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, … Read more

[Note: This continues the chapter-by-chapter review of Rob Bell’s Love Wins.  To catch up on the series so far, read Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, and Part Six] I like Rob Bell’s pastoral spirit.  And I love the story he tells at the beginning of the Seventh Chapter of this book.  Rob knows how to deal with abused persons and broken persons in compassionate ways, in the spirit of  Christ’s own dealings with such persons. There’s no doubt that Rob is… Read more

On my trip to Houston, from which I just returned,  I had occasion to visit Mark Lanier’s  brainchild— a little Christian enclave consisting of a fine research library (modeled, as he told me on various Oxfordian libraries) a beautiful Orthodox style stone chapel, and a Cotswoldian style cottage for scholar’s in residence to stay in.  With my sabbatical coming up next year,  I volunteered to be scholar in residence for a bit.   Mark Lanier is an interesting guy—- said to… Read more

[Note: This continues the chapter-by-chapter review of Rob Bell’s Love Wins.  To catch up on the series so far, read Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five.] It’s not usually kosher to complain when a book written for lay people and even for non-believers fails to reference a particular part of the scholarly discussion of something.  But when in fact ignorance of the discussion leads to misinterpretation of Biblical texts, on issues as large as — ‘on what basis are… Read more

So I was just checking out the remarkable and new Lanier Theological Library with my friends  Marlin and Edward when along came Mark Lanier himself,  the famous legal beagle of Houston, and we started chatting and the next thing I knew I was embarking on something I have never done before—– signing copies of every single book I’ve ever written all at once.  Well, actually there were a couple or three missing, but here is the visual proof it happened. … Read more

Bart Ehrman’s new book,  Forged   (Harper, 2011, 307 pages) has hit the bookstalls  and has been hovering in the 300s in the list of top sellers,  eclipsed by another Harper book that came out at about the same juncture—- Rob Bell’s  Love Wins which has been reviewed in detail already, chapter by chapter on this blog.   Ehrman’s new book will receive the same sort of chapter by chapter analysis. This book should not be confused with some of Bart’s previous… Read more

Seeing as how this blog is called the Bible and culture, sometimes we focus more on the culture side of things.  And with this recent ministry trip to Katy Texas we ran smack dab into all sorts of Texas culture, in particular its food culture, and if you haven’t sampled Texas food culture, then  you have lived a deprived existence,  I am sorry to say.   In particular, if you have not sampled Bluebell (named after the flower) ice cream or … Read more

[Note: To see the series so far, read Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four.] In some ways,  Chapter Five, which is brief (pp. 121-37) is the best chapter in the book thus far.   Here Rob reviews a variety of metaphors and ideas used to explain both the work of Christ on the cross and its benefits.  He stresses that Christ’s death meant the end of the sacrificial system in toto.  Jesus paid it all. I particularly like… Read more

There are always claims being made about the supposed latest amazing discovery of game changing and epic making archaeological objects.  One of the most recent are the initial claims being noised about in the news about some lead codices apparently found in northern Jordan by a Bedouin (who else?)  who now lives in Galilee.   Here is a link to an article by a BBC writer on the find—– http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12888421         Sanity and caution are advised but Philip Davies emeritus professor… Read more

 Read more