John Mark Ministries

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‘Let no one who is not eager for truth and peace enter here’ (Plato)

Articles on this site express varying points of view, to encourage mature thinking on serious issues. The assumption is that you will want to study a controversial topic from various angles before you arrive at a conclusion, rather than simply believe what someone told you when you were impressionable! (So some stuff here is ‘hot’. Proceed at your own risk!). See the Statement of Faith for John Mark Ministries' theological stance.

Movie Review – The Iron Lady

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ January 3, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

by Nils von Kalm http://soulthoughts.com There is a sense of irony in the fact that this movie, told from the point of view of an ageing, frail, and dementia-suffering former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher, is called The Iron Lady. Her frailty proves again that life catches up with everyone in the end. [...]

25 BOOKS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD READ

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ December 28, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

25 BOOKS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD READ (Renovare, 2011) ‘Pray constantly’ (1 Thess. 5:17). The devout Russian peasant-author of The Way of a Pilgrim added: ‘These words made a deep impression on me, and I started thinking of how it could be possible to pray without ceasing when the practical necessities of life demand so much attention’. But a [...]

100 BEST NOVELS OF THE 20TH CENTURY

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ December 16, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

ULYSSESby James Joyce THE GREAT GATSBYby F. Scott Fitzgerald A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MANby James Joyce LOLITAby Vladimir Nabokov BRAVE NEW WORLDby Aldous Huxley THE SOUND AND THE FURYby William Faulkner CATCH-22by Joseph Heller DARKNESS AT NOONby Arthur Koestler SONS AND LOVERSby D.H. Lawrence THE GRAPES OF WRATHby John Steinbeck UNDER [...]

Adele Gonzales, Life is Hard but God is Good (Orbis, 2011)

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ September 30, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Here’s a brilliant, ‘progressive Catholic’ attempt to ‘present the best theodicy possible.’ Adele Gonzales knows about suffering – via losing her beloved father unexpectedly when she was 14; soon afterwards she was shipped to Florida from Cuba without any English language skills; and she’s suffered emotionally, spiritually, physically (rheumatoid arthritis) – and ecclesiastically in a [...]

A dark night of the soul

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ September 26, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Author: Charles Fivaz The long, lonely hill-climb led Adam away from the land of Aaron’s Dream. More a nightmare than a dream, he thought, as he recalled the long and bitter struggle through one of the bleakest times of his life. The sky matched his mood as a pall of dark grey cloud pressed down [...]

Review: The Faith of Leap: Embracing a Theology of Risk, Adventure & Courage, Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch, Baker, 2011

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ September 24, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

‘You tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try’ (Homer Simpson) The Devil in The Brothers Karamazov: ‘Everything would be transformed into a religious service: it would be holy, but a little dull’ Title of Philip Yancey best-seller: Church: Why Bother? ‘Most men die at 27; we just bury them at 72’ [...]

Good Books for Pastors

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ September 2, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Compiled September 2008 The following is designed as an aid to help recommend some thoughtful books for pastors. We admit it has gaps. In fact we are sure that it will have glaring omissions largely because we have intentionally tried to keep the number of books diverse yet in a manageable quantity (actually we initially [...]

THE RETURN OF METAPHYSICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ January 29, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

John Milbank is delivering the prestigious 2011 Stanton Lectures at Cambridge University on the theme, “Philosophy: A Theological Critique.” This opening lecture was delivered on 19 January 2011. This series of lectures will not be concerned with either the philosophy of religion or philosophical theology. Instead, they will be about the relationship between philosophy and theology. [...]

Silent Savior: Daring to Believe He’s Still There

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ January 14, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Silent Savior: Daring to Believe He’s Still There, by A. J. Gregory (Revell, 2009) So how do people cope with emotional pain, disaster, loneliness, depression (not to mention, in Gregory’s case, also bulimia, problems with alcohol and males – and, she also mentions, several rejections of this manuscript by publishers!)? (By the way we don’t [...]

Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda (1988): Pathogenic Religion

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ January 6, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

1. First, a good summary of the story: Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher’s kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda Leplastrier is a frizzy-haired heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. In the early parts of this lushly written book, author Peter Carey renders [...]