Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Links

  • Divining the Voice of God

    I spend a good deal of time talking in my book (When People Speak for God) about discerning God’s voice and also about the way that people use the phrase “God told me” and its like in a manipulative way.

    Today on the Spectrum blog, James Coffin has a post titled Divining the Voice in My Head, in which he suggests that some of the people in scripture might have been engaging in the same practice:

    Anyway, as I read the scriptures, I wonder if maybe the people in Bible times weren’t given to the use and misuse of the “God told me” expression just as we are now. Maybe even more so. “God told” people a lot of things back then, it seems. And judging just from the context and the ethics of the advice given, I think it possible that there may have been times when God gets the credit for something that came from other sources. …

    He continues by discussing the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar and their interactions.  It’s well worth reading.

  • On Inerrancy

    I respond to some discussion of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy on my Participatory Bible Study blog.

  • Biblical Inspiration Links – 1

    In How has Literal Interpretation Changed, Erik at Fundamentally Changed discusses the ways in which we must reinterpret literal interpretation. I don’t generally like the very idea that interpretation should be literal, but Erik makes some excellent suggestions.

    One of the questions I ask in When People Speak for God is just how Abraham knew it was God speaking when he was told to leave Ur.  But an even better example, is Genesis 22.  James McGrath discusses this in his post In Abraham’s Shoes Without a Bible.  McGrath also brings us an excellent quote on the nature of scripture.  In addition he suggests that the Bible is not even a book.  (You’ll have to read the post to find out what that means.

    One of my key arguments is that almost all of our discussions of the Bible relate ultimately more to authority than to any of the underlying issues such as reliability or inerrancy.  Scot McKnight has two posts thus far on authority, Bible Authority Revisited 1 and 2.

    Peter Enns announces an interesting event.  It’s tomorrow and Saturday, but if you live around Rye, NY, it would be worth going.

    Finally, three different views on inerrancy.  Jeremy Pierce thinks the doctrine of inerrancy is much broader than many people believe.  He’s right, though sometimes I think the concept of inerrancy has be so broadened as to lack any meaning. James McGrath, on the other hand, thinks inerrancy may be somewhere around its last gasp.  As one who doesn’t like the doctrine of inerrancy, I think McGrath may be a bit optimistic.

    On the other hand, John Hobbins thinks that one can breathe new life into the doctrine, and in fact compares creating a doctrine of scripture without it to creating a doctrine of salvation without the concept of grace.

    Yep!  I’m guessing this debate will still be quite heated for some time to come!

  • Mistakes, Love, and Parenting

    … or any other human relationship, for that matter.

    I got back yesterday from displaying books at Methodist annual conference for Alabama/Northwest Florida. We had the joy of having our daughter Janet join us there to help out, and we got to chat a bit. We were talking about raising children–she has two–and I mentioned how I used to regard myself as completely ignorant of child raising when I was a bachelor, unlike some singles I know, who are pretty certain their children wouldn’t behave “that way!” I noted that when I married Jody, and acquired a ready-made family, I discovered that “completely ignorant” was not an adequate description of the depth of my ignorance!

    One observation survived the passage from bachelor to married with children–I had always observed that the particular child-raising theories expressed by the parents seemed not to be reflected in the children. There were disciplinarians with behavioral disasters and seemingly permissive parents with well-behaved, polite children. The one thing I always noticed was that the children of involved parents seemed to do well, while the children of distant or absent parents tended to do, well, not-so-well.

    Today I found this wonderful article on Inside Higher Ed. Rosemarie Emanuele, Mama PhD, talks very personally about the mistakes one makes, and the love that is still there–and works.

    I loved it! I hope you will too.

  • New Blog – Caraleisa

    A long time friend of mine has just started a blog, Caraleisa, with her first post, Giving Thanks, this year . . .. I have hopes she’ll get more controversial, as I know very well she can.

    Welcome to the blogosphere!

  • Word Order and Thinking Order

    There’s a new study out dealing with word order that’s fairly interesting. I’m just going to link to a post on this, other than to note that there are a number of serious questions in interpretation. The post is at Not Exactly Rocket Science, which I will add to my blogroll.

    Here’s the conclusion:

    Goldin-Meadow’s fascinating work challenges the idea that the language we speak affects they way we think and see the world, even when our lips are sealed. This idea – the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis – has been supported by some studies and decried by others, but this new research suggests that at the very least, order that words are represented in the brain remains resolute in the face of linguistic influences. If anything, the influence goes the other way, with the fundamental word order shaping the properties of emerging languages.

    I actually agree that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is flawed, but I think this study on its own would leave considerable questions, while nonetheless being quite suggestive. After more thinking and hopefully some more reading I may write some more on this.

  • The Loom Moves

    Carl Zimmer is a great science writer, and he will now be a columnist for Discover Magazine. Accordingly, his blog, The Loom, has moved there.

  • Christian Carnival #CCXVII Posted

    . . . at Diary of 1.

  • Holy Week Devotions

    I’m sticking largely with the Good Friday lectionary this week for the devotionals I’m writing for my wife’s list. The first two are Watching and Waiting and Restoring Broken Things. They will continue each week day.

  • Troy Britain Has a New Blog

    I’ve been acquainted with Troy since back in early Religion Forum days. He’s had a web presence for some time, but now he has finally created a blog, Playing Chess with Pigeons (don’t ask me). Welcome to the blogosphere, Troy!

    I suspect he’ll talk about antievolution stuff quite a bit, which will be good. He already has a good post on transitional fossils.

    HT: Dispatches, where Ed Brayton was also part of the RF crowd in the good old days.