John Stackhouse
3 min read
St. Mark—the Cowardly Lion
That is the uncontested ending of GMark: the earliest witnesses flatly failing for fear.
John Stackhouse
2 min read
Saint Joseph: An Extraordinary Ordinary Man
“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46). But here's what he did do.
John Stackhouse
3 min read
“And the Word Was Made Flesh…”
Today is the Feast of St. John the Evangelist. You will appreciate that I have some affinity with and affection for a Christian writer...
John Stackhouse
1 min read
On the Feast of Stephen
Today is the Feast of St. Stephen, one of the two sad days during the Twelve Days of Christmas. Unlike the other sad day, the Feast of...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Is Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” a Christmas Song?
How about Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” instead? You might wonder if these are trick questions…. Cohen’s song was made famous by both the...
John Stackhouse
2 min read
Cur Deus Homo?
Mark 14:22-25 isn’t a typical Advent passage, but it provides a few clues about the coming of the Lord: “While they were eating, Jesus...
John Stackhouse
4 min read
A Bestselling Thriller Author Gets Good Friday Wrong
In his popular recent novel, The Order, thriller writer Daniel Silva decides in the name of Judaism to launch a missile at Christianity....
John Stackhouse
3 min read
The Inescapable Weirdness of Easter
The world’s most popular religion, the world’s largest social movement, the world’s most believed Theory of Everything depends on...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Holy Week Prayers: What Do We Really Want?
Holy Week brings into focus a number of Big Questions. Among the most searching is this: What do we want? In particular, what do we want...
John Stackhouse
4 min read
In the Light of the Sri Lankan Suffering
[This was originally posted in April 2019] What’s the real story of the Sri Lankan bombings? Is it that Christians are being persecuted...
John Stackhouse
4 min read
Easter: Who Needs It?
The world’s great religions offer what millions of people want: a sensible, straightforward path to life. That’s why those religions are...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
The Charlie Brown Christmas Problem
Charles Schultz’s classic TV special “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was originally broadcast in 1965. And, a generation later, the problem...
John Stackhouse
4 min read
Troubled in Toronto?
Did the Middle Ages just appear on the streets of Toronto? Last week, Muslims around the world observed the day (“Yom”) of Ashura, the...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Come, Thou Not-Expected Jesus
That first Christmas night, the shepherds on that Judean hillside were properly terrified by the Identified Flying Object blazing above...
John Stackhouse
2 min read
What to Do about Martin Luther?
Reformation Day (October 31) is upon us. This 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing up the 95 theses on the castle church door in...
John Stackhouse
2 min read
Confederation: A Miracle Worth Celebrating
We Canadians don’t get worked up over Canada Day. The French are stirred whenever “La Marseillaise” is played. The Brits stand up anytime...
John Stackhouse
1 min read
Anti-Americanism: Insecurity? Paranoia? Racism?
As we near our 150th birthday as a country, Canadians find it easy to be a little bit smug. Our usual points of reference—Britain, the...
John Stackhouse
1 min read
The Royal Family and the Choice between Duty and Love
“And so Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret, faced with the choice between duty and love, bravely chooses duty.” Or so went one report...
John Stackhouse
3 min read
Some Tenebrae Musings
As the time for Tenebrae (Latin “darkness”) services has come again, one thinks of the shrinking circle of light in the Passion narrative...
John Stackhouse
2 min read
Theory Ain’t Belief–Thank God!
Philosopher Alvin Plantinga buries a little gem of insight in a footnote to his massive Warranted Christian Belief (Oxford, 2000) that...