In his fascinating book The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb brings into view the “impact of the highly improbable.”[1]The title comes from the discovery of a previously-never-seen black swan, first identified in Australia in the early 1900s. His book explores the implications of “the role of extreme events in many domains of life.”[2] For Taleb, […]
In regular “religious” conversations, you may hear people make reference to Jesus. They’ll refer to Him; they’ll talk about how they believe in Him. In such moments it is always helpful to ask: “Which Jesus?” If you ask that question, you might get a puzzled look or a gentle rebuff (as if you were joking […]
You’ve probably heard the expression—particularly in the face of some desperate situation. “The doctor fought to keep the patient alive.” “The first responders fought to get to the people trapped in the rubble.” “The pilot fought to bring the damaged plane to a safe landing.” We use the idea of fighting not only to refer […]
I know that there are times when, in the midst of a conversation with a friend, I find it hard to track what he or she is saying. My friend isn’t “trying to say something;” he or she really is saying something. The problem is that I don’t always hear with the clarity necessary–so I […]
The book of Acts is a description; it is not a collection of mandates. In Acts, Luke describes what the experience of the earliest followers of Jesus was like; he tells us what happened. This means when we read Acts we can’t simply conclude that how things happened with them is how things must happen for […]
