Six Biblical Responses to Sri Lanka's Easter Bombings by Ajith Fernando
Whenever tragedy hits a nation, Christians need to ask how to think biblically in response to the situation. As Christianity is a body religion, it is best that groups of Christians meet and discuss a common response to the challenges. We cannot delay our response. There are both immediate responses and more long-term responses to heal the wounds of our people.
Notre Dame and Christian Faith in Europe by Thomas Sieberhagen
As a church planter in Western Europe, it’s hard not to feel like this all means something. Perhaps a cynic would comment on the death of Christendom in Western culture. I’m praying for something else. I’m hopeful that, perhaps, this event could mark the beginning of a renewal of Christianity in Europe. Suddenly, Europeans have been stunned into realizing how deeply they care for an old cathedral. God may use the shock—and subsequent wonder—caused by this tragedy to set many on a spiritual journey culminating in their salvation. To most Europeans, God is nonexistent—irrelevant, at best. The work of rekindling vibrant faith here will take a long view of the church. But that is exactly how Notre Dame was built.
Theology of the Future by N.T. Wright
Our task, then, is to understand in the clearest, most rigorous and profound ways we can—from the Bible and within Christian theology—what exactly the Christian faith teaches. For this, we need the best thinking from various disciplines, within a diverse community. The results of such study need to be interpreted in relation to all other aspects of life and disseminated appropriately into our often confusing world, which regularly throws up new questions while also circling back to the old ones.
An Interview with Cardinal Robert Sarah
We should not imagine a special program that could provide a remedy for the current multi-faceted crisis. We have simply to live our Faith, completely and radically. The Christian virtues are the Faith blossoming in all the human faculties. They mark the way for a happy life in harmony with God. We must create places where they can flourish. I call upon Christians to open oases of freedom in the midst the desert created by rampant profiteering. We must create places where the air is breathable, or simply where the Christian life is possible. Our communities must put God in the center. Amidst the avalanche of lies, we must be able to find places where truth is not only explained but experienced. In a word, we must live the Gospel: not merely thinking about it as a utopia, but living it in a concrete way. The Faith is like a fire, but it has to be burning in order to be transmitted to others. Watch over this sacred fire! Let it be your warmth in the heart of this winter of the West. “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom 8:31). In the disaster, confusion, and darkness of our world, we find “the light that shines in the darkness” (cf. Jn 1:5): He who said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jn 14:6).
