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Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12
Can we really understand the suffering of another person or they ours?
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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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Biblioblog Top 50 Demise (or Not) Bears Good Fruit
If the demise of the monthly Biblioblog top 50 bears more fruit such as lists like this one from Doug Mangum, it could well be a good thing. At first I thought we had such a thing from Jim West, even including “pazang” in the rating, but now in the comments he says it’s based…
Professors are Liberal and They Translate the Bible
Just in case you thought reinventing Jesus was just a liberal project … I haven’t said much about the conservative Bible project, mostly because I suspect everyone can guess quite accurately what I think, but this article on Yahoo! News lays out the ideas, such as they are. I keep thinking this must all be…
Of Strategies and Goals
As if it isn’t bad enough that we Christians many times cannot agree on what is essential and thus get carried away with arguments about minor details, we also sometimes have a problem distinguishing talking about a strategy from the actual goals. So we sometimes condemn brothers or sisters for disagreeing with the goals, when…
Death of Newspapers = Death of Objective Journalism?
As if objective journalism was the rule before blogs came along to “steal” newspaper content. I agree with Ed Brayton, who also quotes Radley Balko on this one.
Another Good Post about the War on Christmas
… from Allan Bevere. This relates to my earlier post, The Real War on Christmas.
John Cassian on Bible Reading
John Cassian was a monk and ascetic writer from Gaul and lived in the late 4th and early 5th centuries AD [source]. I found this in Hebrews: Ancient Christian commentary on Scripture, New Testament X, though I went to the Order of Saint Benedict Lectio site for the translation I use here: YOU must then,…
Why both Bock and Borg are on my Ready-Reading Shelf
I have been wanting to respond further to the excellent discussion over at Reclaiming the Mind, to which I linked a couple of days ago, but I’m not really an academic, and Karl Barth notwithstanding, I’m not really a theologian either. (I now am close to 100 comments behind on keeping up with the thread…
Origen on the True Meaning of Scripture
From his Commentary on the Gospel of John X.27, copied from newadvent.org: When He was raised from the dead, John 2:22 His disciples remembered that He spoke this, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. This tells us that after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead His disciples saw that what He…
The Mosaic Bible and the Lectionary – Update
As I mentioned in an earlier post I’ve been trying to test the value of Holy Bible: Mosaic NLT (Meditations) for a lectionary preacher or teacher. I use the weekly lectionary texts regularly for my personal devotions, attend a lectionary study group each Wednesday at noon, and also use the texts on those few occasions…
Translating Philippians 1:9-11
Philippians 1:3-11 is one of the Lectionary passages this week, and so I read through it this morning during my devotional time in Greek. Now Paul is good at long sentences. I remember the embarrassment once working with a Greek student who was translating this passage in his second year. He was doing OK in…
Biblical Studies Carnival XLVIII Posted
… at Clayboy. On the topic of the size of this carnival, allow me to give an opinion. I’m not in the current carnival. I didn’t nominate any of my posts, and not surprisingly nobody else did either. This is a good approach, I think. Use only the nominations as those of us involved in…
St. John Chrysostom on Law and Perfection
From Hebrews: Ancient Christian commentary on Scripture, New Testament X, p. 116, (with translation taken from A Collection of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church), commenting on Hebrews 7: Was the law then of no use? It was indeed of use and of great use, but to make humans perfect it was…
Leo the Great on Melchizedek Priesthood and Anointing
I found this in my reading of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Volume X, Hebrews, this morning. Since the translation used there is under copyright, and this is an extended quote, I’m getting the material from sacredtexts.com: As often as God’s mercy deigns to bring round the day of His gifts to us, there…
Dan Wallace has a Complaint about Liberals
… and I think he’s right, at least about some of us. He writes in reference to graduates of Dallas Theological Seminary. After my own difficulties, though rather minor ones, with my more conservative graduate school, it annoys me that liberal schools might look down on graduates of conservative institutions.
Seals Prosecuted for Capturing Terrorist
… at least according to the Fox News headline: Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist. But there’s a problem with the headline. There are, of course, no charges for capturing the terrorists, but rather for his treatment after the capture. Now I don’t know the facts of the case beyond what is…
The Return of Threads
My company, Energion Publications, had difficulties with our hosting company, and it was traced to an apparent load created by this blog. Since it seemed top hard to convince the hosting company that a moderately successful (at best) blog such as this one would hardly be causing the difficulties they claimed, I simply chose to…
Mistakes Leading to Death
This article certainly raises some troubling issues, though I have yet to understand why one should equate ceasing to artificially sustain life with euthanasia or assisted suicide. What I wonder, however, is if the same people who are so concerned about erroneously identifying someone as in a vegetative state are similarly concerned about the possibility…
Civilian Trials for Terrorists = Good Idea
I think Ed Brayton makes the case.
You Want Me to Take WHAT Literally?
Check out this cartoon at Exploring Our Matrix. I suspect it’s much easier to take things literally if you don’t actually have to do anything about them!
Xiphos – formerly GnomeSword
I’m quite late on this one, for which I apply the preselected excuse that I have been very busy. I first noticed the change in name and the upgrade of the software when I upgraded my Ubuntu installation from 9.04 to 9.10. Then today I found a post on Xiphos at futurebible.org, and so I…
The Meaning of Christ the King Sunday
… an excellent short article by Geoffrey Lentz.
What the Bible and the U. S. Constitution Have in Common
Find out at A Pilgrim’s Progress. (HT: Dave Black Online.)
I Get Mail from UM Communications
I’m yielding to temptation and including an “I get quoted” story, because I’d like to call attention to the article in question. Today when I went to Bible study at my church, First UMC of Pensacola, my pastor handed me a large envelope. Since I wasn’t expecting anything I was a bit surprised. Inside there…
What About All the Spiders?
A commenter asks why I have all the spiders in my header and even suggests that there would be many other cool pictures I could use, thus avoiding the spiders. Let me tell you the story of this blog. Actually it started before I began using blogging software. I would just post essays. A friend…