A wonderful production of the play Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts is currently being staged by the AstonRep company at the BoHo Theatre in Chicago. My apologies to out-of-towners who won’t have the opportunity to see the show, because it is blessed with a gifted ensemble, headed by Mark Jacob Chaitin and Ryan Hamlin in the lead roles. Hamlin plays Adam, who, unlike the Biblical Adam, has no relationship with ...

Rob's thinking is that people are gradually cluing in to God's vision of a world without retributive violence. “Revenge always escalates.” he writes (Kindle Locations 1919-1920). Always. So, God takes vengeance away from us. He situates the conversation in ancient history and what we can gather about the cultural situation of their time and place in history. ...

Which leads us back to Johnny and June. During the darkest moments of his life, June reflected the unconditional love and grace of God to Johnny; but Johnny had to choose whether or not he would receive June’s love. He had to decide whether or not he was worthy of that love. Fortunately... ...

It’s true that our devotion to our sports teams can be a little over the top. So, it’s in the spirit of "Love thy Rival" that I offer you this countdown of the 5 things to think about while watching the Super Bowl... ...

For Marvin Gaye's song "Let's Get It On" here. Adam discusses Song of Songs and argues that the book seeks to repair the brokenness that happens in the Garden of Eden and the the book compares the love of God to the love of a teenage girl. ...

Adam and Bob were delighted to welcome acclaimed Civil War historian Professor Mark A. Noll to the program. We talked with Mark about the startling thesis in his book, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis. He writes that in the years leading up to the American Civil War, theologians, preachers and devout churches argued about what the bible said about slavery. They couldn't agree on whether God was for or ...

To purchase On Beyond Zebra, click here. Adam discusses Dr. Seuss's book, On Beyond Zebra and the Gospel. Dr. Seuss challenges us to look beyond our confidence in the "ABCs" of our world in order to see beyond Z and into the bigger picture. When we don't see beyond Z, we fall into power struggles with others.  For example, we often think that our religious, political, or economic perspective is the truth, w ...

Influential pastor Mark Driscoll claims that God might hate you. Does that describe the God revealed through Jesus? Adam claims that Driscoll's god is closer to the gods of Rome than the God of Jesus. Janus was a Roman god who had conflicting wills of love and hate. There is no conflicting will in the God revealed through Jesus, who loves all people. Jesus explicitly says that God loves even God's enemies. ...

Adam discusses the SlutWalk Movement and theological implications. There are two different strands in the bible. One that says God is on the side of perpetrators of violence, and one that says God stands with the victims of violence. Jesus reveals that God even becomes a victim of human violence so that we might identify with the victims of human violence. God identifies with the SlutWalk movement, and with ...

Adam explores the Word of God. Is the Bible the Word of God? The Bible never explicitly calls itself the Word, but does call Jesus the Word of God. If we call the Bible the Word of God, does that mean we are worshiping the Bible? Is that bibliolatry? What do we do with conflicting passages of the Bible? Jesus says "You have heard that it was said, eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do n ...