Questions for Chicago’s Police

Last updated on: November 24, 2015 at 6:37 pm By Scot McKnight

I have these questions for the Chicago Police after seeing the shooting (and now charged) murder of Laquan Mcdonald: 1. Why shoot a man walking perpendicular to the police cars? 2. Why shoot him after Laquan was on the ground and no longer remotely a threat? 3. Why was he shot sixteen times? 4. Why did it take a year for this to become public? Read more

God Redeems His People … Then and Now (RJS)

Last updated on: November 24, 2015 at 5:17 pm By RJS

One of the overarching themes of the Old Testament is God’s redemption of his people (and boy, do they (we) need it). Chapter six four of Richard Middleton’s book A New Heaven and a New Earth sketches this Old Testament view of salvation. But, and this is an important but, salvation in the Old Testament is, without exception, salvation aimed at earthly human flourishing in community. This is in line with the creation mandate for humans to be God’s image... Read more

Paul in His Real World

Last updated on: November 24, 2015 at 6:10 am By Scot McKnight

The apostle Paul has been mined mostly for his theology — from Augustine to Luther and Calvin to Bultmann and Barth on into the modern works of folks like Jimmy Dunn and NT Wright. Mostly it is his theology they are after. Others have turned it more neutrally toward religion — and here we think of FC Baur, A. Schweitzer and then EP Sanders. The issue is how Paul can be plotted on the long line of the history of... Read more

Pastor-Theologian: A Different Angle (by David Fitch)

Last updated on: November 23, 2015 at 6:27 am By Scot McKnight

A few weeks back my colleague David Fitch had an important post on the pastor-theologian that caught fire. It has been a hot topic in the blogosphere alot lately. Here it is again. Give him your response and he’ll be sure to pipe in. (@fitchest Reclaiming the Mission) The Pastor-Theologian in a Different Light Ministerial students regularly ask me for advice on doing a Ph.D. in Theology. I almost always find myself advising against it. If your goal is to... Read more

Women at Evangelical Theological Society

Last updated on: November 24, 2015 at 6:17 am By Scot McKnight

Emily Louise Zimbrick-Rogers was the 2014-15 research intern for Christians for Biblical Equality. In addition to conducting a case study of women in evangelicalism at the Evangelical Theological Society, Emily wrote a high school curriculum entitled God, Sex, and You: Who You Are and Why it Matters. She is an MDiv student at Princeton Theological Seminary. This is the “Discussion” at the end of her sociological analysis of ETS, which can be read in full at the link above. Discussion The... Read more

The Speechwriter, by Barton Swaim

Last updated on: November 17, 2015 at 6:43 pm By Scot McKnight

The Speechwriter Many will remember the name of Mark Sanford, the former governor of South Carolina. Sanford’s adulterous relationship overseas was big news a few years back. Sanford currently serves as US Congressmen for the first district of South Carolina. What is it like to be a political speechwriter? What is it like to be a speechwriter when a major crisis hits? Barton Swaim writes about all this and more in Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics. David George Moore... Read more

Weekly Meanderings, 21 November 2015

Last updated on: November 18, 2015 at 6:35 pm By Scot McKnight

I’m at AAR-SBL this weekend, and will be giving a presentation on Bonhoeffer’s kind of pacifism. Image Andover Newton seeking a new location to offer at least some of it’s offerings. Wesley Hill’s ETS paper summary, called “Washed and Still Waiting”: A few years after the book came out, the journalist Jeff Chu—who, I’m happy to say, has since then become a friend of mine—wrote a book called Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God... Read more

Why Northern?

Last updated on: November 19, 2015 at 3:54 pm By Scot McKnight

Any kind of Christian ministry in North America requires both preparation and experience, so an increasing number of ministers are deeply involved in the experience dimension and finding it nearly impossible to attend seminary full-time. A seminary curriculum focuses on the scope of the minister’s calling, from biblical and theological to practical and homiletical studies, but not all ministers need as intense preparation for each facet of ministry. Some focus on teaching while others focus on the more personal and... Read more

Hometown Sermons

Last updated on: November 18, 2015 at 9:24 am By Scot McKnight

Painful Homecoming (by John Frye) My first sermon in my hometown church in Zion, IL was graciously received. The people of Zion Bible Church were pleased that one of their own was studying at Moody Bible Institute. The theme of my rookie message was “labels.” The first label assigned to disciples of Jesus in Acts was “Christians” (Acts 11:25). I talked about labels on grocery items—soup can labels, cereal box labels. My driving, greenhorn point as a question was: Do... Read more

Don’t Call it War (by Tim Suttle)

Last updated on: November 20, 2015 at 6:16 am By Scot McKnight

This post is by Tim Suttle, author of Shrink, a book I highly recommend. For more about Tim, scroll to the bottom of this post. In this post Tim proposes that what we call these murders in France reveals both what we see and what we will do. This is a thoughtful piece about how Christians can think. My heart goes out to the people of France, especially the residents of Paris. When faced with such unspeakable violence and barbarism humans... Read more