• Steve Holmes’ little paper on ‘The Politics of Christmas’ is wonderful. (Our bible study group is planning to use it as a basis for discussion, and action, as we travel through Advent.)
• Tim Gombis shares some thoughts about what he’s learned about teaching.
• Ben Myers posts a delightful reflection about toes.
• One artist makes some great Banksy GIFs.
• David Hayward offers 10 indefinitive reasons for why leaving pastoral ministry is difficult.
• Some curry love.
• Barbara Fister thinks it’s time that libraries did something about the future of books. She also posts on judging journals.
• An interview with Rowan Williams on his debt to C. S. Lewis (HT: Paul Fromont).
• Speaking of RW, there’s also info on his forthcoming Gifford Lectures.
• Halden Doerge shares a sermon on Luke 18.1-6, ‘God’s Fiction: A Sermon of Vulnerability’
• Peter Leithart on Alexander Schmemann on the eucharist.
• Neville Callam, the General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, calls upon Baptists to revive the practice of the veneration of the saints:

Shouldn’t Baptist churches retrieve the practice of venerating the saints, that is, engaging in corporate worship acts designed not to worship the saints, but to remember, honor, learn from, and celebrate saints from our Baptist family and from other Christian communions? Until we regularly include commemoration of the saints in our worship celebrations, we will continue to neglect the opportunity to give proper value to those from our past who have borne courageous witness to faithful discipleship. Commemorative acts done in our Sunday morning services would provide a suitable accompaniment for the tradition some have already developed as part of their Vacation Bible School program, in which stories are told of great spiritual leaders worthy of emulation … [HT: Steven Harmon]

• Some good stuff here from Richard Bauckham, author of the tremendously helpful book The Theology of the Book of Revelation, speaking with Ben Witherington about the Book of Revelation:

[Image: from Old Picture of the Day]