The Bible and Culture

One of the main reasons to read a whole series of novels by a good writer is to watch how not only the characters develop, but also how the author ups his game.   By my count, The Demon Archer is the 11th in the series of Hugh Corbett medieval murder mysteries, and we see the author in full stride here, his powers of description keen.   Most all of Doherty's novels have some sort of historical core or kernel to them, and this novel is no different. Only this time the historical kernel is in the b … [Read more...]

One of the questions I get most frequently, in many forms is--- "When are you going to do another lecture tour to the Lands of the Bible?'  And now I can tell you,  it will be next May.  Below you will find the itinerary and cost and some explanation.  To that explanation I will add that if things get too 'warm' in the political sense in Egypt (Jordan and Israel are fine) then we will do Turkey instead.   Please note that the person to contact about this is the tour organizer, Levent Oral. … [Read more...]

I have now read 13 of the 16-17 Paul Doherty Hugh Corbett medieval mysteries.  Doherty began this series early in his career as a novelist, and the earliest novels reflect works in progress.   But there are also signs of the future skilled novelist.  The best of these early novels is 'Murder Wears a Cowl (1992).   In some ways this is the perfect summer beach reading, as it is a novel that is less than 250 pages, and the plot moves along rapidly.  In this novel not only Hugh Corbett but his trust … [Read more...]

There is an interesting article in a recent issue of the NY Times about the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/us/10prayer.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23For the record, I also have some reservations about the teaching of Mike Bickle.  My observation is that he himself needs more theological education than he has had.  His eschatology is not fully Biblical,  and he is given to making pronouncements about the return of Christ and its ti … [Read more...]

As John Dickson, one of the most difficult concepts to get across to late Western students is the concept of an ancient honor and shame culture, a culture where not truth nor life is the top value in the hierarchy of values, but rather obtaining honor is.  The Greek word is philotimia literally the love of honor, and it dominated the matrix of values in the Greco-Roman world, in particular the male part of that world tasked with obtaining, maintaining and sustaining the honor of his family and … [Read more...]

There are some artists dedicated to perfecting their craft.  They know their genre, they know their abilities, they know their limitations, and they stick to their strengths, refining and perfecting as they go.They do not tour just to make more money, indeed they may tour very seldom, as is the case with Helen 'Sade' Adu.  It has been a full decade since there was an album from Sade, much less a real tour.   The reason?  Sade was at home raising her kids in the U.K. (and Jamaica where she als … [Read more...]

The Fourth Chapter has a simple premise--- humility is winsome and beautiful, and arrogance is repellent and ugly.  Dickson thus suggests that there is an aesthetic dimension to humility and I mostly agree with him.  I do however think that there are plenty of persons out there who are wicked enough or narcisstic enough that they would not see humility as beautiful at all.  They would see it as weakness.   In other words, many would not find humility inherently attractive or beautiful or som … [Read more...]

The following is a repost by kind permission of Trevin Wax and his blog. Work and the Church: A Conversation with Gene Veith & Ben Witherington (Part 1) By Trevin Wax on Jun 21, 2011 in Interviews | Edit |  Print This Post | Share (Twitter, Email, Facebook)Not too long ago, I was reading a new book by Ben Witherington entitled Work: A Kingdom Perspective on Labor. Midway through the book, I saw that Witherington was interacting with Gene Veith’s book, God at Work: Your Christian Vocation i … [Read more...]

In this chapter John Dickson begins to mount his case for humility being not merely a virtue but being plain common sense.  After all, no one knows everything.     Dickson then explores the concept of  competency extrapolation.   But first he tells the following joke.  Four persons are on a plane whose engines suddenly quit.  The pilot comes back from the cockpit with three parachutes and says  "There are four of us, but only 3 parachutes. I am the pilot of this plane and it's my plane, so I must … [Read more...]