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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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Seeking, Dialogue, and an Ecumenical Center
I’m an advocate of dialogue in everything, certainly including matters of faith. Sometimes, however, dialogue is confused with seeking. There’s nothing wrong with seeking, but it is not identical with dialogue, though they do overlap. Dialogue can and should occur between people who do have an idea what they believe. It’s hard to have an…
Prophecy and All Believers
We had an interesting discussion today in Sunday School. We were discussing the 3rd chapter of my book When People Speak for God, titled Messengers – God and Prophet. The questions at hand were just what is prophecy, who are God’s messengers (with a side-order of how can you tell) and how does getting a…
Happy 60th Birthday, Jody!
Today is my wife Jody’s 60th birthday. She’s 60 years young today. I know that’s a cliche, but in her case it’s also very true. At heart she is quite flexible. Attaining the big six oh has not cost her sense of humor, her flexibility, or her ability to relate to young people. I’ve always…
Some Notes and Links
Yesterday I ranted about the church. Dave Black pulled some of the better material out of it and commented, so I posted it to The Jesus Paradigm so we’d have a link. I also posted some notes on recent releases and some not-so-recent ones regarding the church on the Energion Publications news blog. I blogged…
Not Looking for the Perfect Church, but …
Via Allan Bevere I located this interview with Scot McKnight, in which McKnight makes a number of interesting statements. The one that caught my attention most was: … A proper kingdom theology leads people to the middle of the church, not away from it. So it makes a difference when church is on the decline…
Dating of P52
This article is fascinating, both because of subject and because of how it demonstrates how paleography functions (HT: Dave Black Online). I’m posting it here both for the interest and because I have cited P52 in discussing the dating of the Gospel of John with various classes. Just a few points: 1) In my own…
Tentmaking in Silicon
The title of this post is a mite more exciting than the contents. It’s a bit of personal reflection on my own life and business. It’s just over 10 years since I started Energion Publications. In fact, I was rather surprised, when I looked at the first book we released, to see that it has…
Remembering Dr. Leona Glidden Running
Dr. Leona Glidden Running, 1916 – 2014 (I’m not sure of copyright on a picture I’d like to use, so see it here.) When many people in theology and religion are asked about influences on their views, they’ll list major figures, such as Tillich or Barth. My tendency is to list people closer to home….
Discussion on Verbal Aspect
I exchanged a few e-mails today with Dave Black about Greek verbal aspect. He has quoted me on his blog, and I’ve extracted the material for the jesusparadigm.com site, so there’s a permanent link. What I said wouldn’t make a full discussion, so it’s best to read it there in the full context. My own…
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 – What Paul is Thankful For
I couldn’t end this run of posts on 1 Thessalonians 1 without commenting on the content of the passage: Paul’s prayer of thanks. (See posts on structure and translation survey.) I think it’s important to notice what Paul is thankful for. He is thankful first for the fact that they received the Word and that…
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 – Translations
My wife reminded me after her own study of 1 Thessalonians 1 today that those who don’t read Greek don’t necessarily see the same divisions or indicators of divisions. Translation does often involved changing the sentence structure and might require changing the division of paragraphs. I noticed that the commentary Dave referenced (see this post)…
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Structure
Dave Black commented on the structure of this passage, and I’ve been trying to work with it a bit. I do a loose form of phrasing when I study, in which I break pieces of the passage in some detail at times and leave others less chopped, so to speak. This morning, my Sunday School…
Conviction with Teachability
This is just a short note—I hope!—as I have an extremely heavy day and really shouldn’t be stopping to write. I’ve been thinking of different ways to state my goal both in my own writing and teaching and in publishing, and I played with “conviction and …”. What about “conviction without arrogance”? Perhaps “conviction with…
My Own Custom Bible
I have in my inbox an e-mail sent on behalf of the American Bible Society. The subject line reads: “Create your own Custom Bible from American Bible Society.” I suspect some folks are thinking I’m going to draw the obvious lesson that we shouldn’t have our own custom Bible. After all, the correct Sunday School…
A Note on My View of Egalitarianism
Speaking of equality, I want to write a brief note on egalitarianism as I see it. As with all labels, the boundaries are often a problem. Back in early science classes, I learned to distinguish vegetable, animal, and mineral. At certain levels, those distinctions become pretty muddy. It’s not just in social science. What I…
Is Marriage a Partnership of Equals
Those who know me, will know my answer. I’m egalitarian. My wife and I do two “yesses” and one “no” and either of us can provide the “no.” Bob Cornwall is working on a study guide on marriage and blogging as he goes. Today he begins to address this topic. I think one of the…
Dance Floor Worship
I have been working on cleaning up some of my old web site articles and reposting them were appropriate. I found one I forgot I’d written, titled Dance Floor Worship. I said regarding a moment looking out over the Gulf of Mexico: I can call this a secular moment, and wonder when I will be…
When Theology Overrides Story
Jody and I were reading the Lectionary passages for next Sunday this afternoon, and I was reminded about how our theology can keep us from reading Bible stories. I think it’s also easy to let our theology trump the theology of a Bible writer, but stories don’t have a one-to-one relationship to theology in the…
Technology and Privacy (TED talk video)
I think this is worth watching … http://youtu.be/UXlyvFigpEk
In Which I Am Completely Unhelpful about UMC General Conference
Allan Bevere has carried on a discussion about the 2016 UMC General Conference, in which he is partially responding to another Energion author, Joel Watts. I have to agree with Allan that closing the floor is unlikely to help. I’m not sure anything will. I see individual United Methodist churches accomplishing things for the gospel….
Divorce and (Re)marriage Discussion
Just in case I haven’t stirred things up enough lately, I’ve invited a discussion on divorce and marriage over on the Energion Discussion Network. Go participate and enjoy!
The Book I Can’t Give Away
If you don’t know I own a publishing company (Energion Publications) by now, I’d be pretty surprised. It’s not as though I don’t talk about it regularly. One of the things I find interesting about blogging is to discover which blog posts actually catch people’s attention. There are times when I have put my heart…
Link: Herman Bavinck on Scripture and Errors
Found on PostBarthian. I like!
From My Editing Work: I Grieve Like Everyone Else
The first thing I acknowledge is that I grieve just like everyone else; I do not grieve as a minister. I have the very same emotions, the very same needs as all persons who experience loss. (p. 20) This is from the forthcoming book Surviving a Son’s Suicide by Ron Higdon. It’s interesting that I’m…