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Dr TK Dunn on the Importance of the Old Testament
This is an extract from a longer interview, which I will also embed. I think Dr. Dunn has some valuable comments on the relationship of scripture and what it means for our study. And here’s the full interview from which that was extracted.
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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Ephesians 6:18: Always Pray in the Spirit
Today as I was driving I noticed a church sign with a message that went something like this: “As a child of God, prayer is like phoning home every day.” Perhaps I’m being too tense about it, but it seems to me that prayer is very much unlike phoning home every day. In fact, to…
Looking for Moral High Ground
I’ve been watching the Foley scandal in congress, though not as closely as I might. While Foley represented a portion of Florida, that portion is a long ways from the panhandle where I live. Our congressional race isn’t even close. At the same time moral standards are extremely important to me. I will tend to…
Christian Carnival CXLII Posted
Christian Carnival CXLII has been posted at Nerd Family. It looks like a pretty rich source of good posts. As usual, I’ll be posting some of my favorites here some time during the week before the next carnival. Thanks to Nerd Family for hosting and for an excellent post.
Christian Carnival CXLII Posted
Christian Carnival CXLII has been posted at Nerd Family. It looks like a pretty rich source of good posts. As usual, I’ll be posting some of my favorites over on Threads from Henry’s Web. Thanks to Nerd Family for hosting and for an excellent post.
Understanding and Acting
There are many on the right who complain whenever someone tries to understand evildoers, or to explain the reason for their actions. They assume, not always incorrectly, that the person who is explaining also intends to excuse, that finding a reason, other than that certain people are evil, must remove any justification for reprisal or…
Secondary Spirituality
When writing research papers students are frequently warned against using secondary sources. If one must use a secondary source, one must be certain that it’s reliable, and indicate the actual source. Scholars get in the habit of using primary sources as often as possible. But in spirituality, I notice that many people tend toward the…
Charisma Books Expo Reports
My wife Jody and I will be doing some reports and impressions from the Charisma Book Expo in Atlanta, September 27-30, 2006. I believe some readers of this blog will be interesting. The reports will be on our Energion Publications Announcements Blog, and in addition I will be reviewing some materials that I found at…
Gender Roles as Essential
Peter Kirk has written an excellent post about the essentials of the Christian faith. I’ll let you go to his blog for the many references he has used in his discussion, and the reason for this post at this moment. My reason for commenting on it is simply that Peter has highlighted a number of…
Maturity or Masculinity
OK, here is a good post on men in the church. I have nothing to add to it. Men, let’s read it and put it into practice. Hat tip: Lingamish.
God: Nice or Not?
One of my Old Testament professors once told me that he thought survey courses might better be left to the end of one’s program, that one could greatly benefit by a survey course after one had studied more deeply into the various elements. I agree, though I would suggest a starting survey and then a…
Denominational vs Non-Denominational
My wife and I have had several discussions recently about apportionments in the United Methodist Church. For those of you who are not Methodist, apportionments are funds paid by the local church to their conference or other higher authority to support the work of the broader church. Many of these funds go to administrative functions…
Gleaning from the Christian Carnival
A good start for blogging on my return after a few days out is to link to a few of the entries from the Christian Carnival CXLI that caught my attention. As always, I’d love to read and comment on more of these entries, but I don’t have time to essentially redo the carnival. Go…
Christian Carnival CXLI
This is just a bit late, because I was out of town. Christian Carnival CLI is now up at A Penitent Blogger. I will try to take a look through and highlight some posts that attract my attention before the next one is posted. You can expect to find some impressions from the Charisma Book…
Christian Carnival CXLI Posted
This is just a bit late, because I was out of town. Christian Carnival CLI is now up at A Penitent Blogger. Thanks to Penitens for a good job.
Out of Town – at Charisma Book Expo
I’ll be out of town at the Charisma Book Expo in Atlanta Georgia from today, September 26 through Monday October 2. I will be stopping by to check comments and so forth as I have time, but I don’t expect to make new entries. As the owner of a small and new business, Energion Publications,…
Out of Town – at Charisma Book Expo
I’ll be out of town at the Charisma Book Expo in Atlanta Georgia from today, September 26 through Monday October 2. I will be stopping by to check comments and so forth as I have time, but I don’t expect to make new entries. The Christian Blog Carnival should be posted tomorrow, and I do…
Distinguishing Ideology and Linguistic Differences
I located a post on Bible translations through the Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup (for which I thank John the Methodist for his usual good job). The post is Ideology in Translations, but while I certainly believe ideology is involved in translations, I don’t see a battle of liberal vs conservative ideology here, and I also…
Finding Good Role Models for Girls in the Bible
A post by Peter Kirk over on Speaker of Truth, titled Deborah and a woman from Bethlehem, and some interesting comments made there suggests to me some more writing about my favorite topic: the SHARING stage of Bible study. (For an outline of my method, see The Participatory Study Method. Some of the foundation for…
Inreach and Outreach
My previous post, The Most Wasted Piece of Architecture, didn’t generate discussion here, but it was picked up by Locusts and Honey with a substantial quote, and some interesting discussion took place there. The discussion seemed to center a good deal around the specific issue of church sanctuaries. But what I would hope we would…
Asking Questions of a Biblical Text
An excellent technique for digging deeper into a Bible text is to formulate questions about the text, and then look for answers to those questions. I discuss this briefly in my essay Reading the Text Precisely. A starting point for this is simply to ask basic fact questions about the text. Many difficult and angry…
The Most Wasted Piece of Architecture
As I was driving with my wife yesterday, I made a comment that had been bugging me all day. “You know,” I said, “A church sanctuary is the most wasted piece of architecture you’ll see on the landscape.” Now my wife knows not to go wild when I say things like that. She didn’t ask…
Christian Carnival CXL
Christian Carnival CXL has been posted at Lux Venit. There’s a good deal of good stuff to check out. Without prejudice to the whole list, I’d like to call special attention to the following: Tight Theological HatbandsI’m not reformed in theology, but I have long thought one of the strengths of the reformed camp was…
The Prosperity Gospel
And another exciting entry, more than a week old, from Ben Witherington, this time, ‘Just in Time’– ‘God Wants You Wealthy’, dealing with the “health and wealth gospel” or “prosperity gospel.” I’m very slow to condemn movements, but the prosperity gospel seems to be just about diametrically opposed to the spirit of Jesus Christ. Go,…
Ben Witherington on the Pope’s Speech
While I have reflected largely on the single item in the Pope’s speech and the Muslim reaction, Ben Witherington has posted an analysis of the larger content of the speech. He underlines some things that I would want to debate in the speech as well. A key item from my point of view here is…