The Body: Why your soul is not enough
You always hear about ‘new year, new you.’ But have you stopped to think about the theological reason health and fitness matters?
2017
Hold the Chicken, Hit the Gym
HISTORY HIGHLIGHT
How to make good on that New Year’s resolution
This time of year, it seems like Everyone wants to be fitter, stronger, or faster.
Sing We Now of Christmas
Southern Seminary and Boyce faculty share their favorite Christmas melodies.
Morgan Wild: From the jungles of Indonesia to the halls of Boyce College
Morgan Wild grew up on the mission field of Indonesia with his life on camera.
Lottie Moon and Chinese Superstitions
Keeping in theme with stranger things in missions, this month’s History Highlight explores Lottie Moon’s ministry in China.
Luther, Erasmus, and the textual legacy of the Reformation
Luther disagreed with the theology of Desiderius Erasmus, yet he and the entire Reformation benefitted enormously from his translation work.
From Pulaski County to Podolsk, Russia
Melissa Tucker feels most at home within the classroom
Luther’s timely discovery of a merciful God
Church history professor Michael A.G. Haykin takes you to a critical moment for Christianity. For a German monk, it was decades of spiritual struggle in the making.
Hidden Idols: Unseating the idol of pride
Pride robs God of his glory because it delights in self-glory. That’s why seminary is so dangerous.
Hidden Idols: Unseating the idol of porn
Surrendering in simple faith: Nate Larkin’s story
Hidden Idols: Unseating the idol of performance
One of the major sins that I consistently encounter is what I would call a “performance identity” in academic pursuits.
SBTS community remembers Draper at memorial service
Southern Story
What we can learn about Martin Luther from his hymn writing
history highlight
95 ways to reform your fall
Whether you’re new to Louisville or a veteran of blue books and Moodle deadlines, mark your fall semester with a different sort of 95 theses.
DNA of a Christian work ethic
Christians ought to be marked by diligence, integrity, and eternity in their work.
The personal stewardship of James P. Boyce
The financial struggles and successes of the founder of Southern Seminary.
Blessing the bereaved: Jane Kratz turned her grief into ministry
After losing her husband to cystic fibrosis, Kratz committed herself to helping others deal with their own grief.
The contextualized church: The benefits of a multichurch model
Allison discusses his new book on multisite and multichurch models.
Feature review: MultiChurch
MultiChurch: Exploring the Future of Multisite by Gregg R. Allison and Brad House (Zondervan 2017, $17.99) Multisite churches — often like the ones you see on Sunday morning television —include multiple locations with individual worship teams, leadership, and frameworks for ministry, including somewhat of a “brand” for their church. While this model of church growth…
Book and Music Reviews: ‘Come Let Us Adore Him’; ‘The Greek New Testament’; ‘Immanuel’; ‘How to Think’
Come Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional by Paul David Tripp (Crossway 2017, $17.99) Review by Caleb T. Shaw I have been singing along to Andy Williams’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” for about a month now, and I submitted Christmas lists to both sides of my family long before Thanksgiving. It’s…
3 Questions with Mike Cosper
Mike Cosper Executive Director of Harbor Media How can the church create a more conducive environment for serious artists, musicians, and writers? The church should take its own aesthetics more seriously. Invest budget dollars into your music ministry and the aesthetics of the church. Celebrate those who serve. And guard the platform. By that I…
Theology Forum
For this month, Towers asked two theology faculty members to answer this question: Where are you on the cessationist-continuationist spectrum? What do you make of stories about incredible supernatural or demonic activity? Bruce A. Ware T. Rupert and Lucille Coleman Professor of Christian Theology My position is a bit of a compromise, or blending, of…
‘We’re going into battle’
Spiritual Warfare and Pastoral Ministry
Making the truth plain: Authors discuss new book about expository preaching
EDITOR’S NOTE: Below, Brian K. Payne, associate professor of Christian theology and expository preaching at Boyce College and pastor of First Baptist Church of Fisherville, Kentucky, Jim Orrick, professor of literature and culture at Boyce College, and Ryan Fullerton, lead pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, talk with Towers writer RuthAnne Irvin about…
Book and Music Reviews: ‘Surviving and Thriving in Seminary’; ‘Hope of Every Promise’; ‘The Economics of Neighborly Love’; ‘Theology, Church, and Ministry.’
Surviving and Thriving in Seminary by H. Daniel Zacharias and Benjamin K. Forrest (Lexham Press 2017) Review by Andrew J.W. Smith Seminary is hard. Whether you’re single or married, seminary is probably going to push you in ways you didn’t expect. Beyond simply learning time management or sharpening their research skills, prospective seminary students need an…
Feature review: Encountering God through Expository Preaching
Encountering God through Expository Preaching: Connecting God’s People to God’s Presence through God’s Word (B&H Publishing 2017, $19.99) Jim Scott Orrick, Brian K. Payne, and Ryan Fullerton He preacher’s task is not just a Sunday morning endeavor. Instead, it involves much preparation and investment — seven days a week. While this task is essential to…
3 Questions with Karen Swallow Prior
Karen Swallow Prior Professor of English at Liberty University How do you uphold a biblical view of gender roles while also promoting the importance of women faithfully serving in the public square? The distinctions in gender roles prescribed by both special revelation (Scripture) and natural revelation (biology) are pretty few relative to all that all…
Questions you’ve always wanted to ask about the Reformers
Luther did not set out to start a new movement what he saw was that the church needed to be reformed not only in its morals, but also in its doctrine.
3 Questions with Rod Dreher
Rod Dreher Author of The Benedict Option and senior editor at The American Conservative What is one argument you make in The Benedict Option that has been broadly misunderstood or misrepresented in media coverage? Oh, this one is as easy as it is frustrating: People thinking that I’m calling for Christians to head for the…
Feature review: Greek For Life
Greek For Life: Strategies for Learning, Retaining, and Reviving New Testament Greek (Baker Academic 2017, $19.99) by Robert L. Plummer and Benjamin L. Merkle In seminary culture, most students are intimidated at the task of mastering the biblical languages. It takes hours of memorizing vocabulary, paradigms, and the exceptions to the rules. However, for a Christian,…
Book Reviews: ‘Living Life Backward’; ‘Sing! How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family, and Church’; ‘Only a Holy God’; ‘Luther: A Spiritual Biography’
Living Life Backward by David Gibson (Crossway 2017, $17.99) Review by Sean Corser What do you get when you blend commentary of one of Scripture’s most complex books (Ecclesiastes) with practical and biblical applications for everyday living? Living Life Backward by David Gibson. Gibson begins each chapter with the passage of Ecclesiastes to be examined,…
Plummer invites you to retool your Greek
New Testament professor Robert L. Plummer has been helping Southern students learn Greek for 15 years. Now he spends much of his time helping them retain it.
Returning to the covenant
“I can teach people what I think the Bible is saying, but I’m more interested in them actually learning to read the text for themselves and coming to the right conclusions.”
Three Scripture passages to help you fight porn
Genesis 39:9 Joseph, being tempted by Potiphar’s wife: “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” Jones: What kept Joseph from sin? “How could I do such a wicked thing and…”? Contract an STI? Risk an unwanted pregnancy? Jeopardize my seminary status or my marriage or my church ministry? Disappoint my…
What if I’m struggling with pornography use?
Featuring Eric L. Johnson, Lawrence and Charlotte Hoover Professor of Pastoral Care at Southern Seminary AJWS: In your experience, what factors are involved in a young man’s ongoing pornography addiction? What drives him back to it time and time again — despite negative consequences (getting caught, spiritual lifelessness, relational separation, chronic guilt, etc.)? EJ: We…