Brian McLaren’s Generous Orthodoxy has called forth an enormous response, much of which has simply not taken the time to read the book carefully and assess it as a rhetorical wake-up call for Evangelicalism to take stock with how it makes its case for theological truths. I am going on record here to say two things about Generous Orthdoxy: first, the book is a challenge to get Evangelicals to think through some of its basic beliefs in light of the... Read more
Brian McLaren’s Generous Orthodoxy has called forth an enormous response, much of which has simply not taken the time to read the book carefully and assess it as a rhetorical wake-up call for Evangelicalism to take stock with how it makes its case for theological truths. I am going on record here to say two things about Generous Orthdoxy: first, the book is a challenge to get Evangelicals to think through some of its basic beliefs in light of the... Read more
In her hauntingly interesting book about “being lost,” Rebecca Solnit (A Field Guide to Getting Lost) makes a profound observation about beauty. “Beauty is often spoken of as though it only stirs lust or admiration, but the most beautiful people are so in a way that makes them look like a destiny or fate or meaning, the heroes of a remarkable story…. Exceptional beauty and charm [back to the admiration kind of beauty] … keep them [those kinds of beautiful... Read more
In her hauntingly interesting book about “being lost,” Rebecca Solnit (A Field Guide to Getting Lost) makes a profound observation about beauty. “Beauty is often spoken of as though it only stirs lust or admiration, but the most beautiful people are so in a way that makes them look like a destiny or fate or meaning, the heroes of a remarkable story…. Exceptional beauty and charm [back to the admiration kind of beauty] … keep them [those kinds of beautiful... Read more
Since the Left Behind series has come out, I have been asked hundreds of times “What do you think of the Left Behind series?” My answer has always been something like this: “I disagree completely with how they understand prophetic language.” Here’s where the problem begins, because they always then ask, “What should I read to gain another view?” The following list is the sort of thing I mention, and you may have others. Feel free to comment. I’ve only... Read more
I want to continue listing books in a Top Ten series, but my next series will be on this topic:Generous (Protestant? Evangelical?) Orthodoxy. Read more
In this series of Top Ten Book we’ve looked at Spiritual Formation, Missional Formation, Jesus books, the Apostle Paul, and New Testament Theology. This one is a list of my favorite books on earliest Christianity that don’t really fit into the other categories. I consider this list to be of some of the finest studies ever in NT research. 1. W.D. Davies, The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount. Long, demanding, but an incredible piece of work that moves... Read more
We’re in a series of blogs about Top Ten Books. We’ve looked at Spiritual Formation, Missional Formation, Jesus books, and the Apostle Paul. This one is on New Testament Theology, by which I mean books that take on the big picture of the New Testament synthetically (which is rare) or which sort out the “theologies” of the various authors/figures in the New Testament (which is what most do). But, first this: some have suggested we read the NT first. Of... Read more
The Lord’s Prayer is an amendment of the Jewish prayer called the Qaddish. We stated in a previous post that the amendment was just like the amendment Jesus made to the Shema, where a balance between loving God and loving others was achieved in the Jesus Creed. The first half of the Lord’s Prayer, which we looked at here, shows us what it means to turn our love for God into prayer to God. Today’s post will look at the... Read more
In this series of blogs on Top Ten Books, I want to cover a variety of topics. Today’s is on Paul and sometime this weekend I want to post one on the Top Ten Books in Biblical Studies (overall). The Apostle Paul is no longer who he once was — at least that is what has happened to our images and understandings of him since the late 70s. Again, I’ve tried to focus here on what I think are the... Read more
Jesus Creed
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