The next argument John Walton addresses in his new book The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate is the argument that Adam and Eve are required by biblically sound theology to be the unique progenitors of the human race. To do so he poses two questions: Does the Bible claim that Adam was the first human being to ever exist? and Does the Bible claim that all humans are descended from Adam and... Read more
In Peter Scazzero’s new book, aptly titled The Emotionally Healthy Leader, is a set of questions that can be asked to see if you are an emotionally healthy leader. Being an emotionally unhealthy leader is not an all-or-nothing condition; it operates on a continuum that ranges from mild to severe, and may change from one season of life and ministry to the next. Use the list of statements that follow to get an idea of where you’re at right now. Next... Read more
Rick Jervis: Fires at several predominantly black churches in Southern states the past two weeks — at least three of them attributed to arson — raise concerns about potential fallout from the recent South Carolina church shooting. The fires have all taken place in the weeks since the attack June 17. A 21-year-old man with apparent white supremacist beliefs is accused of going on a shooting rampage inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., killing nine people. The burned churches... Read more
Source: In a speech last year in Kansas City, President Barack Obama said he received a letter from a nine-year-old girl that included a list of possible women to put on America’s paper bills and coins, “which I thought was a pretty good idea.” This March, Barbara Ortiz Howard and Susan Ades Stone started a campaign called Women on 20s to demand that the government replace former President Andrew Jackson’s image on the $20 bill with a woman from history. Now, the... Read more
I sit on a bench this warm summer day, watching as the sun glistens on the lake making crystals dance in a glorious ballet. The sparkle is so bright that I have to shield my eyes from its splendor. I hear the wind whistle through the trees, rustling the branches just enough to spill leaves onto the lake below. The leaves disrupt the calm of the water and cause small waves to cascade back and forth from bank to bank.... Read more
Notice this reading of 1 Corinthians 11 by Lucy Peppiatt in her book Women and Worship at Corinth: The italics are words from those Corinthians with whom Paul is disagreeing, and what you will see here is a proposal that releases the tension that so many of us find in the Pauline teachings about women as one in Christ, about women teaching and preaching and prophesying and praying in public, and about women leaders in the church — and the seeming if not... Read more
Does the absence of a Fall make God responsible for human and natural evil? Does the presence of a Fall remove the criticism that God is the author of evil? Mark Harris’s book The Nature of Creation: Examining the Bible and Science explores these questions in a chapter entitled “Suffering and Evil.” He has argued that human fallenness is an indisputable fact, attested to in both the Old and New Testaments and in human experience, but The Fall, a definitive... Read more
The order of “doing theology” seems to move like this: first we are systematic theologians trying to make sense of the Christian view of things; then we learn to do “biblical” theology in the mode of learning to think the way “Moses” or “Isaiah” or Mark or John or Paul and Peter think; then we consolidate those various biblical authors into a package we might call biblical “theology” — and only then do we develop a systematic theology rooted sufficiently... Read more
Race, Guns and the Church I’m not interested in sliding back into a comfortable silence after a funeral. Reflecting on the events 2 weeks ago in Charleston, I have become convinced that both the systemic oppression of people of color and the increasingly common mass-shootings in the US are problems into which the Church, and only the Church, can breath fresh life. While all other outlets seem to have reached an impasse, the solutions to America’s problems flow easily and necessarily... Read more
In the Spring edition of Mutuality, Charles M. Metcalf, a pastor in LaGrange GA and a PhD student at Eastern University, outlines what males in leadership can do to transform a church culture so that females share leadership. His article is called “Learning from My Mistakes: Being Intentional about Practicing Egalitarianism,” Mutuality (Spring 2015): 4-6. If those in power don’t embrace the cruciform reality of Christ’s power instead of male power, then females will not be empowered to exercise the gifts God has... Read more
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