Wright agrees with the majority: Romans 12:14-21 shifts to a concern with outsiders, and evidently to a kind of outsider that has an impact inside. He now addresses how the community of faith should respond to its opponents and persecutors. |inline Read more
A new study by The Barna Group (Ventura, California) shows that despite strong levels of spiritual activity during the teen years, most twentysomethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years – and often beyond that. In total, six out of ten twentysomethings were involved in a church during their teen years, but have failed to translate that into active spirituality during their early adulthood. |inline Read more
A nice convergence: our series on Women in Ministry and on Scriptures and Scripture converge in the chapter by Pamela Cochran on “Scripture, Feminism, and Sexuality.” |inline Read more
In Romans 12:9-13 Paul provides what NT Wright calls a “more general list of ways in which individual Christians and groups or churches are to behave” (711). He observes they are connected to building one another up. |inline Read more
Some see education solely in terms of professional training. College, so they think, will prepare them for a job — and the more money the better. There’s another element, far more important, behind and beyond the professional nature of college education. I call it the personal element. |inline Read more
I have a question for you today about the various lists of spiritual gifts in the NT. I will give here the list in Romans, but we can then look to 1 Cor 12, Eph 4 and 1 Peter, and can ask this question: Are these substances (specific, discernible gifts) or are they various manifestations of what the Spirit does when at work in the community of faith? |inline Read more
One of the challenges women face in ministry today is the accusation of the feminization of the church. There are a variety of platforms on which this accusation is hurled, but each of the platforms works against women in ministry. |inline Read more
A theologian with an enormous impact but whom I’ve barely read is Hans Urs van Balthasar. In Justin Holcomb’s Christian Theologies of Scripture, the essay on Balthasar is written by a specialist, W.T. Dickens. The question he provokes is this one: Wherein lies the unity of Scripture? Is it found in witnessing to a larger systematic theology? In witnessing to a variety of witnesses to the one truth of God in the gospel? Where is it? What do you think... Read more
Romans 12:3 “stresses,” according to N.T. Wright, “the role of disciplined thinking as being at the very root of basic Christian living.” I can’t detail it here, but it would not be hard for us to think of how many problems could be resolved in the Church if we would all learn to think Christian-ly about life. |inline Read more
I had a fantastic conversation recently with Steve Burdan about singles, singles again, and the single lifestyle. He heads up a ministry with singles of all ages called Full Life Chicago. (more…) Read more
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