John Stackhouse
2 min read
These Be Your Gods, O Vancouver
As I face a new week and seek to get properly oriented on a Monday morning, my reading in Acts arrests me. When Stephen is recounting to...
John Stackhouse
2 min read
Big Decisions and Our Biggest Concerns
A friend has asked recently about whether he and his wife ought to keep possession of a luxurious cottage they inherited in lake country....
John Stackhouse
1 min read
“Not a Needy Person among Them”
Acts 4:34: “There was not a needy person among them.” No one was crushed under medical bills he couldn’t pay. No one missed a job...
John Stackhouse
6 min read
Actually, It Isn’t Just about “Being”: It’s about “Doing,” Too
A Christian friend whom I know to be godly, serious, pious…and very successful in a highly competitive and demanding career…sent me the...
John Stackhouse
5 min read
Freedom of the Child vs. Freedom of the Adult
LIke, I expect, most of my contemporaries, I wrestle with the concept of freedom. I have resisted the claim of certain philosophers and...
John Stackhouse
4 min read
Accepting Praise
When our sons took piano lessons, they were taught to bow properly. Now that is a skill otherwise rather rare in contemporary Canadian...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Genuine Faith in the Real World
Thomas Merton, writing in New Seeds of Contemplation (1961), reminds us that “our faith is weak. Indeed, too often the weakest thing...
John Stackhouse
2 min read
Merton Channels Screwtape
Here’s a challenging passage from Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation that will bring many of us up short: The devil is not afraid...
John Stackhouse
4 min read
More Merton: On the Humility to Withdraw from Glory
I’m just back from being up front and vocal for almost a week. I flew down to Cupertino (= AppleLand), California, to serve alongside the...
John Stackhouse
2 min read
A Good, Daily Prayer from Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton has fans. Lots of them. I’m not one of them. His spirituality is neither to my taste nor lined up with my theology in many...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
C. S. Lewis and the Test of Coherence
In Miracles (the book that gets my vote as the best generally overlooked book by C. S. Lewis), Lewis makes a point about the plausibility...
John Stackhouse
1 min read
Christian Scholars and the Public University: A Promising Conference
Our friends over at Cardus are working with other fine institutions to present what looks to be an extraordinary conference this autumn....
John Stackhouse
3 min read
The Cultural Gap Widens
When I was a kid growing up in Ontario, our church used to teach us ways in which we could signal to unbelievers that we were Christians...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Learning about Prayer from Fairy Tales
Our youngest son, Devon, and I anticipate a trip soon to the Baltic that will start and end in Copenhagen. While we celebrate Søren...
John Stackhouse
2 min read
Bonhoeffer on “The View from Below”
With clear recognition that the following is, for me, in the “aspiration” column rather than the “accomplishment” column, I set out for...
John Stackhouse
1 min read
C. S. Lewis on Avoiding God
Blaise Pascal, of course, offers classic observations in his Pensées on how industriously we avoid God and ultimate issues such as virtue...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
In (Abashed) Praise of Diligence
Here are a few Proverbs, taken from a half-dozen similar ones: 12:27 The lazy do not roast their game, but the diligent obtain precious...
John Stackhouse
4 min read
Downward Mobility
I thank God I don’t have to thank “God-in-general,” or some alternative deity. Yes, the God of the Bible is called “God” because, in the...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Happy New Year!
It’s September 1 and the beginning of the real new year. December 31/January 1 is a good mid-year pause to party and/or ponder. But...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Find Someone Good? Go Deeper–Notwithstanding…
In a world of voices—what seems often to be a maelstrom, even a cacophony, of competing signals—how wonderful it is to find someone...