Popular Religion
Sports and Christianity: How Should Christians Handle Competition?
A couple days ago, a friend pointed me to, “Sports Fanatics,” a Christianity Today article in which Shirl James Hoffman (author of the book, Good Game: Christianity and the Culture of Sports, from which the article is taken) argues that (mainly Evangelical) Christianity’s relationship with sports has ultimately been detrimental to the faith, with... »
A Few Thoughts on “Avatar”
I finally got a chance to watch Avatar in 3D the other night—strictly business, of course, since I had assigned it to the Sociology of Religion class for which I am guest-lecturing this evening on the nature and definition of religion, using Avatar as a launching point. It was essentially what I had heard:... »
Interview with Richard Hays of Duke University
I’m way late to the game on this (thanks to being busy with my real work and falling behind on my feeds), but it’s still worth posting: John Anderson has posted a wonderful interview with Duke NT professor Richard Hays, where Hays gives a lot of details about his background and influences. As a... »
Not Everyone Leaving Churches is Leaving the Church
Matthew Green has just posted a very interesting article, “The Church Dropout,” which looks at the growing number of people choosing no longer to attend church, despite not having lost their faith, choosing less formal meetings or other forms of participation in Christian community. The article addresses several important ecclesiological issues brought up by... »