On any list of my favorite authors, Dorothy Sayers is near the top. I’ve been a fan, especially of Lord Peter and Harriet Vane, for years. I still remember walking into a used book store Before the Internet to see if they had any more copies of her mysteries. When I told the proprietor what I was searching for, he…
Sixth in a series. The epic of Babel points to the question: Where is our work taking the world? In the faith and work movement, we used to discuss all the time what Steve Garber has called “the fate of the widget.” Is our work shaping the material world to prepare it as much as we can for Christ’s return,…
Fifth in a series. We have seen that the biblical epic of Babel does not end with the original Babel account, but is central to the call of Abram and the agony of exile. And we have seen that the epic of Babel has much to say about our daily work: Good work done well is a temptation to pride and…
Fourth in a series. Israel’s exile in Babel (a.k.a. Babylon) is the next step in the big biblical epic of Babel that we can draw on to rethink our daily work. It’s become fashionable in the evangelical quarters of the faith and work movement to talk about exile these days. In fact, it’s been so fashionable for so long that I…
I have mentioned many times, probably too many times, the seeming Mount-Everest-height stack of books published over the last 7-10 years relating to the integration of faith and work. One could justifiably argue we do not need any more books, but rather to read the books already written and apply their principles to our work. But for good or ill,…
Third in a series. You can’t understand Genesis 12 without Genesis 11. Unfortunately, the biblical story of redemption has been cut off from the biblical story of Babel, and there is no clearer sign of this than the fact that we frequently read Genesis 12 (the foundational text for the story of redemption) without placing it within the indispensable context…
Deeply and faithfully loving and caring for oneself is enough – it’s not just a pause between activities, writes a seminary professor and psychologist. This was first published in Faith & Leadership. By Chanequa Walker-Barnes I couldn’t move, it seemed. I was hungry and needed a shower, but I couldn’t force myself to get out of bed. It was as if somehow…
