Christ the stumbling block and refiner

Luke 2: 22-40, Hebrews 2: 14-18, Malachi 3: 1-4 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, just and devout… and the Holy Spirit rested upon him (Luke 2: 25). ACCORDING TO TRADITIONS that go back to the fourth and fifth centuries in the Eastern church, it...

Rejecting sacrifice, embracing healing

Hebrews 7: 23-28; Mark 10: 46-52 “[Christ] has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself.” – Hebrews 7: 27. SOME YEARS AGO I was involved in a fascinating...

Book review: a guide to ideology for the perplexed

* Jason Blakely, Lost in Ideology: Interpreting Modern Political Life (Agenda Publishing, 2024). IDEOLOGIES are not simply the crazed beliefs of your political foes. They are cultural traditions; they are world-making maps; they are liquid, narrative and ethically...