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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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J. Barton Payne on Theistic Evolution
A friend of mine e-mailed me a link to this post on Higgaion. It’s an interesting discussion, and Payne’s attitude is far from dead today. To the excellent article, I would add only a couple of questions. First, on what basis do people determine that Genesis 1 & 2 must be narrative history? I am…
English and Greek Ambiguity: 2 Corinthians 5:21
This relates to my previous post on translating ambiguous passages. The last clause of this verse reads, formally translated, “so that we might become [the] righteousness of God in him.” I’m interested in the range of meanings that might be heard by a modern English reader for the final phrase, “in him.” A number of…
Capitalization as a Translation Issue in the Hebrew Scriptures
In my ratings for the Bible Version Selection Tool, one of the areas on which I compare translations is capitalization of pronouns referring to God or to Jesus. The interesting thing about this is that the Hebrew text has no analog to capitalization of any kind, while edited Greek texts and some late manuscripts can…
Presuppositions
I’m not generally presuppositionalist myself, but this post in an interesting discussion on young earth creationism is part of an interesting discussion. Check it out.
Information, Laziness, and Voting
News stories this morning pointed out that Romney outspent Huckabee 6 to 1 in Iowa, yet in the end it wasn’t enough for a win. It’s interesting that the expectation is that spending is equal to votes. It’s unfortunate that it’s often quite true. Voters frequently complain about the behavior of candidates–too many sound bites,…
Raymond Brown on Ambiguities and Literal Translation
After my comments earlier about Piper and the ESV, I found this comment by Raymond Brown in An Introduction to the New Testament: For the purpose of careful reading or study, which concerns us here, one must recognize that sometimes the biblical authors did not write clearly, so that the original texts contain certain phrases…
Once we faced Lions . . .
Now we’re afraid our neighbors might think we’re weird. A Christian ministry founder says he believes American Christians are not ready for persecution. I wonder what was his first clue? [HT: Dispatches]
New Christian Carnival
. . . is at Ancient Hebrew Poetry, including one post from Threads!
Miniposts
I first saw these on Pursuing Holiness, and tried them on Participatory Bible Study and Jevlir, but now I want them here. They are just too convenient for those links and one-liners.
Blogroll: Geocreationism.com
Having decided to blog a couple of times per week about my blogroll, I’m going to start with a site I just added, Geocreationism.com. If you’ve been following this blog for any period of time, you will have noticed occasional comments from Geocreationist, and this is his blog. I have a couple of reasons for…
Working the Blogroll
One reason I enjoy the blogosphere is that it involves an exchange of ideas, often between people who differ a great deal on what they believe. I was pruning out my blogroll yesterday (I only removed defunct blogs), and it occurred to me that the blogroll really is not very meaningless. It contributes to someone’s…
Another Interesting Lectionary Omission
Since I’ve been attending a lectionary discussion group during Wednesday lunch, and therefore spending more time on the lectionary texts, I’ve been interested in the way the texts are selected. For this coming Sunday, Epiphany, one of the texts is Isaiah 60:1-6. “Now what could possibly be interesting about that?” you might ask. I’m glad…
Christian Carnival Posted
The latest Christian carnival is Ancient Hebrew Poetry.
Random Designer Wrap-Up
I found the last several chapters of Random Designer quite attractive, I think partially because I’m from a Wesleyan background. We cross the “somehow” barrier and find that human beings, by whatever means that was accomplished, want to connect with their creator. In chapter 20, this is presented as “A Choice and a Chance.” The…
New Year Blog Dressup
I spent a good bit of time yesterday dressing up my blogs for the new year. This unseemly waste of time on the merely visual probably came to pass because I’m fighting a cold. I like to keep my three blogs, this original Threads blog, and the two I derived from it (Participatory Bible Study…
Happy New Year!
I’m starting the new year with a new theme for this blog. I’ll be using a similar theme for both my Threads and Jevlir Caravansary blogs. The basic design is from here. All I have modified is the header image.
My Theological Worldview
. . . at least according to this quiz. (HT: Gentle Wisdom) What’s your theological worldview?created with QuizFarm.com You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the…
Preachers: Respecting without Idolizing
Eddie Arthur at Kouya Chronicle comments on recent debates about John Piper and justification. Amongst other things, he says this: It might surprise some of you that I recommend Dougs articles because in his review of Pipers criticism of Wright, Doug comes down fairly and squarely on the side of Wright, not Piper. For most…
The Quest for Absolute Certainty
When I was a teenager, I was very involved in electronics, something that has stuck with me. My first real efforts at understanding science came in working with electricity. One day I was discussing the theory of electricity, and specifically how it “moves” through a circuit with my father, also an electronics hobbyist. We had…
On Being Moderately Sheeplish
Joe Carter has had a salubrious encounter with the human mind, such as it is, and has discovered that conservatives are sheeple too. “I have to confess that I’d always associated sheeplishness with the Left,” he starts out, but then notes how, in his new role with the Huckabee campaign, he has found sheeplishness amongst…
Random Designer VI – Take 2
After some comments that followed my post Random Designer VI, I decided to go back and re-read those chapters to try to make sure I was reading Dr. Colling correctly. I have also finished reading the book and thus am no longer in danger of responding to something which will be clarified in later chapters….
Christian Carnival CCIV
It’s the day after Christmas and what a mess! I bet that’s what many are saying, anyhow. Our Christmas has been very quiet this year. That’s because my wife ended up taking all the traditional holidays working, and our grandchildren don’t arrive until the end of the week. We’ve done a little bit, but the…
Christian Carnival #204 Coming Today
I will be posting the next Christian Carnival, #204, sometime this afternoon. Watch for it!
The Joy of Being Unscientific
I write so much about science on this blog that it’s quite possible to get the idea that I think science is the major way of knowing, and certainly the most important one. But in my day to day life I deal mostly with things that are not precisely scientific. Science tells me how an…