James Bratt

It’s a bit daunting to follow up Heidi De Jonge here every two weeks. Heidi plumbs her personal and pastoral experience in a deep yet direct way that—to judge from responses—many of you find her posts to be just the…

Rebecca Koerselman’s post earlier this week about the “Competing Narratives” of American history struck a nerve with me. For decades I’ve been giving presentations for community groups and church adult-education programs on the question: “Was America Founded as a Christian…

N. C. Wyeth, "Thanksgiving Banquet" Today being today, I’m posting a (slightly altered) piece previously published in the November 2005 issue of Perspectives magazine. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, and I’ve given considerable thought as to why that…

Quo Vadis promo still, 1951 I’m on the road again and so have to write this the day before the midterm elections even though it will be posted two days after. Probably best, then, not to prognosticate, and to save…

'Easter Morning,' BBC Wales I planned to follow up to my last post, on Neo-Calvinism, with a bit of polemics, but then I thought why not a prayer instead? I offered the following during the prayers of the people at…

Last Friday I had the honor of speaking at “Sharply into the Wind,” the program marking Cornelis van der Kooi’s emeritation at the Free University (VU) of Amsterdam.  I’ve written about Kees’s theological contributions before in this space, particularly about…

The Chairmen of the Word, and World: Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization, 1974 Please pardon my submitting a book review for today’s post. I happen to be abroad (oh the pain of retirement!) and so had to file this in…

Death has been in the air lately. There were the funerals of John McCain and Aretha Franklin, minutely analyzed in the national media. Here in West Michigan the passing of Amway co-founder Richard DeVos has been getting like treatment, for…

“Gassed,” John Singer Sargent (1919). Imperial War Museum, London   The End of August and the End of the World For most of us, the end of August spells the end of summer. A hundred years ago, it looked like…

Last week I was leafing through some back pages in the history of my own congregation, Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This being the centennial year of women in Michigan getting the right to vote, I…