18

Up until the twentieth century, traditional cultures (and this is still true of most cultures in the world) always believed that too high a view of yourself was the root cause of all the evil in the w...

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Psalm 8 | God's Majesty

Author

Scott B. Bullock

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Scripture

Psalm 8:, Psalm 144:3, Job 7:17, Hebrews 2:6-10, Matthew 21:16, 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Ancient Lens What’s the historical context? Background Structure This Psalm of David is unique. “It is the only hymn in the Old Testament composed completely as a direct address to God.” [1] It e...

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Philippians 4:7 "May the peace of God which surpasses

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Scripture

Philippians 4:7

Traditional The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, th...

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Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:31, Psalm 139:13-14, John 1:14, 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, Philippians 3:20-21

Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body—which believes that matter is good, that God himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body ...

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What’s Unique about Christianity?

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Scripture

Matthew 2:1-4, Luke 15:3-7, John 8:1-11, Luke 19:10, John 1:16, Revelation 22:17

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? O...

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Christianity: A One-Way Ticket to Heaven?

Author

N. T. Wright

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Most people today imagine that the point of Christianity is “to go to heaven when you die.” That’s what most believers believe. It’s what most unbelievers unbelieve. It’s certainly what journalists, b...

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Author

Andrew F. Walls

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Other major world religions are still centered in the same general geographic area from which they originated except for Christianity. Even more intriguing, the center of Christian growth continues to...

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Pursuing the Common Good Throughout History

Author

Don Everts

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 22:39, Philippians 2:3-4, 1 Corinthians 10:24, Romans 15:1-2, Galatians 6:10, Romans 12:10, Acts 20:35, Matthew 25:35-40, Isaiah 58:6-7, Proverbs 19:17, Luke 10:30-37, James 2:15-16, 1 John 3:17, Proverbs 31:8-9, Matthew 25:40, Acts 11:29-30, 2 Corinthians 8:13-15, Acts 2:44-45, Acts 4:32-35, 1 Corinthians 12:25-26

Pursuing the common good has been a strong marker of the Christian church from the very beginning. The early church had many habits that they became known for, of course—including meeting frequently, ...

worldview and perspective on Christian Tradition

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