February 17, 2004
My colleague Bruce Fisk has just had his beliefnet article on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ linked from ABC News. Way to go, Bruce!
And a good read it is, too.
3:29 PM 
February 15, 2004
A student of mine, currently earning her M.Div., sent me this notice of a theological summer school for high-schoolers at Duke Divinity School. It sounds like a nice antidote to the youth-culture programming you would normally expect at such an event: one participant said her time there de-alienated her from the traditional worship services at her church. If you know anyone who would benefit from the program, kindly forward the link, would you?
The Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation is now accepting applications for the 2004 summer program to be held at Duke University July 11-24. A two-week journey for rising high school juniors and seniors, the Duke Youth Academy is a unique program of theological formation featuring the teaching and leadership of Duke Divinity School faculty.
Please consider sharing this opportunity with a youth that you know. Visit our website: www.duyouth.duke.edu, where you can find our application online. Or, request a copy of our video to share with a youth group by calling Brian Jones, (919) 660-3542. The application deadline is February 20, so don't delay!
February 2, 2004
Two more contributions have moved through the pipeline since I last checked in.
The first is an article in the current Christianity Today about the character of evangelicalism. (A slightly expanded version on my own site is here.) One excerpt:
every one of the gospel’s culture crossings has raised tensions among the old creation, the earlier new creation of prior faith, and the later new creation of frontier faith. “Stay off the slippery slope of accommodation,” apostolic elders urge, tempted to protect their heritage by controlling the apostolic center. “Stop withdrawing into irrelevance,” apostolic youth reply, tempted to keep their edge with pragmatic alliances with the world. ...The second is a brief response (in Adobe Acrobat) I was honored to give this past weekend at an indisciplinary symposium on evolution and natural evil, to Robert John Russell of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at Berkeley's Graduate Theological Union. Dr. Russell's presentation is not on-line, but you can get the general idea.
Surrendering to either temptation causes evangelical talk of identity and distinctiveness to metastasize from apostolicity’s servant to its threat. Yet we fight these temptations as much as we fight each other. Our coalition building also springs out of our love and hatred of boundaries, not just our hyperdenominationalism; our cross-cultural zeal, not just our ethnocentrism; our burden for others, not just our spiritual elitism.
