Chaplain (Colonel–Retired) Ken Sampson, an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Reformed Church in America, served in the U.S. Army for nearly thirty years. He recently retired from a part-time position as Military Liaison with Guideposts.
Book Review: When Sorrow Comes—The Power of Sermons from Pearl Harbor to Black Lives Matter, by Melissa M. Matthes
“The power of the pulpit lies not in taking a specific position but in providing a vocabulary, ways of thinking, and challenges to the governmentality of the contemporary state,” (p. 336). [1] Immediately after the Pulse nightclub violence, Orlando, Florida, 12 June 2016, where 49 individuals were killed and 53 injured, I jotted notes […]
Review: The Violence of the Biblical God: Canonical Narrative and Christian Faith by L. Daniel Hawk
June/July 2021: Book Review Issue (Volume 21 Issue 4)
[1] In a “Letters” response to an appraisal of this book, author Daniel Hawk writes: “The review reveals that I missed the bar, and missed it considerably in some instances…I therefore find the critique painfully illuminating and appreciate [Shai Held’s] pressing it with all due force” (Christian Century, September 11, 2019, p. 6). The reviewer’s […]
Review: Moral Warriors, Moral Wounds: The Ministry of the Christian Ethic Eugene (Cascade Books, 2016)
November 2016: Puerto Rico (Volume 16 Issue 9)
[1] For Armed Forces members, “…caught in some of life’s worst heart-rending situations…the practice of the Christian ethic does not operate with the certitude of moral perfection but rather with the assurance of God with us with grace for the way” write the authors of this thoughtful, compact, far-reaching new book (pages 9, 130). Wollom […]