CRITIQUE - #1 2012
From the Editor (Denis Haack) Dialogue Poetry (Scott Schuleit) Discerning Life (Denis Haack) Can We, Will We Redeem the Vampire? (Denis Haack) Phlox: A Flower by Any Other Name (Denis Haack) Midnight...
View ArticleNOTES FROM TOAD HALL - Still Winter #1 2012
Dude!! You need to chill!” I don’t ordinarily talk like this, calling someone “Dude.” It’s pretentious for a woman my age. But it seemed appropriate at the time. I had to shout to get Denis’ attention...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #2 2012
From the Editor (Denis Haack) Dialogue (Denis Haack) With Godzilla in the City (Preston Jones) Book Review:The Book Thief (Denis Haack) Blasphemy and Free Speech (Paul Marshall) Movie Review: The...
View ArticleNOTES FROM TOAD HALL - Spring - #2 2012
When the fleeting nature of life unexpectedly confronts us, the questions raised can be depressing or even frightening. However, God knows we don't like being compared to flowers -...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #3 2012
From the Editor (Denis Haack) Readers Respond Resource: Wondering Whether Things Make Sense (Denis Haack) Reading the World: Bringing Home the Bacon (Steve Froehlich) Reading the Word: Doubt, Faith,...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #4 2012
From the Editor (Denis Haack) Readers Respond Resource: The Slow Motion Collapse of Traditional Faith (Greg Grooms) Poetry Paper and Canvas: Heroine Addiction (Timothy Padgett) Tuned In: Holding Steady...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #5 2012
From the Editor (Denis Haack) Readers Respond Reading the World: Evil as Depicted in Breaking Bad and Mad Men (Jake Meador) Paper and Canvas: Excerpts from The Exact Place (Margie Haack) Resources:...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #6 2012
From the Editor Readers Respond Poetry (Scott Schuleit) Resource: The Story of a Passionate God (Wesley Hill) Reading the Word: Nourishing Gratitude: Being Thankful Again (Denis Haack) Resource: A...
View ArticleNOTES FROM TOAD HALL - Summer into Fall #3 2012
When I was visiting my daughter, her son Mason, who was seven, quietly took her aside and said, “Mom, could I ask White-haired Grandma to go to the park with me to watch me ride my bike? She could sit...
View ArticleNOTES FROM TOAD HALL - Winter #4 2012
When I grew up and moved away I rarely saw them. But in December of every year I especially remember my grandparents. Each December I carefully add a small collection of bubble lights to the tree,...
View ArticleNOTES FROM TOAD HALL - Still Winter #1 2013
The first meal I prepared for the man I'd eventually marry and spend my life with, until one of us dies or Christ returns, wasn't worthy of today's bare-footed, deeply cleft Food Channel celebrities,...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #1 2013
From the Editor (Denis Haack) Readers Respond Resources: Ideologies and Idolatries: A Story Imperfectly Known (Denis Haack) Popular Culture in Christian Perspective (Denis Haack) The Sorrow and Hope of...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #2 2013
From the Editor Reader's Respond Pride Goeth Before a Fall (H. David Baer) Truth, Reality, and Facts (Drew Trotter) Trying to See More Clearly (Denis Haack) Unapologetic Feelings (Cal Boroughs)...
View ArticleNOTES FROM TOAD HALL - Spring #2 2012
I may be prone to love certain things too much – from the very important, like grandchildren, to everyday stuff, like Yirgacheffe coffee. I think about this and pray that what dominates my heart will...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #3 2013
From the Editor Readers Respond Faithfulness in a Consumerist Society (Denis Haack) Loneliness (Scott Schuleit) The Forbidden Bird (Scott Schuleit) Seeing a Stork (Wes Hill) Christian America? (Denis...
