Were the Sages of the Bible to be found in schools? Were they male elites? Were they professionals alongside priests and prophets (“go to the next door down, sir, if you’d like to talk with a Sage — this is the door for Priests”)? Is the Sage a father passing on wisdom to sons and daughters? These are the questions Tremper Longman asks and answers in his book The Fear of the Lord is Wisdom. They are also questions with very defined... Read more
This story about woodpeckers matches a story we have about a local cardinal. If a car is in our driveway, it is common for a male cardinal to land on the rear view mirror, hop around to get position, and tap away on the mirror. The pileateds of Georgia are evidently considerably fiercer. SNELLVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Authorities say a pesky woodpecker has been breaking car mirrors in Georgia. WSB Radio reports over a dozen cars in a Snellville neighborhood were damaged... Read more
Instead of “evangelicals” perhaps some of us need to call ourselves “Beaconists.” I’m swiping a term from Peggy Noonan’s essay “On Setting an Example” from The Wall Street Journal way back in 2007 (see her The Time of Our Lives). The term, of course, isn’t immediately obvious but it’s a start in the right direction. A beacon is a light strategically visible in order to communicate: warning, guidance, direction. Before we get into the swing of this essay I want to... Read more
Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. BCP Read more
Clayton Kershaw whipped the Cubs, but he did it for the Lord’s glory! I knew there was a reason I filed away that late-summer Los Angeles Times story about Ellen Kershaw, the wife of Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Clayton Kershaw. Watching him pitch in the first game of the World Series last night reminded me to pull this feature out of my GetReligion guilt folder. This story contained a giant religion ghost that I just couldn’t believe the Times team ignored, especially in light of the newspaper’s coverage of... Read more
The Bible is not a Toy, by John Frye Eugene Peterson presents “The Last Word on Scripture” in Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination not by arguing about inspiration and inerrancy or by pressing into epistemology and hermeneutics or by forcing the Word of God into some interpretive grid (e.g., YEC). Peterson is concerned about the intent of Scripture; its purpose in the lives of God’s people. “Words link spirits. Reduced to writing and left there,... Read more
Alan Jacobs, Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the Honors Program of Baylor University, has a new book out: How to Think. An important topic. An essay excerpted from the introduction was published in the Wall Street Journal recently, brought to my attention by a friend who thought that as a Christian and an academic I might find it interesting. (Essay: Can Evangelicals and Academics Talk to Each Other?, behind a pay wall.) An interviewer in The Atlantic characterizes the book... Read more
A book note. David Hollinger, in his new impressive study called Protestants Abroad, with the subtitle revealing the point of the book: How Missionaries Tried to Change the World but Changed America. the protestant foreign missionary project expected to make the world look more like the United States. Instead, it made the United States look more like the world. The missionary encounter with peoples beyond the historically Christian West yielded relatively generous dispositions toward the varieties of humankind, and led the missionaries... Read more
After the storm, by Kelly Edmiston who is a minister at the First Colony Church of Christ in Houston Texas. The office was small but it felt very peaceful. The couch along one wall looked as if it could have been in a living room not too long ago. On it sat three colorful pillows and a blanket was draped casually over the back. Along the back wall sat low bookshelves housing theology, philosophy and therapy resources. I sat in the... Read more
It is Richard Bauckham’s intent to dismantle a major element of classical (German-rooted) form criticism. In particular, this feature: the sayings and deeds of Jesus were incorporated into an oral tradition at an early date but then were passed on by anonymous Tradents (passers on of traditions) who adjusted the forms to fit into early church needs and who adjusted the sayings and deeds to fit into the forms themselves. In other words, there was no inspection, no guarantee that the... Read more
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