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Malu Pente

Functional Gnosticism

As Christians we believe the fact that we exist as embodied creatures is not inconsequential. The Judeo-Christian tradition has always upheld the sacredness of the physical world. Attentive thinkers from Paul to C.S. Lewis have argued that, contra the notion that our bodies are unfortunate barriers and irrelevant to our identities, matter matters to God. The Gnostic philosophy that offered an alternative reality unencumbered by the physical world where we can we find our true selves, was one that Christians took head on in the early church. Could one be both a Gnostic and a faithful Christian? No. Against Gnosticism, the church draws upon its rich resources from the creation narrative itself in which God makes Adam from the dust of the ground to the early creeds which confess that God “was incarnate and was made man,” as we (try to) answer the question, “What does it mean to be human?” Moreover, it is on the grounds that we think our bodies matter that Christian ethics calls for a strict stance on sexual practice, for example. But of course, the necessary presuppositions in place in… Read More »Functional Gnosticism

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4 Reasons to Go to Church and 2 Reasons Not to

Increasingly there are evangelical Christians who are growing irritated with their Christian practices. Women and men who have grown up their whole lives in evangelical culture begin to wonder if they’ve been misled their entire lives. They are tired of shallow, showy Christianity with empty platitudes and pious hypocrisy, and yet continue to dreadfully go to their Sunday services and small group Bible studies. With every Sunday, it’s one more negative experience.

What are frustrated evangelicals supposed to do about church?

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Why I Believe In God – Part 1

I think it’s valuable to have good reasons for believing that God exists, and some of those reasons include philosophical arguments. Though I don’t think it’s necessary for Christians to know all the philosophical arguments for God’s existence, I do think that it proves incredibly beneficial and assuring for the Christian person’s faith; and I think most Christians particularly in North America and Europe really don’t have an excuse for not knowing the arguments. That being said, I want to explain the arguments for belief in God which  compel me the most:

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