The following post is one of our “Friday is for Friends” posts written by friends of the Jesus Creed blog. Today’s post is by Rachel Held Evans, and you can read more about her at her blog. Growing up in the conservative evangelical subculture, I spent a lot of years trying desperately to achieve what is commonly referred to as “biblical womanhood”–an elusive spiritual standard hailed by my pastors and professors as the best way to please God and honor... Read more
We are looking at the new perspective debate and to do that we are working our way through Tom Wright’s Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision. Wright’s argument is that one can’t simply read 1:18 and then 3:19-20 and conclude that in between all Paul was saying was “So all are sinful and need saving” (202). Instead, Wright sees more of a theodicy at work: God is showing himself faithful to his covenant promises to redeem the world through Israel.... Read more
When it comes to commentaries on Ephesians, I still turn first to the Ephesians commentary that I first learned from so much… Markus Barth, but I’m getting ahead of myself. This series is intended to help pastors who are preparing sermons and are looking for solid exegetical studies, but I am in need of your help with the recommendations you have. Which commentary on Ephesians do you like most? As I said, I like Markus Barth and have ever since... Read more
The problem with John Mark Reynolds‘ new book, When Athens Met Jerusalem: An Introduction to Classical and Christian Thought , is that neither the title nor the subtitle is fulfilled in the book. The book is about Athens with hardly a thing about Jerusalem; it’s about Classical thought with very little about Christian thought. Of course, he might contest that Platonism prepares for Christianity, and I would counter that, well, yes, it did — especially in the 2d and 3d... Read more
Today, a word for leaders, and it goes with the book I mentioned by Ruth Haley Barton. Spiritually formed leaders don’t crave power, aren’t envious of the successes of others, and desire to be in friendship with God. Here are James’ words and I’m “opening up the lines” today to hear from leaders about the struggles with power. Question: What does this text teach us about the proper use of power in leadership? James 4:7-10: Submit yourselves, then, to God.... Read more
SMcK foreword: RJS’s question below stunned me this morning. Did God create in such a way that the laws of nature were how he created, so that expecting something outside the laws of nature is looking for the wrong thing? And I wonder how you define miracle: Is it an “interpretive” word or the event itself? Anyway, here’s the post by RJS: John Polkinghorne has written an excellent little book Quarks, Chaos & Christianity ruminating on questions related to science... Read more
We don’t get the issues (behind the book) on the table with descriptive clarity until chp 4 in Mark Noll’s new book, The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith, and in my estimation Noll is making a proposal that flies in the face of a plenty of popular thinkers today. What is your general view of the missionary movement of American Christianity? What are the negatives and positives of the American missionary movement? Does the... Read more
Our chipmunks? We’ve got them everywhere. I wonder at times if we don’t have the ideal conditions for a chipmunk breeding ground: a porch under which they can burrow, birds who knock gobs of bird seed onto the ground, and a garage in which there is a bucket of bird seed which these little critters have discovered — and out of which they sometimes jump and startle us when we walk into the garage. The other day I counted six... Read more
James 4:7-10 contains a list of commands and prohibitions, with an occasional promise. Here is the text, and you can read it and see if you think here is a discernible structure: Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy... Read more
“Someone has said that we are not human beings trying to become spiritual but spiritual beings trying to become human.” I’m not quite sure what that set of options means, but it pushes against the tendency for Christian leaders to be gnostic — and Ruth Haley Barton, in her new book, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry , guides pastors in spiritual discernment and how to craft a life where their own spiritual... Read more
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