How is it that as an Anglican, I am joyfully heading off to Texas to work for Houston Baptist University? The answer is that HBU, under the leadership of President Robert Sloan, is committed to Mere Christianity (read the Mission & Values statement here).  When we agree on the essentials (as expressed in the great creeds of the Church, most notably the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed), we can disagree on other issues and yet do good work together. Furthermore, the different traditions bring different things of great value to the world, as John Mark Reynolds points out in this excellent piece.

In this talk, I discuss the question of denominations and ecumenism, and then give a broad overview of the history of the Anglican Church, with particular emphasis on the medieval church in England (63 AD – 663 AD) before its affiliation with the Roman church; the creation of the Book of Common Prayer amidst the tumult of the Tudor and Elizabethan era; and the Oxford Movement in the 19th century.

I close with an assessment of what Anglicans can learn from each of these periods as we move forward, in the company of our brothers and sisters in Christ of other orthodox traditions, to fulfill the Great Commission.

Click here to listen to the talk if the player does not appear.

Now in this second talk, I address the question of why that matters.

I discuss the way in which the Resurrection is a crucial vindication of Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, and look at the challenge that confronts us when we see the evidence for the Resurrection. If this is true, what are we going to do about it? Thomas the Apostle (Doubting Thomas) provides exactly the model we need here!

Finally, I talk about how the Resurrection can be both a historical fact and a myth.

It is a historical fact — an event that really happened.

It is also a ‘myth’ in the sense that it is part of a story – it is not just a “bare fact” without significance — oh, how odd, a dead man is alive again — but rather, it is the pivot-point of all history, because it is part of the grandest story of all: the story of God’s rescue operation for fallen humanity – a story that also happens to be completely true.

And that is one of the reasons why we do not need to be afraid of embracing the imaginative dimensions of the Gospel – in fact, why we must engage with the Gospel imaginatively, or else we will be missing a great deal of what God is doing.

You can click on this link to listen to the podcast if the podcast player does not appear above. Here is the link for Part 1 as well.

Suggested Reading:

Lewis, C.S. “Myth Became Fact.” In God in the Dock.

Lewis, C.S. The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader.’

Tolkien, J.R.R. “On Fairy-Stories.” In The Tolkien Reader.

Is the Resurrection of Jesus a fact or a myth?

The answer is — Yes.

That is, it is a historical fact — an event that really happened, on a particular day in a particular place.

It is also a ‘myth’ in the sense that it is part of a story – the grandest story of all, the story of God’s rescue operation for fallen humanity – a story that also happens to be completely true.

In this first of two lectures, I provide an overview of the evidence for the Resurrection, making the argument that the best explanation for the facts is that Jesus really did rise from the dead. No other explanation can account for all aspects of the situation.

You can listen to the podcast through the player above, or by clicking on this link.

Here are some useful resources on the subject:

Blomberg, Craig L. Making Sense of the New Testament: Three Crucial Questions. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004.

Bruce, F.F. The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1943, 1981.

Craig, William Lane. “The Empty Tomb of Jesus.” In In Defense of Miracles, edited by R. Douglas and Gary R. Habermas Geivett, 247-261. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997.

Habermas, Gary R. The Historical Jesus. Joplin: College Press Publishing Company, 1996.

—. The Risen Jesus & Future Hope. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.

Kreeft, Peter and Ronald K. Tacelli. Handbook of Christian Apologetics. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Pres, 1994.

Lewis, C.S. Miracles. New York: HarperCollins, 1947.

Wright, N.T. Judas and the Gospel of Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2006.

—.The Resurrection of the Son of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.

Andrew Lazo, photo by Lancia E. Smith.

How can C. S. Lewis help us develop a rich literary life of the mind? This inaugural episode of the podcast series “From the Library of C. S. Lewis” introduces the key concepts of “looking at” and “looking along”, and invites listeners to join in a wonderful journey into the best of old books with Lewis as guide!

If you don’t see the player at the top of the page, click here for the audio of the podcast.

Suggested reading:

C. S. Lewis: “Meditation in a Toolshed,” from God in the Dock

C. S. Lewis: An Experiment in Criticism

How can we do that?

One ancient Christian tradition to help us grow closer to Jesus is to pray through the Stations of the Cross, a series of fourteen “snapshots” of moments along Jesus’ way to Calvary. Malcolm Guite, a 21st century poet, academic, and Anglican priest, has given us a series of sonnets that reflect upon, interpret, and deepen our engagement with each of these vivid moments in the last hours of Jesus’ life before the Cross.

In these four lectures, I talk about our journey with Jesus to the Cross, using Guite’s sonnets as my text and using the theological thought of Charles Williams as a way to better understand what it is that happens when we begin the transformative journey of following Christ. These sonnets reveal more riches with each reading; they are easily the equal (and I do not say this lightly) of the work of John Donne or George Herbert. I invite you to join me on this journey with Malcolm Guite’s sonnets “The Stations of the Cross,” which in turn are part of a larger sequence called “Sounding the Seasons.”

You can read the full text of Malcolm Guite’s “Stations of the Cross” sonnets here. And here is the fifteenth sonnet, “Easter Dawn.”

