Whatever else we might say about the contemporary church, we must say this: We are well resourced. When a new challenge presents itself, when a new teaching arises, when a new heresy appears, it does not take long before we have access to books that address, confront, and correct it. One of the recent challenges to the church is the challenge of social justice—a term that is particularly tricky since it has both negative and positive connotations, both acceptable and …

Do you remember the Emerging Church? Steeped in postmodernism and marked by more than a little progressivism, it rose to prominence in the early naughts and seemed as if it would present a formidable challenge to orthodox Christianity in the new millennium. Many viewed it as a severe threat to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But now, less than two decades on, I’d wager it has been a long time since you’ve heard the term or thought much about it. …

I grew up in the era of the Cold War. From my youngest days I was taught that the West was the bastion of democratic freedom and the Soviet Union the stronghold of oppressive totalitarianism. We knew who the enemy was, and we knew he was across the ocean, behind the Wall. On our fridge was a poster filled with names and faces of Russian Christians who had fallen afoul of that regime and been imprisoned. Each day we would …