The next chapter of Walter Moberly’s book Old Testament Theology: Reading the Hebrew Bible as Christian Scripture looks at Exodus 16 and the provision of manna in the wilderness. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to... Read more
A good reading in the history of friendship makes manifest that friendship, probably most especially in the 20th Century, has changed dramatically. If one reads, for instance, the great two chapters on friendship by Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics, or the essays and letters on friendship by Cicero, one sees that friendship was a much-discussed and prized virtue. In fact, it can be said accurately — so far as I know the history — that males had male friends and women... Read more
Molly Worthen, a keen observer of all things religious in America, in this piece begins to probe what kind of “theology” (either this is ironic or a looser use meaning ideology or set of ideas) American atheists will need: CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — ONE Sunday last month, I walked into an auditorium past greeters and a table loaded with coffee, fruit and cookies. Onstage two young men tuned their guitars. A blank screen hung down, a silent signal that not... Read more
This post is by my friend and preacher at Otter Creek Church of Christ in Nashville/Brentwood, Josh Graves. When I was a kid, I did not demonstrate a great deal of, shall we say, “academic potential.” In fact, I struggled through public school, under performing to such a degree one high school teacher said to me, “Graves, you have to try do this poorly.” For the record, I always had a sense I possessed emotional intelligence and my parents pushed me fairly... Read more
Jeff Cook teaches philosophy at the University of Northern Colorado. He is the author of Everything New: Reimagining Heaven and Hell(Subversive 2012), and a pastor of Atlas Church in Greeley, Colorado. You can connect with him at everythingnew.org and @jeffvcook. One thing I admire about Jeff Cook is his willingness to put his thinking on the line for others to debate, to affirm, and to question. That’s a sign of a mature thinker. Jeff and I don’t always agree but he’s a great conversation partner, and... Read more
Matthew Parris: Even as a (gay) atheist, I wince to see the philosophical mess that religious conservatives are making of their case. Is there nobody of any intellectual stature left in our English church, or the Roman church, to frame the argument against Christianity’s slide into just going with the flow of social and cultural change? Time was — even in my time — when there were quiet, understated, sometimes quite severe men of the cloth, often wearing bifocal spectacles,... Read more
The next three propositions in John Walton’s new book The Lost World of Adam and Eve look at non-order, order, disorder, and the fall in Genesis 3. There are several important points in this section addressing the questions: What is sin? What was lost in Genesis 3? What is the consequence of this loss? and How does it impact us even today? What is sin? Walton looks at a number of different definitions for or biblical and cultural meanings of... Read more
Evangelicals, Scientists, and the “Evolution Split” (by Austin Fischer) As a pastor in the heart of the evangelical south, few topics are more difficult and divisive to address than those surrounding evolution. Those of us committed to the idea that there is no fundamental conflict between honest faith and honest science (and how could there be?) finds ourselves tiptoeing through a minefield, staying faithful to Scripture while interacting with a rapidly changing world. And of course the only thing more... Read more
Pope Francis, a clip and then I have a question for him: “I feel like saying something that may sound controversial, or even heretical, perhaps,” he [Pope Francis] added. “But there is someone who ‘knows’ that, despite our differences, we are one. It is he who is persecuting us. It is he who is persecuting Christians today, he who is anointing us with (the blood of) martyrdom.” Francis added that the devil “knows that Christians are disciples of Christ, that... Read more
One cannot avoid thinking about St Francis (San Francesco) here in Assisi, so to make that part of our time here more enjoyable I plotted to read three books beginning with Augustine Thompson’s fantastic biography/study, Francis of Assisi: A New Biography. Rick, a friend, gave me Ian Morgan Cron’s Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim’s Tale, and then I recently received Franciscan John Michael Talbot’s joyous and very Franciscan take on music called The Master Musician: Meditations on Jesus [I’d have said Meditations on a sacramental... Read more
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