• Wanderlog

    Two Roads You Can Go By

    I want to connect some dots between the audiobook I mentioned yesterday and the book I’ve been reading this past week: James K. A. Smith’s You Are What You Love. In the audiobook, Guelzo contrasts two different approaches to epistemology: voluntarism and intellectualism. Jonathan Edwards was an example of the former in that he placed emphasis on the will as the key to knowledge. As part of a tradition that goes back at least as far as Augustine, the idea is that if you believe the right things, you will find the truth. Or as Anselm later paraphrased it, “Unless I believe, I cannot understand.” The other approach comes from the…

  • Wanderlog

    The American Mind

    A few months ago I gave in and reactivated my Audible account. I never did all that much with it, just retrieve a freebie. Normally I would listen to all kinds of podcasts, but I find my interests have narrowed over the years. And even though there are more podcasts than ever right now, I still have a hard time finding productions that hit that sweet spot for me. And it’s no wonder: my sweet spot is intellectual history. They’re not exactly lining up for that one. My favorite is Al Mohler’s Thinking in Public, but unfortunately there are only a few episodes released each year. Otherwise I’ve had to…

  • Wanderlog

    Through the Lens of Hope Theory

    My posts seem to be getting longer and longer, so I’m going to try and course correct. Part of the reason I committed to doing this every day is because I knew it would force me to fix some of these bad habits. Not that writing long is necessarily bad, but I know I don’t like to read anything terribly long online. Do unto others would seem to apply here. Today I was reminded of some connections I’ve been making lately on the subject of hope. Hope is one of the three “Christian virtues” along with faith and love, and it’s one that I’ve blogged about before here and in…

  • Wanderlog

    What the Rest of the Family is Doing (part 2)

    Last time I began reflecting on our experience visiting nearly a dozen churches in the Grand Rapids area. My intent was to be a gracious guest and not a critical consumer, and just to explore what the family of faith was doing around town and in our neighborhood. In part 1, I reflected on the welcome and the children’s ministry teams—the pillars of hospitality. Today I’ll be looking at the Sunday morning service itself. 3. Music I’m titling this section “music” instead of “worship” because while the music is worship, worship is more than the music. The greeters and childcare workers mentioned last time were worshiping with their acts of…

  • Wanderlog

    What the Rest of the Family Is Doing (part 1)

    When we first moved to the Grand Rapids area, we only visited three churches. They were all decent churches, but we were eager to settle in quickly and decided to go with the church that Jenny had been involved in when she was still a high school student. In August, we decided it was time to move on. But this time I didn’t want to jump quickly into the next church. When I was a worship musician in Dallas I had the pleasure of worshiping with a number of churches across the metroplex. After living here for three years, I found myself eager to get out and explore. I wanted…