Carolyn Arends

Why we can't get the New Testament without the Old. You can't master a dialect without also learning the culture in which it is embedded. If we want to be conversant in the language of the gospel, we need to be able to say at least this: At Calvary, Jesus felt the deepest level of anguish ever known, and yet he could still, in his Psalm 22 declaration, point to the presence, faithfulness, and anticipated deliverance of his Father--the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the God of our salvation… (mere)

Theology in Aisle Seven: The uncommon grace of everyday spirituality
by Carolyn Arends

“Words are sacred, and when they are used truthfully or beautifully — best of all — incarnationally, they cause us to consider and even experience our Creator,” writes Carolyn Arends in the Foreword to her book Theology in Aisle Seven: The Uncommon Grace of Everyday Spirituality. In this collection of essays previously published as columns in Christianity Today Arends attempts and, I would add, succeeds at doing just that....

The chapters are brief (800 words maximum), the stories captivating, but the ideas in this little book are huge. Summer would be a good time to download this slim volume onto your e-reader for those rainy afternoons at the cottage.

Then with eyes opened, don’t be surprised if you begin to recognize God in the ordinary things, like thunder storms, wasps at picnics, and misty lakeside mornings, that cross your path this summer.

Excerpt from a longer review on Blogcritics.… (mere)