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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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Great Post on Gifting
In preparing the Christian Carnival CLVIII, which I hosted this week on my Participatory Bible Study Blog, I found a real gem of a post on gifting. Dana, of Dana’s Avenue, wrote about Gifting, and the experience of discovering excitement in the gift of accounting. This really strikes a cord with me, because in my…
Christian Carnival CLVIII
Welcome to the January 24, 2007 edition of christian carnival, #CLVIII. I’m your cyber-librarian for the week, and I’d like to welcome you to our cyber-library, temporarily located right here! In case you’re wondering about the numbers in parentheses you can find out more here. I used some of them rather loosely! Biblical Studies (220)…
The Problem with WWJD
One of the primary objections that conservative Christians have to the work of historical Jesus scholars is that they often have a tendency to create Jesus in their own image, or at least in an image congenial to them. This is said particularly of the scholars of the third quest, and of the Jesus Seminar…
Doctrinal Statements and Bible Use
A friend e-mailed me about a post which caught my attention. It seems that a blogger wanted to use the feed of the ESV Bible from the official web site, but found that the terms of service required him to accept a doctrinal statement first (relevant links are in his entry). Personally, I think that…
A New Baptist Covenant
Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are both tied to the formation of a new umbrella group of Baptist denominations in an article in the Washington Post. I should point out what could easily be missed–Clinton described himself as a cheerleader and refused to be interviewed. Carter is apparently more involved. This is not…
Ben Witherington on the Pentecostal Movement
Ben Witherington has a very good piece on cessationism and the Pentecostal movement. He acknowledge both the good and the not so good. It’s worth taking a look.
A Welcome Alliance
MSNBC.com has a good story on scientists and evangelical Christians working together on the environment. This is a very welcome alliance. This isn’t a matter of anyone compromising on their principles, but rather an alliance for action on issues on which both sides can agree.
Losing a Battle, Losing a War
In all the debates about winning or losing the war in Iraq, what I find extremely frustrating is that the discussion so often occurs without adequate context. Today Joe Carter writes about How We Lost the War (And Will Lose the Next One Too). I agree with many of his comments about American public opinion,…
Only the President Can Stretch (Break) the Law
Attorney General Gonzales is apparently concerned that judges may make decisions about security issues that they are not qualified to understand. According to MSNBC: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says federal judges are unqualified to make rulings affecting national security policy, ramping up his criticism of how they handle terrorism cases. Of course, the administration that…
Christian Carnival CLVII
Working faster than a speeding bullet and showing more power than a locomotive, Amanda has posted the Christian Carnival CLVII. No, she didn’t use a superman theme; that was suggested to me when I found the carnival already completed early this morning, and I’m an early riser! So congratulations on a good first time hosting…
Isaiah 27: Accomplishing Redemption
I’ve been at this series on Isaiah 24-27 for some months now. It’s taken so long mostly because I’ve been working at it slowly as I have time, and not because my series is that in-depth. The thing that has struck me in studying the passages for this series is the richness of the material….
National Religious Freedom Day
I should have known about this, but hat tip to Dispatches from the Culture Wars. Today is National Religious Freedom Day. I wonder why there is not more publicity surrounding this. Our freedom is a good thing to celebrate and defend.
Behind Every Peaceful Protester . . .
. . . is someone who is willing to fight for it. I don’t mean disrespect to peaceful protest. There is a great value in it, and in civil disobedience, though civil disobedience has been somewhat tamed since the days of Martin Luther King. When I was stationed at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, a protest leader…
Translation, Paraphrase, and Transformation
I’ve been using a term about Bible translation, or rather, about a form of presenting the message of the Biblical text without taking the time to rigorously define it. That term is “transformation.” I want to throw out this post for some comments, and explain why I started using that term. Has it been used…
What Happens in the End
I think Fareed Zakaria is right on point with his Newsweek commentary We Might ‘Win’ But Still Lose. He notes: If the 20,000 additional American troops being sent to the Iraqi capital focus primarily on Sunni insurgents, there’s a chance the Shiite militias might get bolder. Colonel Duke puts it bluntly: “[The Mahdi Army] is…
Paraphrasing as a Study Method
Via a link from Wayne Leman, I found this post from Greg Lamm’s blog STAYINGTHECOURSE. I think this is an exceptional idea to aid with serious study of a passage. It relates well to both the reading and sharing phases. Of course under sharing I would include sharing your paraphrase with others and even challenging…
Gender Accurate Translation and Interpretation
Wayne Leman has an exceptional post on women and Bible translation. We talk a great deal about gender accurate (or I still like gender-inclusive) language, but it’s men that are doing most of the talking. That’s because there are more men than women involved in translation. I’m in full agreement with what Wayne says in…
Comprehending Divine Inspiration
I’ve been discussing translation in its relationship to inspiration over the last couple of days, and I just wanted to present a couple of thoughts on how we think about inspiration, especially in practical terms. By “thinking in practical terms” I mean the way in which we apply our understanding of inspiration in our application…
John Webb Winter Golf Tournament 2007
This morning I want to get a bit personal, which I don’t usually do on this blog, but this is something important and close to my heart. Many of my readers already know that my son James Webb (step-son for you people who get technical) passed away in 2004 after a five year battle with…
Christian Carnival CLVI Posted
Christian Carnival CLVI has been posted at Parableman. It looks like a rich list again, and as I have for weeks and weeks and weeks, I hope to manage to post some responses, links, and comments to a number of these posts. Reality being what it is, however, I probably will do a miserable job…
Theodicy: Taking a Stab at Natural Evil
Theodicy is a big subject, but for many people it relates closely to acceptance by Christians of the theory of evolution. I recall conversing with one friend who commented that while he could understand my acceptance of evolution, he just had a terribly hard time accepting a loving God who could, at the same time,…
A Short Note on Theistic Evolution and Frontloading
I know, none of you readers believe I am capable of being brief, but I’m going to try! This post was triggered by my reading of Richard B. Hoppe’s post Dissent Out of Bounds on Uncommon Dissent (Oops, make that “Descent”), which is largely about Uncommon Descent’s comment censorship (because of which I do not…
Translation and Inspiration
In posting recently on translation I’ve noticed that many people connect one’s idea of inspiration with one’s approach to translation. The assumption seems to be that a person who believes in some form of verbal inspiration, especially verbal plenary inspiration, will necessarily favor a formal, word-by-word, or literal translaltion. Of these terms I prefer formal,…
Building Your Knowledge of Greek Grammar
When I took second year Greek, the grammar to use in getting beyond basic introductory material was Dana and Mantey’s Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament which is very hard to get. But as a replacement, and also a considerable improvement, we now have Daniel B. Wallace’s Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. For those…