Almost Christian 6

Last updated on: September 9, 2010 at 5:18 am By Scot McKnight

Youth ministry focuses on the basics, and one of the basics of the entire Christian message and community is missional. Kenda Dean's new book, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church, examines that theme in chp 5, and her chp is as good a summary of the meaning of "missional" as you are likely to find. Her concern is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, and MTD is inherently individualistic, self-expressive, and selfish. The Story of God in the Bible is entirely other: it is a Story of other-orientation. God sent his Son to be with us and God calls his people to extend that sending-love and dwelling-with-love to others. She calls parents, churches and youth groups to develop a missional imagination. She calls us to "waste" our life for others -- she's playing with the word "waste," where she ties Mark 14:4 (the woman's waste of ointment on Jesus) and Jesus's use of the same word for his disciples to "lose" [waste] their life for him and the gospel (8:35). In this one finds the essence of a missional imagination. Read more

On Painting Icons

Last updated on: September 8, 2010 at 4:39 pm By Scot McKnight

In the event you are not a reader of Books & Culture, I recommend you consider it. The most recent online edition has a review of a book about making icons, and the review is by Frederica Mathewes-Green, and here’s a valuable clip to whet your appetite: During the entire time the iconographer prays and fasts. She will maintain an inner gaze toward Christ and the brothers or sisters in faith whom she seeks to present; she will abstain from... Read more

Reclaiming the Mind

Last updated on: September 7, 2010 at 5:03 pm By Scot McKnight

Over at Reclaiming the Mind, Michael Patton, a wonderful blogger and teacher, is announcing classes for this Fall. Check it out. Read more

Dress Code Time

Last updated on: September 10, 2010 at 4:15 pm By Scot McKnight

Every Fall when school starts up we read reports of new dress code debates, and the recent one in Chicagoland has some students upset, some parents in favor of administration, while a few parents wonder why school administrators want to spend their time on such issues. Are you hearing this in your area? What do you think the bottom-line principles should be with dress codes? Read more

Our Common Prayerbook 32 – 3

Last updated on: September 10, 2010 at 4:14 pm By Scot McKnight

One of the most memorable and quietly used psalms is Psalm 32, a psalm of confession. We’ve been digging into this psalm a bit this week (Monday and Tuesday). First, we saw David’s pain in not confessing and his joy in confessing. Second, we saw David’s instructions to others to learn to confess, and today we want to look at the joy of forgiveness. One of the inner elements of our faith is sin; connected to that sin is the... Read more

The Common English Bible: a new translation

Last updated on: September 8, 2010 at 11:35 am By Scot McKnight

When I get a new translation, I read three passages slowly and carefully, with a Green NT near at hand, to give me a feel for the translation and the translation theory: I read the Sermon on the Mount, I read Romans 3, and then I read James. Usually I can get a good solid feel for the translation from these three passages. I did this recently with The Common English Bible (New Testament). I like what I see here and I'll keep this translation near me on my desk. What do you do? How do you assess a new translation? Do you want something that sounds familiar or something that startles you by change and makes you to think anew about the text? Which translations do you find most useful today? 115 leading Bible scholars participated; ecumenical and mainline; field tested by 77 reading specialists in 13 denominations. It comes out completely in 2011, four hundred years after the KJB. The CEB will be useful and good for personal reading, public reading, and for classroom study. It will have the Apocrypha when completed. Here are a few big summary thoughts, and I've only dabbled in other passages: First, it sides in general with an NIV or TNIV approach: it aims at accessibility, clarity and avoidance of unnecessary misunderstandings. Thus, it has "brothers and sisters" instead of "brothers" throughout. While some call this "inclusive" there is a solid fact suggesting this isn't "inclusive" so much as "accurate." Very often a "brothers" means "everyone" and not just "male Christians." So that it is not an inclusive view so much as an accurate translation. Read more

Paul for the Perplexed 3

Last updated on: September 7, 2010 at 4:57 pm By Scot McKnight

I'll say it a stronger way, as if the two options are polar opposites and we have to choose one or the other, but I'll do this for rhetorical purposes: Christians (are to) indwell a Story more than believe in a theological system. Nuance: that Story contains a theology and that theology deserves careful articulation, but the issue here is how best to frame what we believe. Do we do it as a narrative or a set of topics? Do we declare our system and then read the Story of the Bible, or do we know the Story and let theology grow out of that Story? Frankly, while I don't see these as polar opposites, they remain two significantly different starting points or approaches. Tim Gombis's new book, Paul: A Guide for the Perplexed (Guides for the Perplexed), gives to us the "structure of Paul's thought" by sketching the "narrative Paul inhabits." Exactly. And I find that many today misuse (and abuse) Paul because they want him to fit a system instead of letting Paul's own way of doing things -- inhabiting Israel's Story -- shape what he says. I won't re-sketch Gombis' sketch but suggest you read it when you get a chance, but here are the elements: Read more

Good for James-Michael Smith

Last updated on: September 7, 2010 at 4:53 pm By Scot McKnight

James-Michael Smith joins millions who are disgusted by the Koran burning plans. I am inclined to think the media’s decision to give this guy attention has created more problems than there would have been; that means I’m inclined also to think that even mentioning the event attracts more attention to it; but I’m committed to speaking out against what he is doing, and Smith’s piece is a good statement. If you had two minutes with this Koran-burning pastor, what would... Read more

The Writing Life

Last updated on: September 3, 2010 at 9:17 pm By Scot McKnight

The Writing Life is not it’s all cracked up to be. Let me jump out of the blocks with that one. I do so only because it’s true. Before I give you a choice set of lines from a brilliant writer, I give you a few of my own thoughts on The Writing Life. Here’s a good (and typical) day, and it would be every day if my school somehow got the idea that funding a professor to write without... Read more

Our Common Prayerbook 32 – 2

Last updated on: September 10, 2010 at 4:16 pm By Scot McKnight

The Book of Psalms is the prayerbook we have in common; all Christians can learn to pray by reading the Psalms and listening to them. We can learn to pray by re-praying the Psalms. Psalm 32 teaches us to confess, and we learn to confess by being permitted into the “confessional” of David. Yesterday we looked into David’s experience in vv. 3-5, and today I want to probe a bit into how David teaches others to pray (vv. 6-7, 9-10)... Read more