Today I extracted a paragraph from David Alan Black’s blog (I have his blanket permission), just so I could comment on it. He notes: I often ask myself, How can I write anything about prayer? I’ve still got so much to learn about it! I am in sympathy with his comment. My wife and I…
Religion News Service provides us with some comments by the experts on the ethics of intervening in Syria (HT: UM-Insight). Now I am neither a theologian nor an ethicist, so I wouldn’t claim to be able to parse all the issues in deciding whether an intervention is just. In fact, I find many of the…
Allan Bevere has some excellent notes. As someone who has visited many churches, and experienced just about all of what he describes, I can just say “Amen!” Don’t smother. Don’t ignore. Be helpful!
At Huffington Post. Well, about 21 of these apply to me.
David Lincicum, “University Lecturer in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, and Caird Fellow in Theology at Mansfield College, Oxford” (About), has a new blog. Well, new to me. It’s been around for several months. It looks interesting. Today he posted on a possible allusion (my term) to Judges in Mark in his post Trees…
One of the key things I say in teaching Bible study is: “Aim it at yourself first.” Now that’s a hard one to follow, and it doesn’t mean one can never discover what a text means for someone else. Rather, it’s a focus. I need to look at what I need to change. You need…
Bruce Epperly challenges us to think more carefully about God and human suffering in his Adventurous Lectionary for the week. Takeaway: Adventurous theological reflection challenges images of God as unilateral punisher and bully. These images are unworthy of Jesus of Nazareth.
It was one of those great days in seminary, and I was in a small class studying prophets from the Hebrew text. The professor favored following the consonantal text as written. (For those unacquainted with the Massoretic text, there are occasions when something is specified “to be read” [Qere] that is not as it is…
On God Directed Deviations Miguel posts You’ve Been Duped! Ekklesia Does Not Mean “Called Out Ones.” He quite justifiably identifies the etymological fallacy. But in the comments, some folks are not so sure and don’t really see the issue. I can see why they don’t see it. As I’ve pointed out before, there’s a reason…
Dave Black posted some notes on the difference between being a cessationist and a continualist (his term). I agree with his comments. Most commonly when we talk about “cessationism” we are talking about the gifts of the Spirit. Do these gifts, particularly the more spectacular of them, continue to operate in the church today? (I…