View ArticleNOTES FROM TOAD HALL - Summer #3 2013
Learning to say no even to good things so we can say yes to what God has called us to do is scary and requires clarification. It poses lots of questions. What ought we to be doing? How do we take care...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #4 2013
From the Editor Living Faithfully as Embodied Creatures (Denis Haack) A Place of Cold Suffering (Denis Haack) A Mentor Making Sense of Things (Denis Haack) Taking the Long View of Hospitality (Andi...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #5 2013
From the Editor Good Music in God's World (Denis Haack) Books from Square Halo (Denis Haack) Enlarging Imagination: The Art of Ned Bustard, An Interview (Denis Haack) A Discussion Worth Having: Review...
View ArticleNOTES FROM TOAD HALL - Winter #4 2013
This past summer we lost our mountain ash. For three years it has shown signs of sickness. The first year I was hopeful. It was just my imagination. It was a dry year. Leaves were withering and falling...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #6 2013
From the Editor Nudity in Art (Denis Haack) Poetry (Scott Schuleit) When Creation Cries Out (Denis Haack) Tuned In: Touching Time, Sensing Something More (Denis Haack) Darkened Room: Life of Pi (Greg...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #1 2014
From the Editor Distinctly Different, Distinctly Christian Visions (Denis Haack) Resisting Authority, Embracing Anarchy (Denis Haack) A Soundtrack for Our Time (Denis Haack) Music for When You're Lost...
View ArticleNOTES FROM TOAD HALL - Still Winter #1 2014
As we prepare for a move that we pray happens later this year, we are looking into closets, corners and other hidey-holes in the house. What to sell, pitch or move? Denis and I each have collections we...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #2 2014
From the Editor Discerning Life: Vital Questions About Your Life (Denis Haack) Is My God Your God? (Denis Haack) The Truth of Ugliness (Denis Haack) Reflections Worth Reflection (Denis Haack) Ravens...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #3 2014
From the Editor (Denis Haack) Cormac McCarthy and the Ironwork Elm (Steven Faulkner) Three Haiku (Scott Schuleit) Darkened Room: Failing the Test (R. Greg Grooms) Darkened Room: Questions for Noah...
View ArticleNOTES FROM TOAD HALL - Spring #2 2014
We live in a climate where the seasons are sharp. There is no mistaking them. Winter freezes everything including our senses; but they waken again with the shifting south wind, in slight rises in...
View ArticleLetters From the House Between - Summer Into Fall #1 2014
I was told by a friend that I would need to eat an enormous amount of crow after moaning about down-sizing to a thousand square feet, but back in March I had no idea we were going to have more...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #4 2014
From the Editor Discernment 101b: What's Obvious Might Not Be (Denis Haack) Poetry (Scott Schuleit) A Toolkit for Conversations (Denis Haack) Rapturous Visions (Denis Haack) Does Work Have Meaning in a...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #5 2014
From the Editor Three Haiku (Ellis Potter) Resource: F.F. Bruce: A Life by Tim Grass (Denis Haack) Resource: Review of Broken Hallelujahs by Christian Scharen (Denis Haack) Resource: Review of Over the...
View ArticleLetters From the House Between - Winter - #2 2014
Tonight the barred owls are calling. We hear them in the darkness beyond our deck. Some say they call, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for youuuu?” We saw a long-legged coyote pass through the back yard,...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #6 2014
From the Editor (Denis Haack) Dialogue Technology: What's Gained and What's Lost? (Denis Haack) Discernment 101c: Liking It or Getting It (Denis Haack) The Singular Vision of Wes Anderson (Naaman Wood)...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #1 2015
From the Editor Dialogue Poetry (Scott Schuleit) Darkened Room: Obvious Child (Greg Grooms) The Pilgrim's Recess (Denis Haack) Blaming God (Steve Froehlich)
View ArticleLetters From the House Between - Still Winter #2 2015
It seems like I fall a lot. This is disturbing. If you spend that kind of unexpected contact with the ground, simply looking down can make you anxious. Maybe you fall down, too, but you don’t mention...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #2 2015
Editor's Note Denial, Desire and the Proclamation of Scripture: Theological Reflections on 12 Years A Slave (Naaman Wood) Poetry (Scott Schuleit) A Conversation About Ferguson (Luke Bobo and Greg...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #3 2015
Editor's Note Dialogue Is Everything Political? (Denis Haack) When Loss and Love Linger (Denis Haack) The Life of Faith in an Evolving World: A Sketch (Preston Jones) The Power of Ideas (Denis Haack)...
