Jason Lief, Author at Jason Lief

Maybe God Doesn’t Take Sides: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Reading the parables of Jesus with Jewish New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine (Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi) has been unsettling. During lent I've preached some of Jesus' parables, and listening to Levine unpack them causes me to cringe. I'm…

Jason LiefApril 18, 2019

Uncategorized

Palm Sunday and the Immigration Crisis

Satan presents Jesus with three temptations: bread, kingdoms, and miracles. Each of them corresponds to very real temptations facing the Christian community today: economics, politics, and religion. For Jacques Ellul, they all represent a manifestation of coercive power that divides and names. These expressions of…

Jason LiefApril 12, 2019

Science and Faith

Jesus Loves You and Evolution is True: A Conversation

One of the reasons young people are checking out of institutionalized forms of Christianity is the perception that faith and science are in conflict. Some in the Christian community wonder if a person can hold to the theory of evolution and still be a bible…

Jason LiefApril 8, 2019

Politics

Let Them In! Changing the Immigration Conversation

Prior to 1965, there were no limits on immigration from Western countries. There were plenty of quotas placed on other groups, primarily for racist reasons, but not for neighbors to the South or North. In 1965 that changed. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act…

Jason LiefApril 2, 2019

Theology

Loving Money and Serving Mammon

"No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon.” Luke 16:13 In my part of the world there are self…

Jason LiefMarch 27, 2019

Politics

Ornamental Cross: Racism and Cheap Grace

Those who think the gospel is being co-opted by a leftist ideology like to throw around the term "social gospel". Bringing the gospel into conversation with social problems like racism or poverty, in their mind, misrepresents the gospel. Jesus came to die for our personal…

Jason LiefMarch 15, 2019

Politics

Immigration and Racism in the Heart of Trump Country

I live in the reddest county in the state of Iowa. When they show one of those blue and red maps on TV, there isn't a red that's red enough to represent where I live. To be fair, this is only Trump country by default.…

Jason LiefMarch 13, 2019

Science and Faith Theology

Believing the Bible: Kuyper and Bavinck

A Reformed approach to the bible has never focused on a hyper-literal reading of the text. For John Calvin, the truth of scripture comes through God's accommodation to our human condition. This is the beauty of a Reformed hermeneutic that takes the human aspects of…

Jason LiefMarch 9, 2019

Biblical Studies Science and Faith

Believing the Bible: Genesis Before Darwin

Those who suggest that we just need to get back to believing the bible make the assumption that before Darwin, and before liberal theology, everyone read the bible the same way. As the past few posts have tried to show, taking the bible literally didn't…

Jason LiefMarch 5, 2019

Science and Faith Theology

Believing the Bible: Augustine

Not many figures in the history of Christianity cast a shadow like Augustine, for good or bad. Some love him for his view of love, desire, and sin, and others dislike him for the same thing. He's one of the few theologians both Catholics and…

Jason LiefMarch 4, 2019

Jason Lief

Jesus Loves You and Evolution is True: A Conversation

Believing the Bible: Kuyper and Bavinck

Believing the Bible: Genesis Before Darwin

Believing the Bible: Augustine

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