To purchase the full DVD collection with a study guide, visit Hearts & Minds.
This summer, we partnered with Acton to offer complimentary episode rentals of For the Life of the World: Letters to Exiles. Today, we feature the final episode: The Church.
Largely summarizing the previous six episodes, The Church introduces two critical ideas. The first is that the church is the body tasked—among other things—to carry on the memory of God’s plan for the world by manifesting it in everyday life. For the church, memory is not strictly mental or intellectual. It is lived out. The church—gathered and scattered—infuses the world with a distinct sense of God’s presence through its manifold activities. As a body, the church is offered for the life of the world.
The second is that the church anticipates the heavenly kingdom. It is the sign of joy, the already-but-not-yet presence of God’s kingdom, the taste of the promised feast of heaven. Thus, as individuals, we can come to see how daily work, economic growth, character formation, education, technological innovation, and cultural institutions that point us upward and outward can all be worshipful participations in God’s divine plan to bring life to the world and glory to God.
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
