Entering the hotel lobby, he headed straight for the elevator. Before the doors opened, the front desk manager called out, “Sir, … um … where are you going?” Read more
Entering the hotel lobby, he headed straight for the elevator. Before the doors opened, the front desk manager called out, “Sir, … um … where are you going?” Read more
In the last post, I mentioned Donald Trump’s comment that he considered it is a “badge of honor” that the U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world. I looked at the problem with his appeal to “honor.” Today, I want to highlight a fundamental problem with his logic. Read more
Comedians are fretting the possibility of Trump not winning reelection. He gives them so much material to work with. Likewise, Trump has done so much to help people understand how honor and shame manifest in culture. Read more
A common objection emerges when I speak of using honor and shame in evangelism and theology. In short, some people assume that honor-shame oriented cultures relativize sin such that “sin isn’t really sin as long as it is hidden from view.” This impression is a misapplication of a half-true idea. I’ll explain. Read more
Churches want to support missionaries. They just want to know how. Most mission agencies and advocates primarily focus on the support missionaries need to do their work. Few churches have thought comprehensively about the needs of people returning from the mission field. Read more
“I sacrificed more by leaving the mission field.” When my friend recently made this statement, I not only knew she was right; I recognized how few people realized the cost missionaries pay when returning to their home country. Far fewer churches and mission organizations talk about it. Read more
The goal of Te-Li Lau’s "Defending Shame" is to explore Paul’s use of shame for the sake of moral formation. Specifically, Paul uses “retrospective shame” and “prospective shame” in an effort to bring about “Christic formation.” Lau’s survey of Paul is rich with insight. Read more
To cooperate in sharing the gospel, we must find common ground as to the content of the gospel. People should be able to agree on the big ideas shaping the biblical gospel, even if there is disagreement about smaller points of emphasis and verbiage. Yet, a fundamental problem plagues the “What is the gospel?” debate. Read more
At the recent T4G/TGC conference, Greg Gilbert made an astonishing claim (and misrepresentation) concerning the gospel as understood by people like McKnight, Bates, Wright, and others. My critique still stands. Read more
There is an internal logic to shame. This is one reason Te-Li Lau writes Part 1 (“Framework”) of Defending Shame. For many people, the initial section of an academic book could easily be called “Boring But Necessary.” I was tempted to skim the first few chapters of Lau’s book; I’m glad I didn’t. (The first post in this series gave a broad introduction to Defending Shame: Its Formative Power in Paul’s Letters.) Definitions and Clarifications Chapter 1 provides the conceptual framework for his... Read more
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