Featured Posts
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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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Small Offense Provokes Much Violence
Yesterday I posted an aside regarding the attempted murder of the Danish cartoonist who drew the cartoon that provoked violent responses in the Muslim world. Today I saw this news story regarding reactions to a Malaysian court ruling that non-Muslims could use the word Allah. Behold how much violence a small matter kindles! I am…
Oldest Hebrew Inscription Found
The biblioblogosphere is alive with discussion of the released photo, line drawing, and preliminary translation of what appears to be the oldest example of Hebrew writing to date. I found it originally through Evangelical Textual Criticism, but have since read quite a number of posts about it. I’m afraid, however, that I must be missing…
Poor Offended People Want to Murder Someone
I agree with this note which calls this column, titled Prejudiced Danes Provoke Fanaticism, execrable. Freedom of thought requires the freedom to offend, and being offended does not justify violence.
The Passion in Gold and Diamonds
I dislike criticizing ministries and their leaders for several reasons: There’s a bandwagon approach, in which everyone piles on a vulnerable leader and repeats the stories There’s a tendency to lack discernment about rumors, i.e. everyone repeats what is said about someone, especially someone who deserves criticism, but doesn’t do good fact and context checking…
Masculinity Crisis?
Rachel Held Evans says some things I wish I had said about the so-called masculinity crisis in the church. I guess I’m one of those “dudes who are still sort of chicks.” (Read the post if you don’t get it.)
Is Christianity the Best Deal in the Universe?
So says Ann Coulter, paraphrasing an accusation made against Brit Hume when he suggested that Tiger Woods should become a Christian: With Christianity, your sins are forgiven, the slate is wiped clean and your eternal life is guaranteed through nothing you did yourself, even though you don’t deserve it. It’s the best deal in the…
Congratulations to James McGrath
He has been appointed to the newly revived Clarence Goodwin chair of New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University. My only question is how a university allows a chair like that to remain unfilled for 60 years. Thanks is very much due to the person who discovered the omission.
Christian Carnival CCCIX Posted
… at RodneyOlsen.net. Go check out the first Christian Carnival of the new year. (No, I didn’t contribute anything this week.)
Looking the Part – on Worldprayr
No, that’s not a misspelling. @worldprayr is an international prayer organization started on Twitter. Since many of us have been following this organization for some time on Twitter, we’re used to calling it by it’s twitter ID. I wrote a post for the World Prayer Blog which was published today. It is titled Looking the…
News Flash – I am Very Conservative
Despite the subtitle of my other blog, Threads from Henry’s Web, which reads “Thoughts on Religion in the World from a passionate, moderate, liberal charismatic Christian”, it appears that on this blog I am very conservative. So saith N. T. Wrong, and who am I to argue? He says this in a new Biblioblog Top…
A Good Politician
Uses social media. Receives request for help. Personally shovels driveway. Kudos! More on CNN (HT: Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire).
Mere Christians
Jim Skaggs has an interesting post on this at One Eternal Day. I am generally in agreement, though I tend to emphasize practice over belief in terms of essentials. It appears Jim is a Seventh-day Baptist, which interests me as an ex-Seventh-day Adventist. Adventists received the doctrine of the Sabbath via the Seventh-day Baptists. I’m…
David Ker – Gay Africa
David Ker has taken on the world at ThinkChristian.net, or so it probably seems to him. The comments provide some additional links and some vigorous comment.
Quote of the Day – On Leviticus
… Byu inculcating worship patterns that emphasize mind over body, word over deed, and rational thought over “merely” reflexive sacramental systems, all legacies of the Protestant Reformation, religious communities learn to be at home in the cognitive, typically abstract world of theological ideas. Ritual invites something different: the active participation in “embodied” theological reflection. Both…
All #1 Meme
James McGrath has proposed a meme, and it even got past my prejudice against memes. He asks for a phrase that makes your blog #1 in the Google search results. I found “she-bears homily” which finds my post which is a proposed a homily given the scripture on Elisha and the She Bears. I don’t…
Most Popular 10 Posts of 2009
Here are the ten most popular posts of 2009, as determined by my wp-stats plugin: Does Gordon Fee Discard Part of the Bible? ESV vs KJV (Better Bibles Blog) Suppressed and Talking about it Everywhere Criticism Example: The Parable of the Sower Translating Psalm 46 Seventh-day Adventist Education and Evolution Can Anyone Identify this Spider?…
Most Popular 10 Posts of 2009
After noting that on my Jevlir Caravansary blog, two of the top ten posts were editions of the Christian Carnival, which says things about the traffic on that blog, I was gratified to note that all of the top ten posts here are ones that I wrote rather than compilations of links. When I split…
Todd Wood – the Evolutionist?
A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had started reading Dr. Todd Wood’s blog (using the title Another Honest Creationist). The reason I call Dr. Wood honest (as opposed to some other creationists) is that he acknowledges that young age creationism relies on the Bible and specifically on a particular understanding of the early…
Biblioblogs Rankings
Someone new has provided Alexa rankings for the Biblioblogs for the month of December. Joel Watts suggests passing this around in order to keep up the competition. I think it would all be fun if less people fought over the whole thing. It’s a bit of fun competition based on some rather loose stats, not…
Is Intelligent Design Religious?
David Opderbeck has an excellent post on the question of whether intelligent design (ID) is religious and how this relates to our view of natural theology. (HT: Through a Glass Darkly) In the post, he gets into an issue that I have raised before, which is the question of whether we really want to advocate…
Is Inerrancy an Essential Christian Doctrine
Obviously I don’t think so, but I must now add C. Michael Patton to the list of those who do accept the doctrine of inerrancy themselves, yet don’t believe it is an essential of the Christian faith, which he does in his humorous “AND OTHER STUPID STATEMENTS” series, If the Bible is not Inerrant, then…
Comments for NIV Revision Committee
Wayne Leman reminds us that comments for the NIV2011 revision are only open until the end of December. I never can make a final decision on these things, which would make me a lousy translation committee member, but if you have suggestions now is the time!
Glad to Have THAT Settled!
Are dogs smarter than cats?
Can Education Keep Up
One of the things I think has not been discussed enough in the current job situation, though I think President Obama has done extremely well on this one point compared to his predecessors, is the simple fact that jobs for minimally educated people are disappearing, and thus many of the new jobs that are being…