Featured Posts
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What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
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Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
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Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
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Good Decisions on Education in California
Christianity Today reports on two decisions regarding education in California. In one case, the courts upheld the University of California’s decision to reject certain courses when considering eligibility for admission. In the other, the right of parents without a teaching degree to homeschool. Some may see these decisions as contradictory, but that would only be…
Book Notes: Live to Tell
Kallenberg, Brad J. Live to Tell: Evangelism for a Postmodern Age. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2002. ISBN 1-58743-050-9. 138 pages. One of our pastors handed this book to my wife because of her interest particularly in discipleship. You may ask why one should give a book on evangelism to someone primarily concerned with discipleship, but…
Critical Methods and Modern Tests
Over the last few days there have been a flurry of posts at Language Log that could be related to Biblical criticism, though that is not the intent of their authors. What they are actually discussing is authorship identification and then spin spotting, with an interesting twist at the end. Here are some key posts…
Using the NLTSB and NISB: Exodus 14:19-31
Yesterday I looked at Romans 14:1-12 in these two versions. Today I’m looking at another of this week’s lectionary passages, Exodus 14:19-31. Those who aren’t seriously interested in these two study Bibles should probably skip this whole series. Watch for the first part of the title (Using the NLTSB [NLT] and NISB [NRSV]) and flee…
Boon or Doom: Is That Really the Question?
An article today on MSNBC.com asks the question: Will the Large Hadron Collider save the world, or destroy it? That, I think, is a major problem with the view of science held by way too many people. There are too reactions. First, we ask what it will do for us and how soon. Second, we…
Using the NLTSB and NISB: Romans 14:1-12
I thought it might be useful to look at the information available in each of these study guides for a few passages. Since I regularly read the lectionary passages during my personal devotions, I will compare the information available in each Bible for some selected passages from the current lectionary. I’m choosing to compare only…
NCV Duct Tape Bible from Thomas Nelson
There is some discussion of this edition of the NCV at Bryon’s Weblog (HT: Better Bibles.)
Added Bible Behemoth
I’m not really too sure how this is going to work, but at a minimum, it will allow me to show links to a few Bible blogs that I haven’t even read. Thus, I have added a widget to my rightmost sidebar showing the last five posts featured on The Bible Behemoth (blog), the brainchild…
When Prayer is Depressing
One of the depressing things about prayer is just what will catch media attention. In this MSNBC.com article, we’re told about Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family praying that it would rain on Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. I had seen this at the time, but it came back to my…
Comparing Study Bible Introductions to Luke
A few weeks ago I began looking at the new NLT Study Bible, and indicated that I would use it and then comment as I went along rather than writing a review as such. Introductory Comments Since I’m looking at the manuscript for a new study guide to Luke that that I intend to publish,…
The Bible Does Not Contain Science
Jason Rosenhouse has a post at EvolutionBlog responding to an essay by Owen Gingerich in Frye’s Is God a Creationist?. In that essay, Gingerich makes some interesting claims, suggesting some special advance information provided by God in the words of Genesis 1. Rosenhouse quite correctly comments and then asks: It’s people like Gingerich I don’t…
I Like Sarah Palin
. . . well, pretty much, to a certain extent, as politicians go. But I’m not going to vote for her. Come to think of it, I like John McCain pretty well also, but again, I’m not going to vote for him. I think it is unfortunate that so many Americans seem to feel the…
On Being Anti-Abortion and Pro-Choice
While preparing this week’s Christian Carnival, which I hosted at my Participatory Bible Study Blog, I encounter a post on how Christians should make voting choices, What’s a Deal Breaker?, which is actually the end of a series. In general, this is an excellent article, in my view, because it discusses prioritizing one’s values and…
And the next Christian Carnival will be . . .
. . . at Crossroads.
An Example of Checking Interpretation
One of the things I suggest that people do to check their Biblical interpretations is to apply the same process they have just used to another passage on another issue. You ask the question, “Would my process of interpretation work on more than one passage or is it an ad hoc method used to get…
Christian Carnival CCXL: Just the Posts Edition
OK, that’s a really creative title. That’s why I used it. It is in no way because I couldn’t think of a good theme today. Well, maybe a little. On third thought, quite a bit. OK, so i couldn’t think of a creative theme. Christian Apologetics Jason Hughey presents Suicidal Apologetics posted at Logical Consistency….
Book Notes: The Gospels for All Christians
Bauckham, Richard, ed. The Gospels for All Christians: Rethinking the Gospel Audiences. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-8028-4444-8. I hesitate to call this a review. It’s more of an interaction with the text, a few thoughts as I read the book The Gospels for All Christians: Rethinking the Gospel Audiences….
On the Troubles of Candidates’ Children
I wasn’t going to say anything about this, because I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with spreading the story any further, but now that it has been discussed in the mainstream media, such as MSNBC.com, I want to make a short comment. I married late, in my early 40s, and picked up a…
How to Apologize
An excellent cartoon at Language Log. If you’re into language and you don’t read Language Log, you’re missing something.
Does God Care about 2% or 5%?
Mike, at The Creation of an Evolutionist, calls attention to an article by Dinesh D’Souza on Townhall.com, in which D’Souza replies to an argument by Christopher Hitchens. Mike says this is worth thinking about, and I agree, but I’ve got some bones to pick with D’Souza’s approach. Hitchens’ argument is essentially that God has been…
Bug Report
(HT: The Christian Cynic in a comment on Dispatches.)
What Decides My Vote (or Silly Experience Arguments)
McCain has just stirred the pot by making an unorthodox choice for his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. Contrary to much of the response on the left, I don’t see this as cynical, though obviously there’s political calculation involved. It’s bold and risky. It is, in fact, the first thing that’s happened since…
Christian Carnival 240 Will Be Here
I will be hosting the next Christian Carnival on this blog. I have already received a number of submissions and I’m working on them. Get your submissions in soon! The deadline is Tuesday night, midnight, eastern time. I’d especially like to invite Christian blogs who haven’t participated in the carnival before to do so. It’s…
Culture11
I received an e-mail from Joe Carter suggesting that I check out Culture11, of which he’s a managing editor. I’d feel real special, but I know that a bunch of my friends got such invitations as well, so probably Joe was inviting all the bloggers with whom he has contact, which is, after all, a…