Christianity Commons^™

Why Herman Bavinck?, Gayle E. Doornbos

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Rooted in Scripture and attentive to the Reformed tradition, Bavinck sought to 'view the wonderful works of God in their own light' in such a way that the 'internal beauty' and 'inherent truth and glory' may 'commend itself to the consciences of humanity' and 'thank God not that we must but that we may believe.'"

Posting about ­­­­­­­­Herman Bavinck and Christianity in modernity from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Why Herman …

The Gift Of Needing Others, Cailee Pastoor

Staff Work

"What if needing others is not just an unfortunate part of being helpless, but rather the Holy Spirit’s reminder that we belong to the Lord and are called to live in fellowship with His people?"

Posting about the importance of community and support from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

The Gift of Needing Others

Walking With Families Through End-Of-Life Care And Grief, Julie B. Van Otterloo

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Loved ones are not giving up; they are choosing to support the patient in living their best life, focusing on quality, dignity, and comfort rather than continuing treatments."

Posting about hospice care from In All Things, a blog which highlights the shared faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian perspective of our writers, exploring how to fearlessly engage with every aspect of modern life—until all is made new.

Walking with Families Through End-of-Life Care and Grief

Becoming People Who See: Walking Alongside Those Impacted By Trauma, Kara L. Nutt

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"In a world fixated on resilience and overcoming hardship, Christians are called to recognize and respond to the realities of trauma."

Posting about hearing and healing trauma­­­­­­­­ from In All Things, a blog which highlights the shared faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian perspective of our writers, exploring how to fearlessly engage with every aspect of modern life—until all is made new.

Becoming People Who See: Walking Alongside Those Impacted by Trauma

Safe But Never Alone: Growing Up In The Surveillance Era, Erin Olson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"But when does our desire to keep people safe begin to undermine their freedom to develop independence?"

Posting about ­­­­­­technology and parenting from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Safe but Never Alone: Growing Up in the Surveillance Era

Holding Space For The Mess: Trusting God's Sovereignty In Children's Stories, Jennifer J. Den Boer

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Allowing messiness and teaching kids to cope with the messiness by providing love, grace, structure, and discipline around the messiness can help children learn to grow and thrive, helping them become who the Lord has called them to be."

Posting about emotional regulation skills and supports for children in In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Holding Space for Mess: Trusting God's Sovereignty in Children's Stories

How Then Shall You Persevere?, Cailee Pastoor

Staff Work

"...perseverance is not formed by avoiding every hard thing. It is formed as God meets us in the hard times and teaches us to keep going."

Posting about joy persisting through chronic illness from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

How Then Shall We Persevere?

Longing For Home In The House Of God, Justin Bailey

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"God’s house is not yet what it is meant to be. It may seem ruined. Some have lost hope and have abandoned it. But we cannot abandon the church, because it is still the household of our God."

Posting about longing for home in In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

"Longing for Home in the House of God

The Groaning Of Creation: Lament And Hope, Jeff Ploegstra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"I don’t think it a stretch to image the creation crying “how long oh Lord…” The creation is waiting in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.  I imagine that revelation can’t help but include lament and repentance—a turning back to God-glorifying tending and keeping."

Posting about nature's lament for Christian stewardship from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

The Groaning of Creation: Lament and Hope

A Lament For Readers (Of Landscape), Howard Schaap

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Maybe what I lament is the lack of readers of the landscape, that as we drive through the countryside, we so often fail to get out of our cars to actually see “the beguiling nooks and crannies” of the world."

Posting about appreciating nature from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

A Lament for Readers (of Landscape)

9/11 And The Task Of History, Donald Roth

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"The ultimate task is actually more about our embodiment, about taking into ourselves a sense of the weight of history that lets us feel the lessons it has to teach us, rather than just recite them."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­remembering 9/11 from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

9/11 and the Task of History

Neither Disembodied Nor Triumphalist: The Voice Of Christian Hope, Gayle E. Doornbos

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Hope in the Psalms is a real, honest declaration, amid the awful realities of life, that we cannot manufacture or optimize our way out of our pain. Rather, in our pain we turn to the only one who can restore us and who has promised us a day when pain, death, and sorrow will be no more."

Posting about words for the suffering in In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Neither Disembodied nor …

On The Passing Of Wendell Berry, Gayle E. Doornbos, Jeff Ploegstra, Danielle Wyenberg, Howard Schaap

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Berry’s literary contributions are vast and multifaceted, but the central messages carry an invitation into a more intentional life, one that prioritizes people, land, communities, and the joy of good work."

Posting about Wendell Berry's passing and literary legacy ­­­­­­­­from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

On the Passing of Wendell Berry

Does Our Economy Cultivate Beauty?, Joshua Hollinger

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Wherever we’re failing to build and preserve beautiful places, the answer lies in fostering a society of people who have a taste for beauty and a loving desire to share it with others, and in finding mechanisms for cooperating and negotiating with each other amid our sin and finitude."

