The Bible and Culture

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( A further excerpt from the Indelible Image Vol. Two). NURTURING A SENSE OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION Biblical theology, or canonical theology, or Biblical ethics or canonical ethics if they are even going to be attempted should not be done in an a-historical manner, as if the Bible could be treated flatly as a thesaurus of theological and ethical ideas in which ‘salvation’ in Exodus, means exactly the same thing as ‘saved by grace through faith in Christ’ means in Ephesians. If … [Read more...]

(In January we will start with a bang by reviewing and critiquing the fine new book by R. Feldmeier and H. Spieckerman, God of the Living. A Biblical Theology. In preparation for that, what follows in the posts leading up to the end of the year are excerpts from my own The Indelible Image.Vol. 2 that prepare us for that discussion. -------- THE THOUGHT WORLDS OF THE OT AND NT, AND THE WAY FORWARD “When the author of the play steps out on the stage, the play is over.”—C.S. … [Read more...]

Ah the beauties of Hawaii and the ugliness of broken human relationships juxtaposed. Add to all that the problems of dealing with death when you don't really believe in life after death. Here is a story written by a Hawaiian about believable life on the islands. And also trouble in paradise. The Descendants is indeed a powerful movie, and a perfect vehicle for Kentucky 'homey' George Clooney to show his full dynamic range. Clooney plays a self-absorbed millionaire facing a major … [Read more...]

Scholarly books should not be evaluated on the basis of their length. A weighty tome may not be a useful one, just a verbose one. On the other hand, some short books are rich and rewarding and repay close study. Robert McIver's book is one of the latter sort of books. In the ninth chapter of this brief but important study the stress is on the significance of the fact that Jesus was a teacher. Indeed, some 56 times he is addressed as teacher or rabbi in the Gospels. Further, of the 55 … [Read more...]

I was cruising along through Chapel Hill a couple of days ago and my daughter Christy and her boyfriend decided we need to go see the latest Cruise missile in IMAX size. This meant going to the Southpoint Mall in Durham to see the latest installment of the Mission Impossible Saga, in glorious eardrum bursting IMAX complete with rock concert sized sound. It has been a while since we have had an episode in this film series, and while they have been filled with amazing stunts and scenes, … [Read more...]

So far as we can tell, the Jesus tradition never went dormant. By this I mean when we conceive of the composing of the Gospels we should not conceive of Gospel writers desperately searching for long lost documents so they could write the story of Jesus. So far as we can tell the tradition of words and deeds of Jesus was living, being used, being shared, being spread throughout the period A.D. 30-70 and beyond. It was a living oral tradition. Thus, when we come to Chapter 8 of McIver's … [Read more...]

Human memory is episodic, and so are the Gospels. Personal event memories are especially that way, and they have distinctive features. They are intense memories of very specific events, and short periods of time, fully of sensory data and often irrelevant minor details, and often they do not have a larger narrative context, are not anchored by a timeline or even a description of geographical location. McIver calls such memories granular, relating specific moments and incidents. Here are his … [Read more...]

The study of collective memory is very important for understanding early Christianity and its handling of its sacred traditions. This post must focus on that and related matters. Collective memory refers to memories shared by all members of the specified group based on shared experiences. One of the things that research into collective memory has shown is that the needs and interests of the present in part determine what is recalled, and what is deemed important about what is recalled. … [Read more...]