Catalyst Publications
Publications by Category
Everyone is hoping for an end to our present COVID-19 crisis. It is one of the few hopes that is truly universal in our divisive era. But what do we mean? What does it mean to hope? What “end” are we hoping for?
When we start talking abo…
May/11/2020
In most of life we need encouragement. When classes in school become difficult, I need someone to say to us, “Keep at it. Your hard work will pay off. Don’t quit.” When relationships break down it is often helpful for a friend or loved one …
May/04/2020
It is possible to characterize what happened with these early humans as just the emergence of some new skills, and that is certainly true. But these were not just any skills. These were skills that created a new kind of agent, one in which …
Apr/22/2020
You don’t have to search the interwebs very long to find a lively discussion on what effects the discovery of extraterrestrial life would have on Christian theology. For this child of the ’80s, whose first memory of the theater involved E.T…
Apr/20/2020
Christian preachers dare to talk about God. Even on the presupposition of the mediation of revelation by holy scripture this venture would always be impossible without the third presupposition that God acknowledges it and will himself speak…
Apr/15/2020
I know a man who works at a large, warehouse-style, home-improvement store. He shared with me a story about how to help people find what they are looking for. It seems that there is a sign in the employee break room that says, “No Pointing.…
Apr/13/2020
One of the central claims of the Protestant Reformation is that salvation is by grace alone. Humans cannot earn nor do they merit salvation; it comes as a free gift of God. On this, all Protestant traditions agree, including the Anglican tr…
Apr/08/2020
We’re living in a world of division, and that division is defining. We put ourselves in groups and make alliances, and then we define ourselves by these groups. In fact, we tend to define ourselves against other groups. We’re not them. Wors…
Apr/06/2020
For anyone interested in theological readings of the Old Testament, one of the most exciting recent publications has been Robert Alter’s The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (3 vols.; Norton, 2018). Alter is a distinguished Jewis…
Apr/01/2020
All across the world today, people are dying, schools have been closed, and universities have transitioned to distance learning as students are sent to their homes due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The public are told to physically distance the…
Mar/30/2020
In the wake of COVID-19, church leaders are conducting worship online. It is tempting to merely stream sermons or create podcasts of sermons. Yet congregants are overloaded with information and deprived of meaningful connection. Congregants…
Mar/23/2020
In her Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), Harriet Jacobs, writing under the pseudonym Linda Brent, relates her birth into and escape from nineteenth-century American slavery. Born in Edenton, North Carolina, in 1813, she finds he…
Mar/16/2020
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A Foundation for Theological Education (AFTE) John Wesley Fellowships have been awarded to three doctoral stud…
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Announcing that 2026 John Wesley Fellowship Scholarship Applications are now being accepted. Please see the at…
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JWF and Friends of AFTE, we look forward to you joining us Thursday-Sunday, January 15-18, 2026, for the AFTE …
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Twenty John Wesley Fellows, spouses, and friends were able to experience a trip of a lifetime. The travel itin…
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