Posting about true beauty in an advertising-focused world ­­­­­­­­from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Does Our Economy Cultivate Beauty?

Theological Truths That Divide Us And Engaging In Disagreement Well, David M. Westfall

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

""Only when we locate our differences within the shared context of God’s will to unite all things in his Son can we “get with the program” and start to relate in love, allowing our objective identity in him to exert continual pressure on our relationship.""

Posting about ­­­­­­­­how pursuing unity is part of Christian transformation from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

A Case For Color: Reclaiming Beauty In Reformed Worship, Kyle J. Dieleman

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"For Reformed Christians, reclaiming color in our worship spaces and in our experiences with God reflects God’s own colorful revelation in the Bible and can awaken us to awe and wonder at the glorious works of our Creator God."

Posting about how color is God's design in In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

A Case for Color: Reclaiming Beauty in Reformed Worship

How Christians Get "Calling" Wrong, David J. Mulder

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"How can you faithfully follow Jesus, using what God has given you to joyfully work towards addressing... broken places?"

Posting about Christian vocation from In All Things, a blog which highlights the shared faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian perspective of our writers, exploring how to fearlessly engage with every aspect of modern life—until all is made new.

How Christians Get "Calling" Wrong

Four Ways Our Daily Conversations Shape Our Children's View Of The World, Abby M. Foreman

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Am I telling the everyday stories of life where God’s love and grace is abundant?"

Posting about modeling healthy communication styles to children from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Four Ways Our Daily Conversations Shape Our Chldren's View of the World

A Living Curiosity: Storytelling As An Invitation To Wonder, Jackson Visscher, David Wibowo

Student Work

"By pairing powerful footage with real-life testimonies, filmmakers can encourage reflection and deeper questions."

Posting about filmmaking that inspires wonder from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox  Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in  every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

A Living Curiosity

To Be Known: Stories And Belonging, Jennifer Vermeer

Staff Work

"Stories not only give our kids a fresh perspective to see the world and themselves, but they also open opportunities for our kids to ask questions they might not know how to ask otherwise."

Posting about learning about ourselves through the stories of others from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox  Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in  every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

To Be Known

Little Hallelujahs, Jennifer Vermeer

Staff Work

"What if we each spent a little more intentional time calling attention to the ways the world begs us to recognize [God's] glory?"

Posting about ­­­­­­­­celebrating the small joys in life from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Little Hallelujahs

Building Empathy Across Generations, Julie B. Van Otterloo

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"How do we help our students, children, neighbors, or coworkers navigate the complexities of growing up and living in the world today?"

Posting about growing in empathy from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Building Empathy Across Generations

Hearing The Mystery: Musical Diversity And The Search For Beauty, John Macinnis

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"By shifting from primary reflection to secondary reflection in our thinking, from problem to mystery, we ensure that our aesthetic lives remain as expansive and vibrant as the diversity of creation."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­music appreciation from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Hearing the Mystery

The Beauty Of Diversity: A Fuller Vision For The Reformed Tradition, Kyle J. Dieleman

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"A diversity of Christian traditions within the unity of the Christian faith, including within the Reformed tradition itself, can open us up to the depths of the Christian faith and lead us to love more deeply God and one another."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­respecting other theological practices and traditions from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

The Beauty of Diversity

Is Diversity Good?, Donald Roth

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Even where we get it wrong, God shapes Creation so that the riotous diversity of our world, whether in complimentary or contrasting tones, cannot fail to highlight His glory."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­using discernment in promoting diversity from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Is Diversity Good?

Diversity, Complexity, And Beauty, Jeff Ploegstra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"A pile of Lego pieces might be interesting, but it’s nothing compared to what those pieces can become when they’re arranged with intention."

Posting about what makes something beautiful from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Diversity, Complexity, and Beauty

Puddles Of Grace, Bruce Kuiper

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"... dignity, truth, and beauty do not originate from the platform. They originate from the source."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­ordinary yet profound moments in life from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Puddles of Grace

Brilliant Things: Directing The Heart Toward Hope, Laurel A. Koerner

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Together, we can cultivate an attitude of wonder, of beholding what is there, signaling the More. Renew our vision, Lord."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­noticing the good from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Brilliant Things

The Lost Art Of Play: Recovering Joy, Creativity, And Purpose In Sports, Darin Keizer

Staff Work

"The pursuit of excellence should not have to come at the cost of creativity, joy, or worship."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­a Christian perspective on sports from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

The Lost Art of Play

Faithful Listening In An Age Of Noise, Charles Veenstra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"True listening opens the door to understanding, builds relationships, fosters cooperation instead of conflict, and allows God’s love and reconciliation to work through us."

Posting about barriers to healthy communication from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Faithful Listening in an Age of Noise