They say every entrepreneur should have an “elevator pitch” – a cogent distillation of all the research and planning that has gone into the new business that can be given in less time than an elevator ride.  And I fear that if someone were to ask me, during daylight hours, for a similar distillation of Christianity, I would fail miserably.  I’m terrible at short answers, and it’s likely that – without realizing it – I’d be reviewing the history of the Ancient Near East, paraphrasing Plato, quoting Augustine, and suggesting books by N.T. Wright (I would, of course, stop the elevator so I had time to explain the nuances!).

But, as I am writing this at 1:12 AM, I can answer in a word:  love.  For, when all is said and done, I have found no other explanation for the world as I know it – in all its beauty, complexity, pain, and hope – than the vision of love that I believe stands at the center of the biblical story.

And I realize, even as I write this, that it sounds tremendously naïve.  Read just the table of contents of any history textbook, and there appears evidence galore that love is hardly the name of the game.  And this is true even if it is a book on religious history… Continue reading