Discipleship in the Present Tense: Reflections on Faith and Culture

To live at that intersection is to be caught up in the life of our incarnating God, who at the fullness of time intersected with history and now invites us, ever anew, to be his contemporaries.

Everything in this book is animated by the conviction that the tradition of Christian orthodoxy is a gift, not a liability—a resource for the future, not an embarrassment that we should be trying to sweep under the carpet or tuck away in a back room like a crazy uncle.

Christian scholars are called to help the body of Christ live faithfully at these intersections.

faith and doubt.

historic Christian tradition and the pressing challenges of the present;

faith and culture;

This is why the temporal question—“What time is it?”—is a necessarily prelude to the discipleship question—“What do we do now?” And the resources for answering that question are ancient.

faithfulness requires innovation and cultural agility. At the same time, we are called to be the one people of God, enduring over time, serving the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Faithfulness requires knowing the difference between authentic extensions versus assimilative adaptations.