"There are two great days in a person's life - the day we are born and the day we discover why." ---William Barclay"God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well."---Voltaire"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"---Satchel Paige (famous baseball pitcher who was famously elusive or uncertain about his own age, perhaps so he could keep pitching professionally)."The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose … [Read more...]
The Imitation Game– Indeceipherably Good!
December 29, 2014 by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn-7SNrQWMo"It's the person one imagines can hardly do anything, that end up doing something no one has yet imagined." This is the leitmotif of 'The Imitation Game', a very fine film indeed which is receiving all kinds of award nominations during this season.We seem to love our stories about socially awkward, eccentric, geniuses. Interestingly, the two most memorable roles that Benedict Cumberbatch has thus far played both involve such persons--- the … [Read more...]
Enemies at Home– A Novel by Lindsey Davis
December 29, 2014 by
I've been a Lindsey Davis fan for a very long time. Of the truly excellent novelists about the Roman Republic and the Empire, Coleen McCullough, Stephen Saylor, and Lindsey Davis, none of them are as clever and add as much humor to the telling of the tale as Lindsey Davis. None cook up the atmosphere or ethos of the era any better than her either. I've read all twenty or so of the Marcus Didius Falco novels and loved them all. Reading Davis is a painless way to learn what life in ancient … [Read more...]
Fresh Light on Paul— Two Resources
December 28, 2014 by
Of the making of books about Paul there is no end, but that doesn't mean there don't continue to be valuable ones produced. In fact, I am planning on doing a second updated version of my own Paul Quest book with a collaborator before long, but for now, I have two books to suggest to you which are both entry level texts on Paul, surveying his life, letters, and his thought. Both are beautifully illustrated and with useful maps. One is a little under 300 pages and one is right at 400 pages. The … [Read more...]
The Bible and its Difficulties– Part Two
December 27, 2014 by
Here is the second in the series of videos I did with Dr. Michael Halcomb, my former doctoral student. This one is on the Bible and History.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QRhqfNB9ies … [Read more...]
The Prince of Peace– Part Six
December 26, 2014 by
Today, on the British calendar, is Boxing Day. No it's not about hitting people while wearing gloves and confined to a ring. It's about boxing up some of the Christmas stuff and giving it to the less fortunate. In his discussion of Jesus' saying 'I've come that you might have life, and have it abundantly' Wendell Berry warns us that Jesus is not advocating avarice. "In an age of materialist science, economics,art, and politics, we ought not to be much shocked by the appearance of materialist … [Read more...]
The Prince of Peace– Part Five
December 25, 2014 by
'What should I give him, poor as I am, If I was a shepherd, I would give a lamb...'Well here's a thought on Christmas day, why not give him your obedience to his teachings? I doubt there are many things that would please Jesus, young or as an adult, more than the gift of his followers' obedience. We need to resist the tendency to trivialize, rationalize, domesticate or otherwise water down the teachings of Jesus. As Wendell Berry insists "Reductive religion is just as objectionable as … [Read more...]
The Prince of Peace— Part Four
December 24, 2014 by
Wendell Berry reminds us that the Gospels ask us many embarrassing questions not the least of which is, 'If we had lived in the time of Jesus and heard the teaching found in the Gospels, would we have become one of his followers?' Wendell says the way to decide whether you'd pass this test or not is imagine you were walking past the court house one day and heard someone unknown, say named Joe Green, sharing verbatim what you hear in Mt. 5-7, with the proviso that you had never heard this … [Read more...]
The Prince of Peace– Part Three
December 23, 2014 by
In talking about the reason Christians have so flagrantly ignored the demands of the Sermon on the Mount, Wendell Berry puts his finger on one of the keys when he says "They have justified their disobedience on the grounds of the impracticality of obedience, though we have little proof of the practicality of disobedience...The implication invariably has been that for a few feckless worshippers of God to obey Christ's commandments may be all right,but in practical matters such as war and … [Read more...]
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