Calvin Miller

We are God's messengers and the culture is in trouble! Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote: The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining shook from foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed . . . – from God's Grandeur Hear the counsel of God […]

There has been any number of candidates for "The Big Year." The years that come to mind are: 1000 Radulfus Glaber (German for Ralph the Baldheaded) said that when the calendar rolled over from 999 to 1000 Jesus was expected to come again. Many Christians fully believed that it would happen at the exact place […]

Two hitchhikers changed our church, Christmastime 1989. What they taught us was that we feel pity for the couple in Bethlehem long ago, but failed to offer the same sympathy to other common, yet "holy," families in our circle of ministry. I, for one, will long be grateful for the hitchhikers' lesson. Familiarity breeds a […]

Make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord Joyful noises are to waken those who've grown too Solemn in their solemn assemblies. So, get joyful! Turn loose of your up-tight propriety, your thumb-worn impiety, Your tiresome society. Release your hold on your self-image. Get emphatic, ecstatic even if it seems erratic, Rejoice! All Ye Lands No […]

I am indebted to Timothy George, my colleague (and boss) for much that I understand about the Reformation. I have listened to his lectures and read his books to my great profit. Dr. George reminds me that all of us are the legacy of some very brave men and women who surfaced in the sixteenth […]

It's September and back-to-school month. There is a general widespread agreement that public schools are not necessarily the best place to be if you want to improve your mind. Since 1925, the public schools have been relatively free to teach evolution. The problem is they don't seem to be teaching it or anything else very […]

On March 27, 2000, Jesus was once again the coverboy on Newsweek magazine - this time in response to the Pope's visit to Jerusalem. It was an odd, eclectic Newsweek, faced with reporting the news in a non-news week. But if life was dull that week, U.S.A. Christology was even more so. The Christ who once ruled the classic center of the faith is now pictured as the gelatinous Jesus of interfaith compromise. Cutting and pasting from Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism, the Newsweek Jesus didn't look so much like the Christ of the Gospels anymore. John Paul II declared, "Christ is absolutely original, and absolutely unique. If he were only a wise man like Socrates, if he were a prophet like Muhammad, if he were enlightenment like the Buddha, without doubt, he would not be what he is."

Freaks are souls in search of image. At conversion, Christ gives a mirror for a look at our new selves. Myron/Myra, the gender freak, was confused about who he/she was. All the others in the freak show were also confused about themselves. Iva Gillette, the bearded lady, admitted, from the very day she joined the […]

"I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your Grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also." 2 Timothy 1:5 There is an odd romantic chain in what is often called the circle of life. All that dwells in mothers has the remarkable potential […]

Perhaps it is that loathsome act of allurement and betrayal that has led us to have such a high disregard for snakes. Who could like them? I once wrote a children's poem celebrating the low esteem we all feel for them: Snakes have a bad reputation. It's what they deserve, after all! Some rattle their […]