Source People bring all sorts of unexpected objects to the British Museum to have them identified. In 1985 a cuneiform tablet was brought in by a member of the public already known to me, for he had been in with Babylonian objects before. His name was Douglas Simmonds. Gruff, non-communicative and to me largely unfathomable, he had a conspicuously large head housing a large measure of intelligence. He owned a collection of miscellaneous objects and antiquities that he had inherited... Read more
Last Thursday I put up a post that focused on N.T. (Tom) Wright’s response to listener questions posed by Justin Brierley on the radio show Unbelievable. The link to the show: NT Wright on Paul, Hell, Satan, Creation, Adam, Eve & more – Unbelievable? – 01 November 2013, or the entire Unbelievable audio feed with more shows and more information on each show. At another point in the show (this segment runs from 44:30 to 47:55 in the mp3 file) Justin... Read more
Making sense of the cross has been the church’s business since the day Jesus died. It’s way of making sense was to theorize or, to put the matter more delicately, to theologize — even if Zinsser taught me long ago that adding -ize to a word is a shortcut. Indeed, maybe so, but the church didn’t take shortcuts when it came to explaining its beliefs through the cross. One theory after another unfolded in the church, each adding to the... Read more
I am so happy to see John Stott’s wonderful little book, Balanced Christianity, republished — this time with a lengthy interview with Stott. Here’s what I wrote for the blurb on the book: I read this book standing in a bookstore as a college student. When done I bought it, took it home, read it two more times over the course of the year, and then somehow I lost it–no doubt because I loaned it to a friend. In this book... Read more
I’ve opened a new MS Word file for a new paper I’m writing and when I add a footnote I get short titles for Zotero. Why isn’t it giving me a full citation for the first citation? Anyone know? Read more
From Relevant by Zachary Perkins: I was recently having a conversation on Facebook with a friend who was quite frustrated. His frustration stemmed from how Christians seem to stifle certain forms of art or put certain art into categories, calling them either “Christian” or “Secular.” This has been an ongoing conversation among Christians. Prominent Christian artists such as Jon Foreman have spoken into the debate about “Christian songs.” Foreman said, “What is more Christ-like: feeding the poor, making furniture, cleaning... Read more
What do you get when you combine laser-like prose, masterful wit, an eye for BS matched for a penchant for vulgarity, a Lutheran-like perception of how law works in the Bible, an obsession with the magnitude of grace, an authentic admission of sinfulness, a progressive stance on homosexuality in the church, an informed sense of just where the church got it wrong and where it got it gloriously right, a fine ear for how the media and the world and... Read more
By my friend Allan Bevere When I was in seminary, I remember my teacher Stanley Hauerwas saying that the two most important challenges pastors face are loneliness and self-hate– loneliness because pastors and their families do not feel comfortable, nor do they find themselves able, at times, to develop the kinds of friendships with others that allow them simply to be “themselves.” Second, pastors deal with self-hate because too much pastoral ministry is driven by need and there are so... Read more
Living Faithfully as the People of God, by our friend in Adelaide Australia, Mark Stevens. Seven years ago last week I started my journey as pastor and shepherd of the Happy Valley Church of Christ. I’ve found that we don’t often use these words any more to describe what it is we do. We call ourselves ministers, senior pastors, team leaders. All accurate descriptors of what we do. However, the metaphor of pastor and shepherd, I think, best describes who... Read more
Source Like my dad, I make it a point when I speak to groups to talk about priorities, and when it’s schoolkids, I rank those priorities as: faith, family, and education, then football. For me generally it had always been the big four: faith, family, friends, and football. And I tell all of them that as important as football is to me, it can never be higher than fourth.My faith has been number one since I was thirteen years old... Read more
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