View ArticleLetters From the House Between - Spring #2 2015
"No More" - the 2014 pro-football ad campaign against domestic violence declaring that men should not physically abuse their partners came to mind. Wasn’t that a ground-breaker. In this instance,...
View ArticleLetters From the House Between - Summer Into Fall #3 2015
You do not want to begin your day finding a note on the counter that reads, “Emergency in garage. Freezer door left open. Everything melted. Blood dripping on floor. Love, Anita” She had to leave for...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #5 2015
Editor's Note (Denis Haack) Dialogue Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats Why I'm a Bad Listener (Denis Haack) When Busy is Too Busy (Denis Haack) Thinking About God and the Really Real (Denis...
View ArticleLetters From the House Between - #4 2015
Drought – now there’s a word. Drought. Like California. Like now as I try to write. It’s been like trying to cough up fish bones from a dry throat. I’ve stared at the screen for hours. I’ve looked up...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #6 2015
Editor's Note Dialogue Out of Her Mind: An Excerpt from God in the Sink (Margie Haack) Poetry (Mariah Gordon) Virtues by an Atheist (Denis Haack) When National Self-Interest Begets Trouble (Denis...
View ArticleLETTERS FROM THE HOUSE BETWEEN - #1 2016 Still Winter
In 1873 a twenty-three-year-old French woman died of tuberculosis. It was a common disease back then and many died from this incurable pulmonary wasting disease. Thérèse was a devout Christian with an...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #1 2016
Editor's Note When Nigeria is Home (Denis Haack) Am I Addicted to Diversion? Are you? (Denis Haack) Henry Poole is Here (Mark Ryan) Lars and the Real Girl (Mark Ryan) Seducing Dr. Lewis (Mark Ryan)...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #2 2016
Editor's Note Seeing Beyond the Traces (Denis Haack) Serrano's Piss Christ Reconsidered (Edward Knippers) A Storybook Bible for Grownups (Denis Haack) Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Denis Haack)
View ArticleLETTERS FROM THE HOUSE BETWEEN - #2 2016
Last month Harper’s Magazine (April 2016) published a fascinating report about a Jay Miscovich, who found what he claimed were hundreds of emeralds from a Spanish shipwreck that went down in 1622. The...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #3 2016
Editor's Note (Denis Haack) Pilgrim's Stories: Evangelism is a Dirty Word (John Seel) How Committed is Too Committed? (Denis Haack) Beauty is Life: Review of Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura (Denis...
View ArticleLFHB - #2 2016
Last month Harper’s Magazine (April 2016) published a fascinating report about a Jay Miscovich, who found what he claimed were hundreds of emeralds from a Spanish shipwreck that went down in 1622. The...
View ArticleLETTERS FROM THE HOUSE BETWEEN - #3 2016
If it were up to me I’d be blasting judgment from my throne. I would wipe out – the Zika virus, the ex-president of FIFA and the Japanese beetles attacking my garden. This summer we wonder how bad can...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #4 2016
Editor's Note Finding Silence (Denis Haack) The Uncomfortable Path to Maturity (Denis Haack) The Gnostic Life (Denis Haack) When True Love Waits (Denis Haack) Movie Review: Another Year (Mark Ryan)...
View ArticleCRITIQUE - #5 2016
Editor's Note What do Students Need? (Preston Jones) Non-Christians Reflect on Calling (Kathleen Cahalan and Douglas Schuurman) Book Review: Alexander Hamilton (Ron Chernow) A Life-giving...
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