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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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Added to my Reading List: Christian Theologies of Scripture
This is obviously not a review as I’ve just added this book to my “really soon” reading list, but I thought I’d mention it. Amazon.com has “Search Inside the Book” available, so you should be able to get a taste of it. I’m extremely interested in inspiration, and am generally dissatisfied with what is written…
Unimpressed and Clueless
That seems to be a good description of the voters in response to the current Democratic congress. I’m amazed at these numbers–well, no, that’s a lie. I’m depressingly unsurprised by these numbers. From a CQPolitics report of a Pew poll: Yet the Pew survey, conducted before the budget action, found that American voters appear unimpressed…
Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007
I received an e-mail alert from the Traditional Values Coalition regarding this bill, H. R. 1592. It took me a little bit of time to find the actual bill, because, silly me, I thought there would be a link to it on one or another press releases. However, you can find that link here. The…
Learning the Answer or How to Find It
Joe Carter provides some thoughtful suggestions on sex education. He suggests that it is more important to teach children how to make moral decisions than it is to indoctrinate them into the particular solution you want them to accept. If forced to choose I would be firmly on the abstinence only side. But I believe…
Isaiah 64:6 – Menstrual Cloth
I was planning to leave my comparisons with just Isaiah 63, as I believe that continued comparison charts will largely show the same thing. I’m still reading the translations side by side, and if something seems different I will bring it up. But today in reading Isaiah 64 in several translations I came across Isaiah…
When Adrian is Right He’s Really Right
. . . and on the subject of enjoying God, he’s really right. I don’t mean to throw more fuel on the fire of this “hearing God” thing. Personally I think John Piper’s original article should be much, much less controversial than it is. The main thing that seems to be happening is that people…
Using God as a Label for our Fears
Way back in the prehistory of this blog I posted an entry about fear and human-animal hybrids. Yesterday I got the latest edition of this type of fear in my Breaking Christian News e-mail. In it was a story headlined Prayer Alert: Ethical Outrage as Scientists Create “Human-Sheep”. Now I’m always mildly skeptical when I…
Translation Comparisons in Isaiah 63
Why Isaiah 63? Well, I was reading it in Hebrew for my devotional time this morning, and then I compared some modern versions purported to be readable, and I thought it would be valuable to provide a complete comparison. Note that I’m not attempting to provide a comprehensive list. I’m just comparing some poetic and…
Science Fiction gets Further Behind
It’s amazing to see things like this during my lifetime. New Mexico is considering a small local tax to develop a spaceport. More power to them if they can draw this strong new potential business to their region. I can still recall being taken to a neighbor’s house to watch the moon landings, and my…
A Response to The God Delusion
Bruce Alderman has a humorous response to The God Delusion. Check it out here. I’ll reserve further comment until I have finished reading the whole book myself.
New Conservative Group Challenges Expansion of Executive Power
The American Freedom Agenda sounds like a very interesting new group with a positive agenda, in my view. Many of the principals have fine, long-term credentials in American conservative politics. Their material is worth a look. HT: Dispatches from the Culture Wars.
Structure and Literal Translation
I have found what is probably the best argument for a literal translation. I have certainly used literal translations frequently in commentary, though I favor dynamic equivalence for reading ease. But Bob MacDonald, whose blog Bob’s Log has just joined the Philophronos Blogroll, does some extremely interesting work on structure in the Psalms. Now you…
Hearing God’s Voice Redux
When I was a teenager, I lived in Georgetown, Guyana with my parents who were missionaries. (My father was the Medical Director of Davis Memorial Hospital there, and my mother taught nursing off and on.) During that time I had an opportunity to go visit Kaieteur Falls. In those days one got to the park…
Hearing God’s Voice
You know, John Piper has come on my radar on women’s ministry issues, and some of my comments have been pretty negative. But this article on his DesiringGod.org web site is something that resonates completely with me. For my skeptical friends, no, this is not the evidence you keep hoping I’ll provide. It’s simply an…
What Holds us Together?
I was reading this story about American Episcopal bishops and their response to the Anglican communion, and it struck a cord in me because of my own experiences. Here we have a conservative Episcopal bishop providing a response to a challenge that primarily resulted from the actions of liberal bishops. What is making the Episcopal…
Bibles: Turning a Blessing into a Curse
I have blogged a number of times on the benefits of having multiple English Bible versions to use in Bible study, especially for the student who does not know Biblical languages. I did so most recently in my post From Word to Study, in my series on word studies. Yesterday I got an e-mailed link…
Protecting Rights and Fighting Terrorism
In a comment on her blog, Laura of Pursuing Holiness drew my attention to this story in the New York Times about the posse comitatus and related material about the insurrection act of 1807. First let me note that I consider the posse comitatus to be a good idea, but my primary point in posting…
Added to my Blogroll
I’m adding Bob’s Log to the Bible study blogs section of my blogroll. Bob deals with a great deal of Hebrew poetry, especially the Psalms, and is very interested in structure. I think it will be valuable to look over his shoulder as he works on this interesting material.
Consider Christianity Week
Consider Christianity Week is an idea conceived by Elgin Hushbeck, Jr., author of the Consider Christianity Series. Note that I don’t come to this event completely without ulterior motives as I publish Elgin’s books and related study guides (Energion Publications). For me, Consider Christianity Week is an example of the kinds of principles presented in…
Philophronos Blogroll Growing
Laura has a good post welcoming the latest member of the Philophronos Blogroll, Pen of the Wayfarer. I join in welcoming a new member, and I’d also like to remind readers what this idea is about. But first, it is not about hiding your light under a bushel, diminishing your witness, or glossing over what…
Christian Carnival CLXVI
. . . has been posted. More fun for all of us! Thanks Dory!
Better Bibles on Translating Idioms
A couple of days ago I blogged about the idiom “brokenhearted” and closely related phrases, particularly in Isaiah 61:1. I’ve been collecting additional information via e-mail, and I may blog further on that one, though I am still pretty much looking at something like “give courage to those in despair.” Today, Wayne Leman blogged about…
Enormous Possibilities for Distortion?
Yes, indeed, but also for correction. After writing my previous entry, I found this column by Howard Fineman on MSNBC. Rather than hide it as an update to that post, I wanted to highlight it. Fineman concludes: As for Obama, he was benefiting from events. But he should be sobered as well. What the Viral…
Setting Political Speech Free
One of my very unliberal positions is on political speech. I very much believe that controlling money spent on speech, whether that speech is in a commercial ad for a product, or in an ad for a candidate, in that candadate’s own speech, or in a journalist’s article is the same as controlling the speech…