Open Relationships: The Next Big Trend I once led a discussion about love with a group of young adult soldiers and spouses. What does true love consist of? Everyone quickly jumped to the issue of honesty—a persistent point made by our Orphan Generation. But what about faithfulness? Not a single member of that conversation said […]
Wednesday, 12 January, 2022 by Stephen Roberts
Don’t let the religious preference on their dog tags fool you—like American society, the vast majority of soldiers are not practicing Christians. Yet even if, say, 80% of soldiers are not Christians, some 80% of soldiers will go to their chaplain in their hour of need. Compare this to mainstream society, where struggling people rarely […]
Friday, 26 November, 2021 by Stephen Roberts
For over a year, my son and I were on a roll. For the first time since reading the big three (Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Harry Potter), we had found a lengthy series that captivated the imagination: Percy Jackson. It opened up the worlds of Greek and Roman mythology to my son with a […]
Monday, 18 October, 2021 by Stephen Roberts
For years, sociologists and psychologists have highlighted what they term an “epidemic of loneliness” in our society. Loneliness in this sense is often described as a lack of vertical and horizontal connections (spiritual and social) that leave people without a sense of identity, meaning, and purpose. This correlates with polling that has shown declining interest […]
Wednesday, 08 September, 2021 by Stephen Roberts
Things Unseen: A Systematic Introduction to the Christian Faith and Reformed TheologyBy J. Gresham MachenWestminster Seminary Press, 2020486 pages (hardcover), $49.99 J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937) is well known in conservative Presbyterian circles, faintly known in some broader Reformed circles, and hardly known at all in the broader Christian church. This is a shame. His influence […]
Wednesday, 01 September, 2021 by Stephen Roberts
It is a tall task to make thinkers like Montaigne, Pascal, Rousseau, and Tocqueville palatable to the modern, everyday reader. Such transcendent minds would have to be made imminently relatable. Somehow, Benjamin and Jenna Silber Storey not only accomplish the task, but do so beautifully in their work Why We Are Restless: On the Modern […]
Monday, 16 August, 2021 by Stephen Roberts
Years ago, I went through a season of feeling besieged in ministry. A handful of fellow church officers would constantly criticize my opinions, berate me in private, and malign my character. There was no grace and no willingness to be reconciled. My own tongue only seemed to get me in further trouble, so before meetings, […]
Monday, 09 August, 2021 by Stephen Roberts
While Tim Keller continues to write new things, it is hard to write new things about Tim Keller’s books. Virtually all of Keller’s books can be placed into one of two categories—those primarily meant to educate and those primarily meant to edify. In the first category, where pen and highlighter must be kept at the […]
Wednesday, 07 July, 2021 by Stephen Roberts
I recently posted a question on Facebook: “If you saw the term ‘apatheism,’ what would it bring to mind?” Without knowing the definition of this relatively novel term, many commenters suggested it had to do with apathy toward God. When the title of your book invokes something familiar but unexplored in the public imagination, you […]
Wednesday, 09 June, 2021 by Stephen Roberts
Given what we’re seeing in churches across the country, it seems that many who claim the name of Christ are spoiling for a fight. Are these fights being waged for the truth of the Gospel? Or the authority of Scripture? Or a host of other biblical doctrines that either lie at or near the heart […]
Wednesday, 26 May, 2021 by Stephen Roberts
Sexuality is no longer the hot button issue it was during the culture wars, when evangelicals squared off with gay rights activists. It is part and parcel of the contemporary worldview. The number of people who identify at LGBTQ+ is rapidly rising—particularly among young adults, where 1 of every 6 identify with an alternative sexuality. […]
Wednesday, 28 April, 2021 by Stephen Roberts
The prospects for Jesus look bleak. Before Pontius Pilate stands a mob calling for Jesus’s crucifixion. We expected this from the religious leaders, who could never stand Jesus’s claim to be the Son of God, nor His mission to save sinners rather than the righteous. For them, Jesus was nothing but a blasphemer and underminer […]
Wednesday, 31 March, 2021 by Stephen Roberts