Religion & Liberty Online

The Laymen’s Lounge: Everyday Theology for Everyday Life

I was happy to be interviewed recently for The Laymen’s Lounge, a new site focused on providing everyday theology to encourage and edify Christians in everyday life.

My interview is titled, “Work and the Mundane,” and I get some plugs in for resources by figures including Lester DeKoster, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Many of these thinkers are influential in my own life and work, and are represented as well in my collection of essays, Get Your Hands Dirty.

I also got the chance to share one of my favorite quotations. It comes from Herman Bavinck, and opens with the observation: “All good, enduring reformation begins with ourselves and takes its starting point in one’s own heart and life.”

Click through to read the rest of the interview and see how the quote concludes. And check out some of the other material on the site too, including an interview with John Bolt, author of Economic Shalom, who talks about why “You Need to Know Herman Bavinck.”

Jordan J. Ballor

Jordan J. Ballor (Dr. theol., University of Zurich; Ph.D., Calvin Theological Seminary) is director of research at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy, an initiative of the First Liberty Institute. He has previously held research positions at the Acton Institute and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and has authored multiple books, including a forthcoming introduction to the public theology of Abraham Kuyper. Working with Lexham Press, he served as a general editor for the 12 volume Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology series, and his research can be found in publications including Journal of Markets & Morality, Journal of Religion, Scottish Journal of Theology, Reformation & Renaissance Review, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Faith & Economics, and Calvin Theological Journal. He is also associate director of the Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research at Calvin Theological Seminary and the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity & Politics at Calvin University.