Heads Up

Few Bible books address modern concerns so strongly and directly or are so practical as Nehemiah. In today’s parlance one might title Nehemiah’s book, “Be a leader!” Learn how to: Gather information and form workable plans Get other people to do what you want them to do (and like doing it) Manage a difficult boss…

Another dissenter, Anne Hutchinson, posed an even greater threat to Massachusetts Puritanism. A midwife and member of Boston’s congregation, Hutchinson wanted to take orthodoxy farther than it was willing to go. Salvation was by faith, not works, all agreed. But orthodoxy declared that after salvation, good works gave evidence of that salvation. Hutchinson challenged that…

The first meeting house in Boston, built in 1632, had mud walls and a thatched roof, as did the Puritans’ first homes. Literacy in New England was high (though many could not write, writing and “doing sums” being a more advanced stage of education). For Puritans, who put so much stake on the Bible, reading…

American Puritanism has its beginning in sixteenth-century England. King Henry VIII (1509-1547) shook the Church in England loose from its Roman Catholic moorings. The two brief reigns that followed muddied the waters: during the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553) the nation veered sharply toward Protestantism; in the reign of Mary I, nicknamed “Bloody Mary” (1553-1558),…

On October 31st, 1517, when Martin Luther, a German monk, posted 95 theses for debate on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, an unimaginable reformation had been set into motion – a reformation – the consequences of which we still observe today. The theses were about matters of love and forgiveness, but the…

Bereavement is a very poignant human experience. However firm our Christian faith may be, the loss of a close relative or friend causes a profound emotional shock. To lose a loved one is to lose a part of oneself. It calls for radical and painful adjustments, which may take many months. When his 21 year…