StephenBarkley.com

One theme that McGrath refers to frequently on his blog is the responsibility believers have to follow evidence and use their mind. He says it well in his newest book, The Burial of Jesus:
Faith may go beyond the available evidence, but if it contradicts it, it is at best wishful thinking and at worst a [...]

While reading God’s Rivals: Why Has God Allowed Different Religions?, I came across a breathtaking quote about Christ by Irenaeus (Proof of the Apostolic Preaching). You’ll want to read this one slowly.
He is Himself the Word of God Almighty, Who in His invisible form pervades us universally in the whole world, and encompasses both its [...]

Here’s another gem from Stories With Intent regarding the Good Samaritan:
The fear of works righteousness is far too exaggerated in most churches. Would that there were an equal fear of being found inactive!

Here’s another beautiful line from my Bultmann Commentary on the Letters of John:
For to love God and to be loved by him are a unity: the former is grounded in the latter.

I’m speaking on the Good Samaritan in a few weeks, so I started reading Snodgrass’s highly recommended Stories With Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus. Here’s a little something to ponder from the first chapter:
Stories are not inherently Christian and do not automatically convey truth. They can be used to communicate any [...]

While preparing a 1 John post, I came across a beautiful line by Bengel, translated from the Latin by Bultmann for his commentary:
Ubi non est amor, odium est: cor non est vacuum.
Where there is no love, there is hate; the heart is not empty.

Sometimes we need to be reminded of the basics. I’ll let Calvin speak for himself (from the Institutes):
God works in his elect in two ways: within, through his Spirit; without, through his word. By his Spirit, illuminating their minds and forming their hearts to the love and cultivation of righteousness, he makes them a new [...]

In The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation, characters are pictured with angels and devils beside them, each trying to gain influence. I don’t agree with that understanding of anthropology for a couple reasons:

It implies that we have the freedom to choose between good or evil, independent of God.
It smacks of a good/evil [...]

In Rob Bell’s video, Everything Is Spiritual, he uses a great analogy: is a marker a circle or a rectangle? It depends how you look at it. It’s both.
I was faithfully reading Volume 3 of my Harvard Classics when I came across the same idea in Francis Bacon’s Essay, “Of Unity in Religion” (you can [...]

I’m a sucker for complete editions of any author I enjoy. I found my treasured hardback copy of The Complete Father Brown Stories in a second hand bookstore in Stouffville, Ontario.
Chesterton’s Father Brown stories are brilliant in many ways. Aside from the clever mysteries he invents, the perspective of the protagonist—a Catholic priest—gives Chesterton many [...]