It’s been a long, long time since I’ve read a good book on the atonement. The last one that I found really stimulating and challenging was Jurgen Moltmann’s The Crucified God, and it came out 40 some years ago! As it turns out, my old friend Bill Craig the polymath philosopher and apologete has now provided a very readable book that is well-researched and well-argued throughout.  It’s the best current book I know of on this subject. I’ll be recommending... Read more

  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/opinion/rome-pompeii-slaves-mobility.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage Read more

It comes in a plain gray cover. And on first blush it seems like just another devotional book.  It is not. It is a collection of devotionals by historians and those who perhaps will be historians. To my knowledge, there’s never been a devotional book like this one.  Sometimes the devotional just involves a historian reflecting on the faith, but sometimes it’s a historian reflecting on history AND the Christian faith, and also the Christian faith in previous history.  So... Read more

 Read more

Unfortunately we live in an age where realities are denied. Fantasy is allowed to replace it.  My father fought in WWII and saw the devastations wrought by the Nazis, not least the concentration camps. As my Jewish friends say– ‘we must never forget’.  I bring this up because the twin sins of hatred of Jews and white supremacy have reared their ugly heads again in America.  If it were up to me, I would require members of such hate groups... Read more

This is the third Jake Brigance novel,  who was the star of John Grisham’s first big novel, a Time to Kill, and also the much more recent and excellent Sycamore Row.  Here Grisham is in his native habitat, talking about the law in Mississippi, where he was plied that very trade.  This novel is frankly more interesting and better than some of the other recent offerings by Grisham, not least because the author brings to bear his deep understanding of... Read more

 Read more

THE HABITS OF THE MIND   Infinite curiosity The mind never rests….. Searching and probing, The better, the best.   Imagination’s fantasies Transforming the real Infusing emotion Into things that do not feel….   The tears of a tree The smile of a sun Worry lines on a rock Drooping flowers, undone.   But motion is not emotion Nor brightness a smile A wind is not a spirit A stream has no guile   An active observer Transforms every scene... Read more

More of Philip Jenkins’ reflections……. Of Demons Laying Traps A Psalm 91 reference here would also contextualize Jesus’s foes quite powerfully. At the time, this was the main text for use in spiritual warfare and demon-fighting, and was used thus at Qumran. The hunter, or fowler, was the Devil, or a demon. So in this reading, the Pharisees were demonic. That reading is reflected in another (mis)translation, where is our Psalm 91.6 talks about “the plague that destroys at midday.”... Read more

Here is a very fine series of reflections by my friend and colleague Philip Jenkins. See what you think…. —— I recently had a sobering lesson in how we understand the New Testament. Obviously, it’s hard to make much sense of that text without at least  some knowledge of the Greek in which it was written, to appreciate the nuances of the text, all the allusions and cross-references. But further, we have to understand that when that text’s authors and... Read more