Jesus Creed
How have modernity and postmodernity distorted how we understand the gospel? Jon Wilson, in his Why Church Matters, asks this question in chp 7: “Discipleship as Human Flourishing.” And we start with a bang: |inline Read more
How have modernity and postmodernity distorted how we understand the gospel? Jon Wilson, in his Why Church Matters, asks this question in chp 7: “Discipleship as Human Flourishing.” And we start with a bang: |inline Read more
While in Denmark Kris and I tasted Baresso Coffee — the Danish Starbuck’s — and we also had some Ictus Fair Trade coffee. Indeed, we brought some home. And when we got home, my friend and former student, Bob Robinson, had some coffee waiting for us from Dean’s Beans. So, now we’ve got a bundle of coffees in our freezer. One of the blends, from Dean’s Beans is called “The Jesus Creed Blend.” |inline Read more
Not only is Jesus the “Sabbath rest” himself (Matthew 11:28-30), Jesus embodies what he means by being the Sabbath rest in 12:1-8 (where Torah expresses mercy and love of others) and in 12:9-14 (where he shows that showing mercy to others is the point of life with Jesus). Missional Jesus is merciful and summons his followers to be merciful. |inline Read more
Anne Fadiman is. In her collection of essays, At Large and At Small, she opens the door to her life of collecting butterflies and, as time moves forward, speaks of a Darwin-like obsession with finding, storing, and labeling all things odd and wonderful. |inline Read more
The other day I mentioned at the very end of my last post about Oase that “our” book, A Community called Atonement, was soon coming out. Tony Jones gave me the “bid-neth” for using the old-fashioned, formal, if not pretentious word “our” and so he asked me, “Why do you use the plural ‘our’ when you talk about your books?” Here’s my response: |inline Read more
Missional Jesus, plain and simple, didn’t follow the rules. And here’s something to think about: there is very little difference at the phemenological level between the Torah and one’s interpretation of the Torah. So, even if we say, “Jesus didn’t really break the Torah; he broke only the interpretation of the Torah,” we are really fudging. Why? |inline Read more
In the 3d chp of Gilbert Meilaender’s exquisite volume, The Way That Leads There, we are treated to a meandering through Augustine’s City of God in quest of a Christian perception of politics. After last night’s debate and as we wind up once again to cast our votes, it is perhaps a good time to think again about politics. |inline Read more
Because of a recent letter, I have a few questions today: Do you have a theology of pets? Do you find some are so committed to their pets they are incapable of serving humans? What kind of theology of pet-care do you espouse? Here is a picture of our dog, the Bichon, and Luke and Annika’s two dogs, and then the letter: |inline Read more
Missional Jesus is self-oriented. I once referred to this as the justifiable egocentrism of Jesus. Some don’t like the expression; I do. Here’s why: |inline Read more
What is the best analogy to “church”? In Kester Brewin’s newly-republished book, Signs of Emergence: A Vision for the Church that is Organic/Networked/Decentralized/Bottom-up/Communal/Flexible {Always Evolving} (Baker, 2007), the analogy of an organism that emerges is preferred. In this book — with a cute title — we have a theory of emergence that lies behind the way many are using the word “emerging” in the emerging movement today. |inline Read more
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