John Bowen is the author of What is a Fresh Expression of Church? A Beginner’s Guide to a Movement that is Changing the Church. The first half of the booklet explains what is (and is not!) meant by the phrase “fresh expressions of church,” and unpacks why fresh expressions of church might be needed and …
Quick: name three movies with central characters who are fine Christians. Hmm, that’s what I thought. Of course, there are some— Chariots of Fire (1981), The Mission (1986), Babette’s Feast (1987), Romero (1989), Cry the Beloved Country (1995) Dead Man Walking (1995), Amazing Grace (2006), and Of Gods and Men (2010) spring to mind immediately. …
A professor and writer shares his summer reading list
Vincent Donovan was a Catholic missionary to the Maasai in Tanzania in the 1960’s and 1970’s. His book Christianity Rediscovered (Orbis 1978) has been a best-seller ever since, and I am not the only teacher who has used it in classes on mission and evangelism to help students think through issues of Gospel and culture.
Many people love the Narnia stories. However, not all readers know the deep spirituality that underlies them. In some ways, the stories mirror Lewis’ own wrestling with his spiritual longings, and seek to help others on the same journey. He wants us to feel, as he himself came to feel, that what we long for …
At the heart of the courses I teach at Wycliffe College is the question of how to communicate Christian faith to people who are exploring their spirituality but know very little about Christianity. Of course, there’s a limit to how much you can learn about this in the classroom, so from time to time, I …
C.S.Lewis is one of the most unlikely children’s authors you could ever meet. He was an academic all of his life, teaching first at Oxford and later at Cambridge. He was not married till he was over fifty, and had no children of his own, nor any nephews or nieces. His closest friends were other …
One of the myths of our church culture is that of the independent, solitary, thinking individual, thinking deep thoughts in private, then emerging to share them with a grateful world. I suppose Descartes going off by himself and figuring out “I think therefore I am” is the archetype, though that was hardly a sermon. (It’s …
Students in my “Evangelism in Cultural Context” class went out into the neighborhood around the college a couple of weeks ago to talk to people about Christian faith. The questionnaire (put together the previous week) asked about: (a) people’s present spirituality (b) what they knew already about Christianity and (c) what might cause them to …
Not everybody who enjoys The Lord of the Rings knows that J.R.R.Tolkien described it as “a deeply religious and Catholic work.” This booklet draws out the Christian underpinnings of the story. Timed to coincide with the release of the third movie in 2003, but intriguing wherever Tolkien’s work is loved. For the full text of …
Tolkien and Faith: The Spiritual Worldview of The Lord of the Rings Read More »