Mere musings on culture, life, and theology by Samuel James
Samuel James on March 26, 2018 A friendly reminder: I'm writing now at Letter & Liturgy! If you subscribe to posts on this blog via RSS, you'll need to add L&L's feed to your reader. Or you can subscribe to email notifications at the site. Hope to see you there!
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Samuel James on March 13, 2018 I'm very pleased to unveil a project several years in the making. Letter & Liturgy is an online writing initative and an evangelical Christian review of ideas and culture. Throughout nearly 5 years of regular blogging, I've had a vision for a site that did for gospel-centered evangelicals what First Things continues to do for…
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Samuel James on March 11, 2018 A few months before I started there, I took part in a preview weekend for the Bible college that I eventually attended. At one point I had the opportunity to ask the then-dean of the college what the vision of the school was for people (like me) who did not intend to go into vocational…
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Samuel James on March 9, 2018 Although she (Augustine's mother) had warned me to guard my virginity, she did not seriously pay heed to what her husband had told her about me, and which she felt to hold danger for the future: for she did not seek to restrain my sexual drive within the limit of the marriage bond, if it…
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Samuel James on March 5, 2018 On Friday I stuck up for the movie industry. Last night the Academy Awards made me regret it. I've defended both films and the Oscars from their conservative naysayers in the past (and for the record, I still think the Right tends to be obnoxious about pop culture), but the telecast last night was beyond…
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Samuel James on March 2, 2018 I agree with almost everything Carl Trueman has to say in this piece, which makes me all the more eager to briefly interject and explain why I think he's wrong to make the movie industry his whipping boy. Trueman's contempt for Hollywood celebrity culture is understandable and justifiable. But like many Christian commentators who turn…
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Samuel James on February 28, 2018 Yesterday I shook John Piper's hand for the first time. It was a big moment for me. There are many things I could say here about what Piper's books and sermons and articles have meant for me over the past 10 years or so, but I'll try to summarize it like this: At 21 years…
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Samuel James on February 27, 2018 Philosophy may expand our ideas of creation, but it neither inspires a love to the moral character of the Creator, nor a well-grounded hope of eternal life. Philosophy at most can only place us upon the top of Pisgah—there, like Moses, we must die. It gives us no possession of the good land: it is…
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Samuel James on February 23, 2018 Social media doesn't usually shock me, but it got me this week. I was genuinely taken aback by the bile and viciousness I saw toward Billy Graham and his family from progressives, especially LGBT progressives. What I saw in dozens of tweets from accounts with shiny blue checkmarks was hatred of the simplest and most…
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Samuel James on February 21, 2018 Billy Graham passed this morning. I recommend Christianity Today's special coverage of their founder. There is arguably no more important evangelical in American history than Billy Graham. And yet, as my friend Justin Taylor remarked this morning, Graham's righteousness is the exact same righteousness of every other Christian. His robes are our robes, the robes…
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