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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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Another Set of Posts on Principles of Interpretation
Since I responsded to a post on principles of interpretation, and Bruce Alderman also weighed in on that topic, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for more interesting discussion. Today I found a couple of posts by way of a trackback to my threads blog, in which the author notes that he recommends my article…
Being United Methodist: Identity and Purpose
One of the problems with having a sign in front of your church, and particularly a denominational identity, is that it produces certain expectations in people who may considering entering your property and visiting your church for an event or a worship service. Now some of you may not think this is a problem–you want…
Biblical Languages: Balancing Fast Reading and Slow Study
Continuing my suggestions for maintaining Biblical languages skills, I want to discuss briefly the balance between fast reading and the more serious, detailed, grammatical study. Most students who make an effort to maintain their Biblical languages skill–and unfortunately small percentage in my experience–set out on each passage of scripture to study the text as though…
Rick Mansfield on the ESV
Rick Mansfield has made an excellent post on the controversy with the ESV. He makes a number of excellent points, but I’d like to quote one paragraph from near the end: My contention is not with the ESV. But I do have great problems with the inaccurate rhetoric that I often hear from proponents and…
Rounding Up the Moderate Christian Blogroll
Well, here I go again. These are a bit irregular, but I do like to call attention to particular post. As usual the blogs are listed in the order they appears on the aggregator when I displayed it, except that my own blogs are listed at the end. Most blogs have only one post listed,…
Maintaining and Improving Biblical Languages Skills
This post is for a rather limited subset of what (I hope) my audience is here–those who have some knowledge of Biblical Greek, Hebrew, or both. Tragically, many seminary students learn a little bit of Greek or Hebrew but not enough to really put to use, and then they spend the rest of the career…
Man, Mankind, or People – Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 6:5-8
On my Threads blog I comment on Pastor Mark Driscoll’s theological basis for using the ESV at Mars Hill Church. In that article Driscoll makes a special point of the translation of the Hebrew “‘adam” in Genesis 1:27 by the NRSV and NLT: Translations such as the New Revised Standard accommodate this by wrongly translating…
Mars Hill or Planet Mars
Peter Kirk has weighed in on the subject of my previous post in his post Mars Hill Church: on a different Planet? He says: I have looked at the original text (well, a scholarly edition of the Greek text) of Romans 3:24 and cannot find the word “justification” there. There are no English words, only…
The Impossibility of Verbal Plenary Translation
I have heard many good things about Mars Hill Church in Seattle, despite some theological disagreements (with whom do I not have such disagreements?) so I was disappointed to receive the following via e-mail from a friend: Theological reasons for why Mars Hill preaches out of the ESV. This isn’t intended as an attack on…
Welcome Newest Moderate Christian Blogroll Member
I have just added adventures in mercy to the Moderate Christian Blogroll and Aggregator. Stop by and say hello, comment, trackback, whatever. While you’re at it, check out the following posts that caught my eye: God is Masculine (Vision Forum on Male/Female, Part 1) God is Masculine? (Part Two, VF on Women) If God is…
Pat Robertson and the Meaning of Prophetic
One of the dividing lines in Christian churches today is over the gifts of the Holy Spirit. While speaking in tongues gets most of the attention, the gift of prophecy is a close second. In terms of its potential to tear a church apart, it comes out ahead of tongues, I think. Currently there seem…
Back to Elections
I actually wrote this thing a couple of days ago because I was tired of all the hype about lobbying reform, which I expect will make much less difference to the way business is done than the hype about it suggests. Like pay as you go, it’s something that makes good headlines, but the question…
More on Principles of Biblical Interpretation
Bruce Alderman disagrees with some of the principles of interpretation from Trivium Pursuit, which I referenced earlier, and has started a series on the same topic. His first principle is: All this is a long way of introducing my first principle of biblical interpretation: “God, what are you trying to tell me through these scriptures?”…
Pay as You Go – But Will They Do It?
In a fine example of political maneuvering, the new Democratic majority in congress is pushing a pay as you go policy on spending, to combine with greater transparency on pork barrel projects. Since it’s probably impossible to have federal building projects determined strictly by some neutral group on the basis of value in building infrastructure…
Making Prayer Happen
Laura at Pursuing Holiness is blogging about prayer and what keeps us from praying as much as we should. She has some excellent thoughts, and in particular she mentions what I think is the most important point: Another problem with prayer is that we so often, after a discussion where someone has shared a need…
Bible Study Tool: The NeXt Bible
One key question for computer savvy, or at least computer-involved Bible students is the type of Bible study software to purchase. Many can get along well with e-Sword, which I’ve reviewed before. (Be sure to read into the comments for some corrections.) Now there’s a new, free resource from Bible.org, the producers of the NET…
Swearing In on Relevant Books
Speaking of swearing in on relevant books, the new Governor of Massacheusetts chose to take his oath on a Bible that was a gift of freed slaves to John Quincy Adams who had fought for their release, according to the Boston Globe (Hat tip: Breaking Christian News (e-mail). I like the symbolism involved in that.
Grand Canyon Age and National Parks Bookstores
Joe Meert, vice-president of Florida Citizens for Science has an excellent post on the current controversy about a creationist book sold in the Grand Canyon National Park bookstore and allegations that have been made that park rangers are not permitted to give an honest, scientific answer to questions about the age of the canyon. He…
What Should he Swear On?
It appears that Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to congress, is also quite an effective politician. He wants to be sworn into congress holding a copy of the Qur’an, to which a number of “traditional” Christians have objected (on which more in a moment), and has chosen to do so on a copy previously…
Moderate Christian Blogroll/Aggregator
To keep this blogroll clean and current I will be removing blogs that are not active for over 60 days from the roll and aggregator. I think this is appropriate because the aggregator lists the last five posts from each blog. If your blog disappears from the list and you become active again, please let…
Evolution Sunday
Evolution Sunday is coming up February 11, 2007. Some folks may be a bit concerned, or even seriously annoyed with the idea of an “evolution” Sunday. Is the theory of evolution going to become a point of Christian doctrine? Shall we celebrate evolution for a day? Well, I can think of several subjects right off…
A Politician’s Past
Barack Obama has been making quite a splash in the media, and while the general reaction is often annoyed or amused, my view is that the pressures of a presidential campaign are quite adequate to test the strength of a candidate. I have not decided to support him, and besides as a registered independent voter,…
Principles of Interpretation or Conclusions?
I’m always happy to see discussion about principles of interpretation of scripture, because in general when we have large differences of opinion between Christians they can be traced back to our approach to interpreting scripture and more broadly to our understanding of how doctrine is formed. Thus I was delighted to see General Principles for…
Continuing Series into 2007
I have had several series going on for some time, and I’d like to update you on them as we start the new year. First, my series on Isaiah 24-27 is about to come to a close. In my list of drafts is the post Isaiah 27: Accomplishing Redemption which will be the final entry…