P&R recently published my new book, Reforming Journalism. It’s available in English and in Chinese, with the goal of helping Christian reporters and news consumers in the United States and in China to think Christianly about journalism. Last month, we ran an excerpt from Chapter 3. Here’s an excerpt from Chapter 4, “Navigating the Rapids.”

The Nov. 9 issue of WORLD includes editor in chief Marvin Olasky’s Q&A with John Peckham, the author of Theodicy of Love and professor of theology and Christian philosophy at Andrews University, discussing God’s goodness and the problem of evil. Here are more edited excerpts from that conversation, including questions from Patrick Henry College students.

Sweden, despite what you’ve heard from some Democratic presidential candidates, is not a socialist land. As even Wikipedia tells us, “The vast majority of Swedish enterprises are privately owned and market-oriented.”

Sweden is a vast welfare state, with income taxes up to 57 percent and a value-added tax of 25 percent on most purchases. That’s still not the same as socialism, where governments own all but the smallest enterprises and return to workers the food, lodging, and medical care that will enable them to show up to work the next day, and at some point retire. 

John Peckham, professor of theology and Christian philosophy at Andrews University, is the author of Theodicy of Love. Here’s part of our discussion, edited for brevity and flow.

One year from now we face a presidential election that may hinge on economic developments. David G. Blanchflower’s Not Working: Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone? (Princeton, 2019) points out that a high stock market and low unemployment still leave many workers underemployed or giving up. Blanchflower is mostly right that “the young are not striking out on their own and there is a storm of fury building,” but his suggestions—more government spending, creating a “universal basic income” dole—would probably worsen our plight.

“Clayton Kershaw Will Never Get Over It.” That’s what Deadspin headlined an article this morning by its deputy editor, Barry Petchesky. Kershaw, often called this decade’s greatest major league pitcher, enjoyed a two-run lead as he began the eighth inning of the winner-take-all game between his Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Nationals. Then: two pitches, two home runs. Soon, the Dodgers lost.

In This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom (Pantheon, 2019), Martin Hägglund understandably writes, “The thought of my own death, and the death of everything I love, is utterly painful. I do not want to die, since I want to sustain my life and the life of what I love.” But he then writes, “At the same time, I do not want my life to be eternal. An eternal life is not only unattainable but also undesirable, since it would eliminate the care and passion that animate my life.”