Christmas Words 15: Magi

Last updated on: December 18, 2009 at 11:39 am By Scot McKnight

“We three kings of orient are” is another Christmas song that combines a rich legend (like names: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar) about the magi and some nice theology. Here it is. We three kings of Orient areBearing gifts we traverse afarField and fountain, moor and mountainFollowing yonder star O Star of wonder, star of nightStar with royal beauty brightWestward leading, still proceedingGuide us to thy Perfect Light Born a King on Bethlehem’s plainGold I bring to crown Him againKing... Read more

Uganda and Homosexuality and Christians

Last updated on: December 18, 2009 at 5:58 am By Scot McKnight

Sarah Pulliam Bailey, at CT, published yesterday both a report and an interview, and I’ve clipped a bit. The report focuses on Ugandan Christians who want the Western countries and Christians to stay out of Ugandan legal decisions… thoughts? Do you agree with these Ugandan suggestions that interference is colonialist? How do you think Western Christians should “interfere” with Ugandan policy? The proposed anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda has created tension between American Christians who have condemned the legislation and Ugandan... Read more

Do You Read Sermons?

Last updated on: December 18, 2009 at 12:03 am By Scot McKnight

I do not have a life-long habit of reading sermons, though I have read sermons at times in my career. I have numbers of pastor friends who routinely listen to sermons and do so for both formational reasons and for their own development as preachers. I tend to use my quieter times for praying and for pondering and for thinking or for listening to music. Questions: Do you listen to or read sermons? What are your habits? What do you... Read more

Mars Hill Reflections

Last updated on: December 17, 2009 at 2:11 pm By Scot McKnight

When I told my students that I was going to speak at Mars Hill, the Rob Bell Mars Hill, I had three immediate responses: (1) “The Real Rob Bell?” [Yes.] (2) “Why are they asking you?” [What does one say to an insult?] and (3) “You’re kidding me, of course.” [And that from one who is from Mars Hill.] Well, such is the life of a professor. By the way, this Elvis picture I took with my iPhone in the... Read more

Christmas Words 14: Herod

Last updated on: December 17, 2009 at 11:38 am By Scot McKnight

You can’t have a good story with a protagonist as highly exalted as Jesus, not the least in his birth story, without having a solid antagonist — and we’ve got one: Herod the Great who populates Matthew’s second chapter like a crazed power-hungry despot. Which he was in fact. Oddly enough, everything Herod does paradoxically witnesses to the glory of the newborn King: 1. Herod’s question leads to a biblical “word” search to see where the Messiah was to be... Read more

Education for Human Flourishing … Do we need the soul? (RJS)

Last updated on: July 21, 2012 at 8:27 am By RJS

IVP is publishing a series of books designed to help college students in a variety of disciplines integrate a Christian worldview into their approach to their discipline. The first book in this series is by Paul Spears and Steven Loomis entitled Education for Human Flourishing: A Christian Perspective. This book addresses the question of the integration of a Christian worldview with education and the philosophy of education. The book is directed toward K-12 teaching in particular, but can also apply... Read more

Peter Rollins and His Relentless Paradoxes

Last updated on: December 17, 2009 at 12:01 am By Scot McKnight

I will admit that I found Peter Rollins’ The Fidelity of Betrayal over the edge, but I did really like parts of his How (Not) to Speak of God. He loves paradoxes and he explores them and he creates them and he offends by them, and sometimes I wonder where he stands and what he’s really doing. And his rhetoric and his ideas draw me back to listen again… And his newest book, The Orthodox Heretic: And Other Impossible Tales... Read more

Beyond a Dickens Christmas

Last updated on: December 16, 2009 at 11:29 pm By Scot McKnight

The response, mostly private, to the following book was so good I want to repost it: Verlyn Verbrugge is known to many authors as their editor, but few know of his expertise in reading and interpreting the Bible, so I’m quite happy to recommend his brief meditation on Christmas, called A Not-So-Silent Night: The Unheard Story of Christmas and Why It Matters . It is not unusual for pastors and parents to wander into the observation that Christmas season has... Read more

Advent Conspiracy at the Jesus Creed

Last updated on: December 16, 2009 at 4:00 pm By Scot McKnight

One way to make Christmas real is to spend less on ourselves and to give more, and Rick McKinley has called this the Advent Conspiracy. At the Jesus Creed blog, we are asking you to consider joining Kris and me in supporting a CarePoint in Swaziland that could make a life-saving and spiritual difference in the lives of hundreds of underfed and orphaned children. Here is our little Swazi child to the right; you can help a child like this too,... Read more

Christmas Words 13: Star

Last updated on: December 16, 2009 at 11:37 am By Scot McKnight

Nearly every piece of Christmas art work I have scence has a bright, shiny star, the Star of Bethlehem, the star that guided the Magi from the East to Jesus, he was born to be King of the Jews. What do we learn from the star for Advent? Without dismissing it as irrelevant, the quest to find the comet or astronomical data serves a purpose, but has very little to do with the meaning of the text. R.T. France suggests it... Read more