Pursuing Veritas

Reflections by Jacob J. Prahlow
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  • Romans, Predestination, and Freewill

    For the next three weeks, Pursuing Veritas will be running a series examining Romans, Predestination, and Freewill through the lens of Martin Luther and Erasmus of Rotterdam’s famous Reformation era debate and contemporary Biblical scholarship. Since the beginnings of the Jesus movement countless people, in response to the Good News of God, have asked the…

  • Reflections on Suffering (Part II)

    This article originally appeared on Conciliar Post. In my yesterday’s post, I reflected on some of the answers which have been offered to the “question of suffering,” the query about why there is evil and suffering in the world if there is a good and all-powerful God. In today’s post, I hope to begin crafting…

  • Book Review: The Body and Society (Brown)

    In the updated 20th anniversary edition of his classic work, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, Peter Brown examines the “practice of permanent sexual renunciation—continence, celibacy, life-long virginity” that developed in Christian circles from the first through fifth centuries.[1] In this work, Brown examines a vast array of perspectives…

  • Reflections on Suffering (Part I)

    This article originally appeared at Conciliar Post. Why do we suffer? This is a question which, unfortunately, we all must ask at some point in our lives. The 2011-2012 academic year was a year in which this question took on a special relevance in my own life, first in a theology class devoted to wrestling…

  • Recommended Readings: December 6-12

    If you only read one thing this week, check out Reimagining Race: Ferguson in the Shadow of Advent by Stephen Turley If you’re not busily working on final projects, preparing for exams, or writing final papers like *cough cough* some of us, check out the other suggestions below. As always, if you think there’s something…

  • Luther’s Two Kingdoms: Links

    Over the past two weeks I’ve run a series on Luther’s Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms. While there are unquestionably portions of Luther’s ethic which are possibly problematic and have been interpreted poorly (see Nazi Germany), I do think the Two Kingdom’s can serve as a useful mode of thinking in today’s context, as I…

  • Richard Bauckham on The Lost Gospel

    Controversy sells. If that’s not an adage about publishing books, it should be. It’s no secret that the controversial statements (or perspectives which can be made to sound controversial) catch the headlines. Look no further than The DaVinci Code or Reza Aslan’s Jesus. Unfortunately, much of culture is predicated on the idea that the bigger…

  • Luther’s Two Kingdoms: Conclusions

    This is the final post in our series on Luther’s Two Kingdoms. Having examined Luther’s major writings and construction concerning the relationship of the Christian to the world, we must now consider the common critique of Luther’s theology, that it does not provide a solid foundation for the Christian engagement of temporal authority. In his…

  • Luther’s Two Kingdoms: Critique

    This post is part of our ongoing series on Luther’s Two Kingdoms. The common critique that Luther separates the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the world in such a manner that does not allow for meaningful Christian interaction within the world often stems from an understanding of Luther’s two kingdoms doctrine as highly…

  • Book Review: Best Question Ever

    I recently read The Best Question Ever: A Revolutionary Approach to Decision Making by Andy Stanley. In writing to help his readers better understand how to make the right choices in life and to avoid regrets, Stanley offers very simply advice. When faced with a situation or opportunity of any kind, one must simply ask…