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Bio

I'm always struck by the stereotypes of Christians to which non-Christians cling. I know there are far too many Christians who, though saved by grace, are "grim, humorless, self-important, easily offended Bible thumpers," in the words of a Chicago newspaper columnist. But to me the Christian faith has always been tied to the life of the mind. I grew up in West Michigan amid Dutch Calvinists, a tribe of people who can be stoic and cerebral almost to a fault. At Grand Rapids Christian High School and Calvin College, I learned to love learning and to see Christianity and intellectual inquiry as symbiotic, if not synonymous. And so I live and write with broad curiosity about God's creation, a fascination with reality that fuels my journalism and my doctoral ambitions. I am currently most interested in language and linguistics, but I have at least a passing interest in politics, history, theology, philosophy, literature, film, sports, and architecture.

My interest in the convergence of sports, culture, and communications led me to pursue sports broadcasting and writing in high school and college. In addition to part-time work at the ESPN Radio and NBC television affiliates in Grand Rapids, Michigan, I served as sports editor and op-ed columnist for my college newspaper, Chimes, and freelanced sports articles for The Grand Rapids Press. As a college junior, I interned at Sports Illustrated For Kids in New York City. When I interned as a general assignment reporter at the weekly Chicago Journal, I was hooked on the features beat and infatuated with the city of Chicago. After graduating from Calvin, I interned at the Chicago Tribune in the features department. Soon after that, I joined Books & Culture as a part-time editorial assistant, which allowed me to indulge my curiosity about culture and ideas. Since then, I have also begun contributing a weekly column on language to the Tribune. I have now begun work as Communications and Research Coordinator for the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and adjunct professor of English at Calvin College.

My view of this world is based on my view of the next one. I find it odd that we try to ignore heaven and eternity on a day-to-day basis. I try to live with heaven in mind. But unlike many Christians, I do not see heaven as a disembodied spiritual existence. Christ's cross is not merely a ticket to the clouds for individual souls. Instead, the Bible says Christ died to restore everything that was ruined when evil entered the world, including nature, people, and human culture. So heaven will be history's resolution--an earthly, bodily, and cultural eternal existence for those who are restored to God's fellowship. I dig into these ideas in my new book, but for now suffice it to say that in addition to bringing people to Christ's redemption, we should also live and work in nature and culture in a restorative way. Over-individualized religion reveres a God that is only interested in plucking lost souls. But a broader worldview reveals a bigger God: he created the world and everything in it. And everything, though stained by sin, still belongs to him. Every square inch.

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