Here are the four talks. If you can’t see the audio player, you can also click on the title to go to the podcast for that episode:

Part 1: Co-Inherence.

Part 2: Encounter.

Part 3: Failing and Falling.

Part 4: Dying and Rising.

Now, in the last part of this sonnet sequence, we come to the end — Jesus’ crucifixion and death. But we live on the other side of the Cross: even as we confront the very worst, we know that we have hope.

Paradoxically, the more fully we confront the depth of loss in the Crucifixion, the more fully we grasp that this was the end, absolutely the end — the more fully we will be able to grasp the hope of the Resurrection.

If the player does not appear above, click here to listen to the podcast.

You can read the full text of Malcolm Guite’s “Stations of the Cross” sonnets on his blog, here:

Stations I – III

Stations IV – V

Stations VI – VII

Stations VIII – IX

Stations X – XII

Stations XIII – XIV

Station XV

Listen to Part 1 of the series here, and Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Facing our own failure and weakness is never easy or pleasant. It’s always “safer” to not admit to any of that — but Our Lord says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If we can’t admit our own weakness, how can we minister fully to another?

As we look at the Stations of the Cross, Jesus’ three falls along the road to Golgotha give us the chance to reflect deeply on what it means to fail, and fall, and truly be broken — and yet, still know that we are part of the Body of Christ, that we dwell in Him, and He in us.

You can read the full text of Malcolm Guite’s “Stations of the Cross” sonnets on his blog, here:

Stations I – III

Stations IV – V

Stations VI – VII

Stations VIII – IX

Stations X – XII

Stations XIII – XIV

Station XV

Listen to Part 1 of the series here, and Part 2 here.

Last week we looked at the opening and closing sonnets of Malcolm Guite’s sequence “The Stations of the Cross.” We started with Pilate choosing to rebel against God who made him and who loves him, Pilate who condemns Jesus to death; we end with Mary Magdalene encountering the risen Jesus outside the tomb, Mary whose night of grief is turned to a new day of joy and life. In Part 2, “Encounter,” we look at the people whom Jesus encounters on the way to his death: his mother Mary, the women of Jerusalem, Simon of Cyrene, and Veronica.

In each of these encounters we can find ourselves, for as the liturgy of the Eucharist reminds us, we are all part of the body of Christ:

Almighty and everliving God, we most heartily thank thee
for that thou dost feed us, in these holy mysteries, with the
spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of thy
Son our Savior Jesus Christ; and dost assure us thereby of
thy favor and goodness towards us; and that we are very
members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the
blessed company of all faithful people; and are also heirs,
through hope, of thy everlasting kingdom. [...]

You can read the full text of Malcolm Guite’s “Stations of the Cross” sonnets on his blog, here:

Stations I – III

Stations IV – V

Stations VI – VII

Stations VIII – IX

Stations X – XII

Stations XIII – XIV

Station XV

Listen to Part 1 of the series here.

If the audio player doesn’t appear at the top of the post, you can click here to get the audio of the talk .

So in this talk and in the three that follow, we are going to meditate on Our Lord’s journey on the way of the cross. As we will see, in a very real sense, we are walking the way of the cross along with him, because we are united with him.

In order to do this, we will be reading and reflecting on a marvelous sequence of poems, “The Stations of the Cross” by Malcolm Guite. They are part of a larger sequence called “Sounding the Seasons,” which moves through the entire Church Year.

In this first talk, I introduce the idea of “coinherence,” from the thought of Charles Williams, one of the Inklings of Oxford and a friend and influence upon C.S. Lewis (and a great theologian and writer in his own right!). You can listen to Part 2 here.

You can read the full text of Malcolm Guite’s “Stations of the Cross” sonnets on his blog, here:

Stations I – III

Stations IV – V

Stations VI – VII

Stations VIII – IX

Stations X – XII

Stations XIII – XIV

Station XV

If the audio player doesn’t appear at the top of the post, you can click here to get the audio of the talk (34 min. long)

The "Creation Window" in Chester Cathedral: modern stained glass

In this lecture, I address the question of “where do we go from here?” Our culture suffers from a split between the faculties of Reason and Imagination; what can we do about it?

In the first part of the talk, I discuss some of the implications of the split within the church (since in Part 2 of the series I focused more on the effects of the split on the broader culture). I then outline ways that we can work to re-unite Reason and Imagination, both communally and individually, through the affirmation of the historical, factual truth of Christianity that can be known by Reason, and through the support and proper engagement with the arts, grounding Imagination in truth.

I close with a discussion of language and meaning, issuing cautionary words on the corruption and mis-use of language, and arguing that we should work to fill our words with meaning. JRR Tolkien’s “On Fairy-Stories” gives us insight into the way that imaginative literature can help us to recover meaning that we have lost.

Why does this matter?It matters because all beauty points toward the living God. Any genuine aesthetic response to beauty is, in some small way, a turning of the heart toward God. If we offer opportunities to experience beauty in a context where people can also find reasonable answers to their questions about who God is, and what He has done in history, we will be able to share the Gospel to more people, and more profoundly, than we can imagine.