You will find more infographics at Statista
Interesting! It used to be said that if the habit is established while they’re young, they won’t lose it later. I don’t know how true that might have been, but it doesn’t appear to work in this chart.
Author: henry
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Advent Series at Energion
I’m sure all my readers know I own Energion Publications, and function as the CEO, now that we have a separate editor.
This Advent I’m putting a quote from a different book each day of Advent. Here is a list with a couple of notes.
- As we begin the series, Deborah L. Roeger reminds us that “hope is not an afterthought for one who is devoted to Christ.
- First week, 2nd day, Jody Neufeld reminds us to spend time with the Lord who is our hope.
- First week, 3rd day, Edward W. H. Vick affirms our resurrection hope.
- First week, 4th day, Bruce G. Epperly calls us to hopeful adventure.
- First week, 5th day, Ron Higdon reminds us of hope for everyone.
- First week, 6th day, Allan Bevere reminds us of the continuity of hope through Scripture and through time.
- First week, 7th day, Richard Voelz tells us of hope that comes through loss.
- First week, Bonus, Alden Thompson calls our attention to hope in prayer as we see characters in the Bible pray from weakness.
- Second Week, 1st day, David Alan Black says all Christians should work for peace.
- Second week, 2nd day, Bruce Epperly asks us what it is that we put our hope in.
There are many more to come, but this will give you an idea. Many of these books are on sale as well, so check out those that interest you.
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Allan Bevere on the Problem of Evil
My latest interview on theodicy, or the problem of evil, is with Dr. Allan R. Bevere. Allan is a retired United Methodist pastor and has a PhD in New Testament from the University of Durham (UK). You can find detailed information on this interview series, along with links to previous interviews here.
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Questioning Omnipotence
Thus far I have interviewed three people regarding theodicy, or looked at from another direction, the problem of evil. You can follow the link for current interviews. Tomorrow, I will be interviewing Dr. Allan R. Bevere, retired United Methodist pastor for the fourth interview in the series. I have commitments for several more interviews.
One of the questions that I repeat in the interviews from multiple angles is that of omnipotence. Is God omnipotent? What does that mean?
Today I want to share a link to a brief essay from someone who does not believe God is omnipotent and does not believe the concept is scriptural, Dr. Thomas Jay Oord. He is suggesting the word “amipotent” instead. He is writing a(nother) book, but he offers this summary of the idea as it relates to scripture: Omnipotence Not in Scripture.
The most recent interviewee, Elgin L. Hushbeck, Jr. strongly affirmed omnipotence.
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Theodicy Interview with Bruce Epperly
The second in my series of interviews on theodicy is now available. Dr. Bruce Epperly discussed this with me for around an hour. You can see the video below. (The first interview can be found here.)
The purpose of this series is to showcase a variety of views on theodicy and even ways of expressing those views. I expect the next interview to be with Dr. Allan R. Bevere.
Speaking of Allan, he participated in a discussion on the problem of evil with Bruce some time ago. You might want to go back and listen to that as well.
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A Robust Theodicy?
As I conduct interviews on theodicy with various authors, I’d like to suggest this:
We need a theodicy (and in fact a full theology) that is as comfortable in Job as in Deuteronomy. This would be the expression of a faith that isn’t forgotten in good times or repudiated in bad.
Here again is the first video:
I will be interviewing Dr. Bruce Epperly and Dr. Allan R. Bevere on Thursday, November 10, 2022 and will be posting those interviews over the next couple of days. Further interviews will be announced here.
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Theodicy Interview Series
Yesterday I interviewed Dr. Robert LaRochelle as the first in a series of interviews on theodicy. You can find more information on this series on the page titled, shockingly, Theodicy Interview Series, which also includes the questions that will be asked of each interviewee for this series.
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Church Titles, Anyone?
I have frequently observed that if we were to understand the way authority works in the Kingdom of God, we would have less arguments about who gets what title. Maybe we’d drop as many titles as possible.
Dave Black comments on this, and quotes Markus Barth today. I think he has a point.
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Link: On the Participles of Hebrews 6:4-6
Via Dave Black, I found this post, which outlines the participles of this passage well. I have expressed my view on this passage previously, and it takes the participles into account and aligns with one of the positions suggested.
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Why Digitize Manuscripts
An extremely brief rundown from the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. I really appreciate the work of this group, though I rarely need to consult a manuscript directly, and then usually only to ooh and aah over some feature mentioned by an expert.
But all the tools I use benefit from making manuscripts more accessible. I recommend looking at a manuscript digitized in the type of resolution they’re talking about to understand the benefits for researchers. I wrote a paper for my class in NT textual criticism in college and had to acquire microfiche images for a number of manuscripts. Not fun to read!
PS: My company has just released a reprint of a work from the 1970s, The Byzantine Text & New Testament Textual Criticism. As I was reading this, I was thinking how much easier it would be to research the kind of information used with current digitized manuscripts.