Pages Menu
Categories Menu

Posted by on Jul 21, 2017 in business, Culture, Economy, vocation, Work | 1 comment

Theology for Business (Keynote Address)

Theology for Business (Keynote Address)

This is the keynote address I gave for the recent event “For Whose Glory: Exploring Faithful Practice in Life, Leadership and Business.” Below I’ve included a brief outline of my talk. The video also includes all slides from my presentation. Like it? Visit my speaking page by clicking the menu above.  I. Introduction: What is the purpose of business? The answer from business culture The answer from church culture The answer from conferences like this Thesis: Christian theology is just as important for your business life as finance, operations or sales, customers or employees. II. First, the doctrine of CREATION and FALL calls us to THINK THEOLOGICALLY about the purpose of business. The purpose of business is to provide for the needs of world by serving customers and creating meaningful work, while giving glory to God. It provides The goods and services we depend on every day Meaningful work The wealth we need to afford those goods and services Business is an extension of God’s own work of creation The Fall...

Read More

Posted by on Jan 10, 2017 in health care, Science, Work | 0 comments

An Ancient Christian Vision for Modern Medicine

An Ancient Christian Vision for Modern Medicine

  Meet the Denver doctor on a hilarious, heartfelt search for the healing ingredient in health care. “Do you remember our handshake? The Nussbaum handshake? First you slap, then you shake, then you slide! It’s the Nussbaum sandshake, the Nussnutt landrake, the Fussbutt bandlake, the Cussbutt taketake!” Martha, a retired nurse battling depression, found herself once again on the psych unit under the care of Dr. Abraham Nussbaum, a psychiatrist at Denver Health and author of a new memoir, The Finest Traditions of My Calling: One Physician’s Search for the Renewal of Medicine. After years of hospitalizations, Martha formalized her affection for Dr. Nussbaum with “the dreamshake.” Slide and shake, pinky swear, fist bump, explosion. But why the dreamshake? What did Martha dream about her doctor? Was he a scientist, friend, lover, pill-provider, teacher, technician—or savior? In a mammoth industry—in 2014, $3 trillion, or $9,523 per American, was spent on health care—competing visions for reform abound. Nussbaum, a 41-year-old Catholic physician, ushers readers through a wild, weird, head scratching,...

Read More

Posted by on Aug 16, 2016 in Faith and Work Movement, Theology | 0 comments

A Better Starting Point for the Faith and Work Movement, Part 2

A Better Starting Point for the Faith and Work Movement, Part 2

  In my last post, I mulled over all the times I buzzed around the topic of faith and work with pastors, only to bump into the screen door of misunderstanding time and time again. Sometimes I felt like a fly; other times like a mime trying to get my message across with frantic hand gestures. Either way, I’ve concluded that the best place to start conversations around faith and work with pastors is this: Jesus’ death and resurrection begins the redemption of all of creation. This doesn’t seem all that controversial, but I do think it is unique. Many of the theological voices I respect the most in the faith and work movement start with either Genesis 1-2 or Revelation 21-22. The idea is to regain both a knowledge of God as a Creator (and our identity as sub-creators and workers) or the fact that aspects of human culture (and work) will be in the renewed heavens and earth.  What’s central, they say, is to recover the “book...

Read More

Posted by on Aug 6, 2012 in Theology | 0 comments

Book Review of Forsaken: The Trinity and the Cross, and Why It Matters

I recently published a short book review in Christianity Today of Thomas McCall’s Forsaken: The Trinity and the Cross, and Why It Matters (IVP Academic). Jesus’ lonely cry on the cross—”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”—has bewildered Christians for centuries. Does this mean the Trinity was broken at Calvary? Or worse, did God kill his own Son? Tackling tough topics ranging from determinism to divine wrath, Thomas McCall denounces contemporary theologies that pit God against God in favor of solidly biblical and Trinitarian views of the Atonement. As a collection of systematic theology essays, the book doesn’t dazzle, but its brevity, clarity, and balanced perspective make Forsaken worth...

Read More