Rick Mattson's Blog

Previous post: Part 5: From Here to Eternity I’ve included below a prayer of faith-dedication that I hope you’ll consider. It’s a big step. Only on the other side will you say, “I should have done this long ago.” And then you will be a pilgrim, a follower of Jesus. One time, he uttered to […]

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Previous post, Part 4: Head, Heart, and Suffering The decades since my conversion have brought mostly blessings to my life, as I married Sharon Doeden, who contrasts sharply with her head-in-the-clouds husband by keeping both feet planted on terra firma. She grew up a farm girl near Worthington, MN, and I was a “townie” an […]

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Previous post, Part 3: History and Faith Back to my college-age self, I felt a boost of confidence in the idea that faith could be supported intellectually and not merely with feelings or intuition, not that the latter are unimportant. I read James Sire’s The Universe Next Door, which compares all the major worldviews with […]

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Previous post, Part 2: Renewal In those early days, faith was, for me, based mostly on emotion. Even truths such as God’s forgiveness were lodged in my heart more than in my head. The slingshot experience I’d had, going from self-serving despair to a place of hope and joy, meant that my feelings had come […]

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Previous Post: Part 1 Had I not been in such a lowly state of mind, I might not have found God again. Sometimes, success and competence can stand in the way of faith. Faith tends to meet people in their sense of need and want. Deficiency can be open to faith. But its opposite, sufficiency, […]

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When I was a boy of seven or eight years old, my dad told me a story that I never forgot. He recounted the frightening day of April 2, 1957, when his wife, “Tudy” Mattson, delivered a nine-pound baby at a hospital in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, where Dad was stationed in the army. Tudy was […]

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When I was a boy of seven or eight years old, my dad told me a story that I never forgot. He recounted the frightening day of April 2, 1957, when his wife, “Tudy” Mattson, delivered a nine-pound baby at a hospital in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, where Dad was stationed in the army. Tudy was […]

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— Part 2 of this series is here Many people in the University start their thinking with something like this: 1. Truth is dependent on perspective. There’s no absolute truth, only the perspectives of everyone at the table. Or: 2. Truth is dependent on scientific verification. The only reliable truth is that which can be […]

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____ Recently, I felt the sting of public humiliation. I was criticized and mischaracterized in a public venue by another party. This felt very unfair. Rather than writing about that incident, I wish to ask the question, As Christians, how do we respond when we experience persecution, even the mild (relatively speaking) kind I faced […]

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The prevailing dismissal of Christianity in the university world includes the accusation that faith is “anti-science” in its rejection of evolution and its acceptance of miracles and Intelligent Design (I.D.). Yet, there are several ways to think about the relation of science and faith. Ian Barbour, science and religion professor at Carleton College from 1955-86, […]

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