The Bible and Culture

Introduction | Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three As with previous chapters, Bart gives us a bit of his biography and how he came to leave behind the Evangelical faith and take a very different view of the Bible.   Along the way he suggests that there are at least two forgeries in  the OT---- Ecclesiastes and Daniel  (pp. 117-18).   One of the problems in the way Bart deals with both of these books is the failure to recognize the results of appropriate source criticism.   … [Read more...]

This will in all likelihood be my last contribution to the socio-rhetorical series of Eerdmans.   It will be out in the Fall. … [Read more...]

One of my favorite old school bands is Train, and one of my favorite songs from their most recent CD has become a popular wedding song in lots of venues.  Here it is in High Def.   Enjoy  BW3 … [Read more...]

Introduction | Chapter One | Chapter Two (N.B.  This is a long post on this chapter, and you may want to take it in doses, as there is much to deal with). So we may orient ourselves appropriately we will start with Bart’s bold conclusion on p. 114.--- “the majority of scholars acknowledge that whereas there are seven letters in the New Testament that Paul certainly wrote, , six others are probably (or for some scholars, certainly) not by Paul…”    I have already warned in … [Read more...]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700123591/Historical-Jesus-Prophet-or-revolutionary.html The author of the article interviewed several scholars, including your truly.   Check it out. … [Read more...]

Introduction | Chapter One Bart begins his second chapter (pp. 43-77)  by making the good point that truth is complex, and that there can be stories that may never have historically happened, but are true in some other or deeper sense.   Obviously any kind of good fiction, say parables, is a good example of this point.  Parables are not attempt to describe things that have actually happened and were observed to have happened.   There has never been a harvest like the one recounted in … [Read more...]

Meet Hassan Saida.  By day a truck driver, by night a cave crawler.   He lives in the northern part of the Galilee, and claims he found these lead objects in a cave (where else) northeast of the Sea of Galilee near the conjunction of  Israel Jordan and Syra, near the town of Saham, Jordan.   Jordanian officials naturally want these object back and are making large claims about their importance in regard to Jesus and the history of his earliest followers.   The region, to be sure is a … [Read more...]

Introduction The first chapter begins with something of a disclaimer.  “There was a good deal of that sort of activity in the ancient world [i.e. forgery]…although it was not a major factor in early Christianity. This was for a simple reason: Christian books were not, by and large, for sale”  (p. 15) and as Bart points out,  making money was even in antiquity one major reason for forgeries.    On p. 17 Bart goes on to say that there is ‘scant’ evidence of Christians producing … [Read more...]

There have been three truly great medieval murder mystery writers in my lifetime, all British---  Ellis Peters  (aka Edith Pargeter, with her sleuth Brother Cadfael), C.J. Sansom,  and Paul Doherty.  They all write very well, know how to keep you guessing and have produced interesting full-bodied characters.   While Peters novels are a bit lighter and more cheerful and often involve romance as well as murder,  Doherty and Sansom's novels plumb the depths of some of the more dark side of … [Read more...]

If you were to actually begin reading Love Wins with the very last chapter, you would quickly see why I have said the book deserves to be evaluated primarily as a poetic expression of Rob’s faith.   It is not an exercise in detailed exegesis or systematic theology any more than the psalms (songs) should be evaluated as systematic theology.    While I agree that the underlying theological assumptions and assertions in this book are fair game for close analysis and critique,  you would be … [Read more...]