Psalm 30 is the story of the ups and downs of life, and David is frank and clear. He was in a flourishing spot, he became proud, the Lord was with him but disciplined him, and then the Lord lifted him back into that flourishing spot. Integral to genuine prayer is the rehearsal of our own story. But before we hear the specifics of David’s story, we need to see two things: first, that he is now thankful to God... Read more

Telling the truth of the Church’s Story means telling the whole story. In the Church’s Story are the stories of women who did mighty things. But these stories are not being told. What can we do to include these stories in our church’s story? The following is from Arise and is written by Priscilla Pope-Levison… From Arise, the weekly e-newsletter from Christians for Biblical Equality. Priscilla Pope-Levison is Professor of Theology and Assistant Director of Women’s Studies, Seattle Pacific University, affiliate... Read more

If you’ve ever taught Paul’s letters you know the challenge: How does one put Paul together? Or the teacher asks, Where can I begin that makes the whole become clear? Where do I tap to make this diamond fall out? Tim Gombis’s new book, Paul: A Guide for the Perplexed (Guides for the Perplexed), does this so well. For instance, in a sketch of Paul’s letters, Gombis asks this question: Is Paul a theologian, a missionary or a pastor? Which of... Read more

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen. Read more

W. David O. Taylor, ed.,For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts ~Reviewed by Wes Vander Lugt, a PhD student at the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts who edits and contributes to Transpositions, a new blog exploring transpositions between theology and the arts. Whether Catholics or Protestants, Reformed or Charismatic, younger evangelicals or older evangelicals, emerging or traditional, a growing number of churches and denominations worldwide are interested in and supporting the arts. While there... Read more

Test of re-use… Nothing like the beauty of creation to wake us up on a Saturday morning. I hope your coffee tastes better looking at God’s world. This will be our last Weekly Meanderings at Beliefnet. Next week it will be at our new site at Patheos, and that move has been consuming some of my blog-reading time but here’s a few links… Jay Phelan has some insightful words about the internet and civility. Anne Farley-Rollé, who pointed me at Jay’s... Read more

I will be posting this a few times, but just to begin the notification process now. We will be blogging right here at Beliefnet through August 31 but on September 1 we will be at our new site. Please point your link toward the new address at Patheos, which you can visit now:  http://www.patheos.com/community/jesuscreed/ And the new RSS feed address is:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/PatheosJesusCreed Read more

The youth in the church reflect a Christianity of niceness Kenda Dean’s new book is called Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church , and it is a hard-hitting critique of the American church (and therefore of parents) for the condition of the faith of its youth. Kenda Dean’s got some very quotable lines. Her 2d chp is about the triumph of the “cult of nice.” American youth are devoted to nonjudgmental openness, self-determination, and... Read more

This day had to come. Some journals are experimenting with online submissions and online reviews in the process of accepting pieces for publication. Here’s a piece by Patricia Cohen at NYTimes describing the process. For professors, publishing in elite journals is an unavoidable part of university life. The grueling process of subjecting work to the up-or-down judgment of credentialed scholarly peers has been a cornerstone of academic culture since at least the mid-20th century. Now some humanities scholars have begun to... Read more