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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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James McGrath on James A Herrick
There’s at least one benefit to regularly reading certain blogs, and that is that you get comfortable with the topics on which you trust that particular blogger. It’s impossible to check everything or to read even a tiny fraction of the books I’d like to read, so this is very helpful. One of the blogging…
Horrors! A Plague of Bible Reading!
. . . or so I might be led to believe by reading Christians Spend Too Much Time Studying the Bible (HT: JakeBouma.com). I don’t know enough about the pastor who wrote this, so I can’t say whether it provides an appropriate balance for his congregation. Perhaps he is plagued with church members whose noses…
Good Theology – Bad Exegesis
I’ve encountered this a few times, so I was delighted to find this little discussion, courtesy of John Hobbins, whose post on the educational value of reading biblioblogs is also good. Awilum.com goes on my blogroll.
Going Back to the Original
Sinaiticus, a 4th century manuscript of the New Testament and parts of the LXX Old Testament, will go on display, starting this July with some portions, and available completely by next year (MSNBC.com story). The story got me thinking about what it means to go back to “the original.” KJV-Only advocates will tell you how…
Science with Pre-Ordained Conclusions
One problem for creationists has been the lack of publications in peer-reviewed journals. In a typical attempt to bypass reality with labels, Answers in Genesis has duly produced a “peer-reviewed journal,” the Answers Research Journal. A major problem, of course, is that “peer-reviewed” tends to imply more than simply that there is a panel that…
Doggy Oaths
I’d like someone to explain to me how dogs can become sworn officers. I imagine a lot from my dog’s expressions and attitudes, but I’m at a loss on this one.
Remedial Math and Reading for Chuck Norris?
In his WorldNetDaily column (HT: Dispatches), Chuck Norris is recommending a reduction in the size of congress. He likes the word “proportional” but doesn’t seem to be able to comprehend it. He quotes the part of the constitution from article I section 2: The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand,…
NLT Review
Via a comment I received a link to this review of the NLT2 which is quite useful, especially because it includes specific examples supporting the major points.
John Webb Pitches Complete Game (and a Complaint)
I don’t have the most positive view of our local newspaper, the Pensacola News Journal, but I normally show this by not reading it. I get local news from other sources, and national news from some of the national internet sources. I do check specific stories on a fairly regular basis and often have my…
Child Life Program at the Ballpark
I usually manage to post something here every day, but yesterday was one of those exceptions. What was going on? Well, aside from a busy day on the computer side of my business, which is part time, but tends to run in spurts, I was working with my wife, and my stepson John Webb (pitcher…
Free Speech, Appropriate Speech, and Communion Wafers
The incident in which a university student took a communion wafer from a Catholic church instead of eating it has stirred up an incredible amount of controversy. For background I’m going to link to just three posts, which in turn will allow you to find all the information you want on the incident and probably…
(Yet Another) Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup
Allan Bevere has posted the latest Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup. I wanted to do more than a brief link to thank him for his efforts. Do you think of these roundups as the parenthetical part of my title would suggest? I can tell you from having done the Christian Carnival as well as various selections…
The Pain of Reinterpreting Scripture
In several recent posts I’ve been referring to the relationship between scripture and evolution, and particularly how I moved from young earth creationism toward theistic evolution not because I studied evolution and became convinced, but because I studied Genesis and became convinced it was not narrative history. At the same time I’m looking at bit…
The God Exception – Excursus on Theodicy
Theodicy is a relatively interesting thing, and I’m really going to discuss a popular aberration, so those of you who have real backgrounds in theology can tune out, or critique me for oversimplifications. One basic way of stating the entry point for Christian theodicy is that there are three key things we believe about God…
Christian Carnival CCXXXII
. . . has been posted. This time my contribution was from my wife’s devotional list, but I’m still linking the carnival from here.
Perhaps it’s Time to Give Up
. . . when you have to cite the Flintstones.
No Meaning without Interpretation
You know, that title is so much worse than the one I’m going to link to — The Bible doesn’t say. That makes the point. I frequently say that one can only call something “Biblical” when speaking from within a particular interpretive framework, which completely ruins the whole “Biblical” thing. In my experience the use…
Chuck Colson says Scripture Commands Limited Government
Chuck Colson writes a guest column at the Christian Post, in which he argues in favor of limited government from the Bible. In it, he tells the story of a friend of his who bought some property to create a children’s camp for inner city children, surely a most desirable goal. Over the next two…
Getting to the Biblical Side of Evolutionary Creationism?
Steve Martin lists ten books that have been written since 2003 (and pretty much none before that) on evolutionary creationism, starting with my favorite, Richard Colling’s Random Designer. The good news is that there are so many new books looking at evangelical Christianity and evolutionary theory from a positive perspective. The bad news is that…
When Neutrality isn’t Neutral
The news of Chris Comer’s suit against the Texas Education Administration claiming she was forced out illegally should come as no surprise to anyone. The reasoning behind the dismissal clearly silly, and the explanations did not ring true as the real reasons she was asked to resign. But as a moderate who likes to see…
NLT has a Blog
Wayne Leman at Better Bibles Blog notes that there is now a blog for the NLT. I note with pleasure that the first post deals in a very balanced way with the widespread belief that dynamic equivalence translation is the same thing as paraphrasing. (One should note that in this case “paraphrasing” is not used…
Creationism and the Science Curriculum
With a number of misnamed “academic freedom” bills proposed in various places, and passed recently in Louisiana, it might be a good time to consider some issues other than religion that are related to the science curriculum. I have argued repeatedly that these bills are religiously motivated, and that the idea is to create as…
Perhaps Jerry Pournelle Should Stick to Fiction
I like Jerry Pournelle, though he’s not on my top 5 or top 10 list of authors, but it looks like he should stick to the “fiction” part of “science fiction.”.
Religious Attitudes and Worship Styles
One thing I have observed over the years is that relatively few debates in church congregations center around serious theological issues. A few are about administrative and financial issues, but there is nothing like the order of worship to produce an angry debate. Some congregations spend years fighting over things like whether one should raise…