Extra-Curricular Activities 06.15.13

Liam Thatcher - Who Died and Made You King of the Zombies?

“The death and resurrection of Jesus sent shockwaves
throughout all of creation, Matthew even speaks of there being an earthquake.
This miniature anticipatory resurrection was merely a ripple, pointing to the
greater resurrection that is yet to come.”

 [Image Credit: Nobody's Home by Angels Gate, on Theology Matters]

Peter Leithart - Gospels and Creed

“The creeds don’t predetermine what the gospels say; but the
creeds do create a predisposition and a set of expectations about what the
gospels will say. Those predispositions, Hays argued persuasively, actually
produce better readings of the gospels than anti-creedal modernism.”

Mary Berry - Wendell and Me

“My father’s name is Wendell Berry and I have been crazy
about him for 54 years now. Wendell is married to my mother, Tanya. It is
nearly impossible for me to think of one without the other.”

Robert Bruce - Five Myths About Reading & How to Put
Them to Death

“If you think you can’t learn anything from fiction, then
you’re reading the wrong fiction. Sure, the novel can serve as an escape. But
to say you can’t learn anything from 1984 or To Kill A Mockingbird or Harry
Potter, or thousands of other novels, just isn’t true. Jesus taught in parables
— in other words, a story, a form of fiction — because it’s an effective
teaching method.”

Marc Cortez - 3 Mistakes We Make When Talking about the
Sovereignty of God

“We don’t praise God for evil, we praise God in the midst of
evil. Those are critically different responses. And we must avoid the former
lest, in our hurry to comfort, we minimize evil and suggest that God is somehow
culpable in the very sin he works so actively against.”

Carl R. Trueman - Tragic Worship

“The problem with much Christian worship in the contemporary
world, Catholic and Protestant alike, is not that it is too entertaining but
that it is not entertaining enough…It neglects tragedy”

Mark Galli - A Terrifying Grace

“We say it's wonderful that God knows everything about us
and yet still accepts us, but we have to admit we don't believe it. If we
believed God accepted us, we wouldn't be hiding secrets from ourselves, and
from him.”

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Extra-Curricular Activities is a weekly roundup of stories on biblical interpretation, theology, and issues where faith and culture meet. We found each story interesting, thought-provoking, challenging, or useful in some way – but we don't necessarily agree with or endorse every point in every story. 

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