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Essay

Spiritual Maturity: The Art of Not Giving a F@#k

I have to admit— I'm totally fine with putting 2016 out of its misery. Not only did we lose Prince and George Michael, I also changed jobs. Honestly, it was the hardest decision I've ever made. I don't regret it, but like any decision it has…
Jason Lief
January 6, 2017
Essay

Silence

I recently finished reading Shusaku Endo's Silence in preparation for the film adaptation by Martin Scorsese that will be released on Christmas day. It's a haunting story of Jesuit priests in Japan during the height of 17th century persecution. Two priests are on a mission to find…
Jason Lief
December 23, 2016
Essay

All In

For the past five years or so Perspectives has been living on the edge of non-existence. Every year at our board meeting someone would ask the question: Should we just be done? We’re not the only magazine to ask the question. The last few years…
Jason Lief
December 2, 2016
Biblical StudiesEssayTheology

Beware of the Extraordinary

"What does Jesus say about all that? He says 'Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them'. The call to be extraordinary is the great, inevitable danger of discipleship. Therefore, beware of this extraordinariness, of the way discipleship becomes…
Jason Lief
November 18, 2016
Essay

Secular Spirituality: Why the Cubs Matter

I'm often criticized for writing about popular culture. I guess it's not proper for an academic to explore the depths of Heavy Metal, The Big Lebowski, or Bob's Bar. I must have missed that day of Christian academic orientation, you know, the one on how to be…
Jason Lief
November 4, 2016
EssayScience and Faith

Taking Science to Youth Ministry

This past Wednesday my good friend Andy Root from Luther Seminary led a workshop for youth leaders on the topic of "Science and Youth Ministry". Seems like a strange topic I know—what does a Wednesday night youth group gathering have to do with Einstein's theory…
Jason Lief
October 21, 2016
Biblical StudiesEssayTheology

Going Medieval

Lately, my classes are all running together, intersecting at the point of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32 and Dionysius. Discussing the Golden calf is fitting in our current political climate—the way we all adhere to our political and cultural ideologies, taking God captive as we pontificate about…
Jason Lief
September 23, 2016
Essay

Urban Meyer and Augustine

Our holiness begins with our acceptance of restlessness, not as a good in itself, and not as a frustrated shifting and turning and wishing for something better, simply the steady acceptance of incompletion and the radical nature of our desire for God's endlessness.   Rowan…
Jason Lief
September 16, 2016