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Joe Carter

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Evangelical

2012-10-17T18:05:17+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

All Games are Eschatological

Last updated on: October 17, 2012 at 6:05 pm By Joe Carter

New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III on why Christians should develop a stronger theology of play: From God’s perspective, play is not a distraction from “real life.” Play is so important partly because it prefigures the final state of affairs: the joy of the celebration of God’s kingdom. All games are essentially eschatological, having some kind of telos or aim. In the best kind of games, you have to work with others, which meets a deep psychological need: The need... Read more

Christianity

2012-10-17T09:13:18+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Reflections on the Revolution in Gotham: Of Burke and Batman

Last updated on: October 17, 2012 at 9:13 am By Joe Carter

Sean Beienburg argues that The Dark Knight Rises reflects director Christopher Nolan’s Burkean sensibilities: Less apparent than the striking images are these skeptical, quintessentially British political mores that the Nolan brothers—despite Jonah’s American accent—have infused into their trilogy. Critic Devin Faraci writes that Nolan embraces the “central thesis that institutions will fail us again and again… But where David Simon’s seminal [The Wire] wrestled with what that means and how we can create change within that environment, Nolan’s films take a decidedly... Read more

Movies

Politics

Pop Culture

2012-10-17T08:45:23+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Bitter Homeschooler’s Wish List

Last updated on: October 17, 2012 at 8:45 am By Joe Carter

Deborah Markus, at Secular Homeschooling, has a list of retorts for homeschooling parents tired of the inane questions and complaints they get about educating their own children: 1. Please stop asking us if it’s legal. If it is — and it is — it’s insulting to imply that we’re criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it? 2. Learn what the words “socialize” and “socialization” mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you... Read more

Education

2012-10-17T08:41:26+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Accountability of the Church Intellectual

Last updated on: October 17, 2012 at 8:41 am By Joe Carter

In the journal Themelios, theologian Carl Trueman offers some sobering advice for students considering pursuing doctoral studies (“‘Do not do it if you think you are going to find a job at the end of it; do it for the sake of doing it. There are almost no jobs going in academia these days . . .). But he also provides some pastoral counsel that is relevant to those who aspire to be intellectual leaders in our congregations: Protestantism, by prioritizing... Read more

Christianity

Evangelicalism

2012-10-16T16:40:05+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How Puritans Became Capitalists

Last updated on: October 16, 2012 at 4:40 pm By Joe Carter

In his book, Heavenly Merchandize, Mark Valeri, professor of church history at Union Presbyterian Seminary, finds that the American economy as we know it emerged from a series of important shifts in the views of Puritan ministers: IDEAS: You’re saying that the market didn’t rise at the expense of religion, but was enabled by it? VALERI: You need to have a change in your basic understanding of how or where God works in the world before you can envision different economic behaviors as morally... Read more

Books

Christianity

Economics

2012-10-19T20:42:29+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Portion Distortion and the Last Supper

Last updated on: October 19, 2012 at 8:42 pm By Joe Carter

How much would Jesus eat? The answer—as determined by depictions of the last supper—vary by era, say two brothers—an eating behavior expert and a religious studies scholar: Brian and Craig Wansink teamed up to analyze the amount of food depicted in 52 of the best-known paintings of the Last Supper. After indexing the sizes of the foods by the sizes of the average disciple’s head, they found that portion size, plate size, and bread size increased dramatically over the last... Read more

Christianity

Misc.

2012-10-16T07:47:13+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How Fairy Tales Make Children Better Humans

Last updated on: October 16, 2012 at 7:47 am By Joe Carter

Bruno Bettelheim on fairy tales and children: There is a widespread refusal to let children know that the source of much that goes wrong in life is due to our very own natures–the propensity of all men for acting aggressively, asocially, selfishly, out of anger and anxiety. Instead, we want our children to believe that, inherently, all men are good. But children know that they are not always good…. Contrary to what takes place in many modern children’s stories, in... Read more

Books

2012-10-15T06:15:55+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Scholarly Critique of Gilligan’s Island

Last updated on: October 15, 2012 at 6:15 am By Joe Carter

Almost every American who owned a television from the late 1960s to the early 1980s has watched an episode of Gilligan’s Island. And if you were a child during that era—in a time before cable and console video games—you probably watched all 98 episodes more than once. It shames me to consider it now, but I suspect I’ve seen each episode at least a half dozen times—over 8,000 hours engaged with this single cultural artifact. Even more embarrassing is the that... Read more

Pop Culture

Television

2012-10-15T06:06:30+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Religion is Wasted on the Young

Last updated on: October 15, 2012 at 6:06 am By Joe Carter

“Perhaps when we think we are criticizing the narrow thinking of others,” says Timothy Larsen, “we are sometimes really just exposing the narrowness of perception of our past selves. My students are often Christians who are old enough to mock mercilessly the people that gave of their time sacrificially to disciple them when they were young but who are not yet mature enough to be able to disciple others. I often find them quick-off-the-draw-ready with a forceful and sophisticated critique... Read more

Christianity

Evangelicalism

2012-10-15T05:45:13+00:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Why Don’t Doctors Wash Their Hands More?

Last updated on: October 15, 2012 at 5:45 am By Joe Carter

After reading this, I don’t think I’ll be shaking hands with doctors anymore: Hand hygiene and sterile technique are so successfully maintained in operating rooms not because of the reminders that hang over scrub sinks, but because it is part of the culture and identity of those who work there. No self-respecting surgeon, nurse, anesthesiologist or technician would ever dream of breaching those sterile protocols in the surgical suites. Or of allowing any deviation from the aseptic norms to simply pass.... Read more

Misc.

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