Authors /

Gilbert Meilaender

Gilbert Meilaender teaches theology at Valparaiso University in Indiana.

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Thirst for life: Do we really want to live forever?

Desirable as living forever may sound, it invites us to forget another kind of desire that we creatures should not quench.
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Fitness fixation: Why health is not a civic virtue

"Those who are well have no need of a physician,” Jesus said. We now know, however, that they do have need of a wellness coach....
Books

Entering Narnia

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Nothing to boast of: A Reformation insight

After all the media attention to things (Roman) Catholic in recent weeks, this may be a useful moment to reflect on the continuing significance of the Reformation....
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Adoptees one and all: A letter to Derek

Dear Derek: I wrote last time that being adopted makes you different, and so, of course, in an obvious way it does....
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Being adopted: A letter to Derek

Dear Derek: I’ve written you four letters already, and it occurs to me that, although I’ve talked about how we adopted you, I haven’t said all that much about what being adopted actually means....
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Silence: A letter to Derek

Dear Derek: It’s awfully quiet around the house now that you’re gone. In fact, hardly a day goes by that Mom and I don’t remark on it....
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Moment-ousness: A letter to Derek

In my last letter I wrote about how decisions made in a moment—such as the moment when we decided to say yes to your coming into our home—can shape the whole of life, committing us in ways we perha...
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Living into commitments: A letter to Derek

Dear Derek: In my last letter I commented on how casually I said yes when Mom asked whether we should agree to have you come into our home as a foster child....
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Gifts and achievements: A letter to Derek

Dear Derek: I have not forgotten the day we learned that you would be coming to live with us. I was sitting in my office at Oberlin and Mom called....

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Interfaith ‘prayer’: What is it and should we do it?

A contemporary reader of the New Testament letter we call 1 Corinthians is likely to be a little puzzled by the amount of attention it gives to whether the Corinthian Christians could eat meat that...
Books

C.S. Lewis Then and Now, by Wesley Kort

Here's a strange book. Wesley Kort wants to retrieve the thought of C. S. Lewis and make it more readily available and usable in our cultural context. Retrieve from whom?...
Cover Story

After September 11: Thinking as Christians

In the terrible terrorist attacks of September 11, thousands of our fellow citizens were buried under the rubble. The rest of us have been buried under the rubble of words that followed....
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That demon love: Unchecked devotion

Affection is the most instinctive, in that sense the most animal, of the loves; its jealousy is proportionately fierce....
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Divine summons: Working in the horizon of God’s call

I have learned over the years that students, wearily carrying out a writing assignment, often have recourse to the dictionary....
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Love abides: The posture of faithfulness

"Love never ends,” St. Paul writes in the lesson we read from 1 Corinthians 13. Or, put more positively, “love abides.” What does that really mean—to say that “love abides”? Or, indeed, what possible sense could it make to say this in a world in which the truth so clearly seems to be that love quite often does not abide?

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