Be the master of your money
Money is essential in our Western world. It allows us to purchase the necessities of life—food and shelter, for instance. It pays the bills for heating and cooling. There may even be enough for some luxuries.
Thinking as self-defence
No one has ever seen a thought, not even a neurosurgeon. However, today we know more about the way we think than what we were able to visualise, yet still less than we would like to know.
Until love do us part
We see it in movies, read it in modern children’s stories, and hear it in romantic songs: love is the most beautiful, most desirable, and most precious asset of humanity. Many argue that if there is anything that can save the world from itself, it is love. But how is it that love itself has led to profound systemic issues, by dissolving the...
Biblical kings and controversial archaeologists
Traces of the ancient kingdom of Israel occasionally emerge from the dust of the Holy Land. These discoveries are immediately and inevitably followed by fierce controversies among archaeologists. As amateur spectators, Christians are eyewitnesses to these debates and, in one way or another, their faith is shaped by them.
An unexpected return, the premise for missing the meeting with Christ
How important is the second coming of Jesus Christ in traditional Christianity?
Parents, children, and online exposure
A photograph of a father holding his sick little boy is simply an example of parental affection, right? But it can provoke a virulent reaction when it's posted on Facebook and the protagonists are naked under the refreshing spray of water in the shower.
Supernatural power
It’s revealing that in our increasingly secular culture, people still have a hunger for the magical—the transcendent. Consider the top-grossing movies of 2018, for example. According to the-numbers.com, six of the top 10 were superhero movies, flying, fighting, and blasting their way off the screen and through our wallets. Like the ancient gods of Greek mythology, these superheroes struggle with doubt, jealousy and...
The art of slowing down time
"When things happen too fast, nobody can be certain about anything, about anything at all, not even about himself" (Milan Kundera).
Holidays when you’re not feeling good
The December days that start with the number 2—that is, starting from the 20th—are like a train with batteries on a closed circuit. They pass, with the twinkle of LEDs, like carriages loaded with emotions about the past, about the future and about the present, with nostalgia and regret, with delight, and with fear and worry: a mixture that we enjoy with the...
Conspiracy theories, fake news and the truth that “sets us free”
Conspiracy theories and fake news are not the same thing, although the two categories have much in common.
The end of drugs?
In mid-April 2014, the words 'scandal', 'secret', 'drugs', and 'Roche' (the Swiss drug giant) delighted the medical press, which was quick to publish tantalizing news about the ineffectiveness of Tamiflu and the enormous amounts spent by governments in order to stock up on the drug, in preparation for possible flu epidemics.
The Good Place: great questions, medium answers
In the opening scene of The Good Place, celestial being Michael (Ted Danson) explains that most world religions and philosophies get their respective understandings of the afterlife only about five per cent right.
It wasn’t me! It was Eve, the snake or the genes!
The stakes are high when it comes to homosexuality, promiscuity, alcoholism, violence, and the like. Previously seen as a result of environmental influence and moral choice, they have now become a genetical given.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
The question in the title is a protest which expresses a fair amount of suspicion towards God. It is a barely concealed condemnation of God and His actions, the strange rebellion of a world that sees itself as morally superior to God. People forget Scripture's words in the book of Job: Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing (Job 36:18, RSV).
Incognito faith and the failures of political correctness
John the Baptist's call—"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near"—succeeded in bringing Jews "from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan" to the desert where the prophet preached, to confess their sins and be baptised. Two thousand years later, the exhortation to "repent" is buried under a mountain of pejorative associations.


























