As many of you Jesus Creed blog readers know, this blog focuses on Jesus, Bible, churches and ministry. I embrace the breadth of God’s church and I don’t believe any one church has it all locked up … so I work at getting other voices to this little table of mine. Now a revelation: I get to speak to the Restoration churches often and I can’t tell you how much of a blessing they have been to me. I have... Read more
If you are listening to the theological discussions today the magical term is no longer “deity” but “identity.” So I’m happy to see Mike Bird, in his Evangelical Theology, open up the chp that talks about the deity of Christ (the chp title is “The Story of Jesus and the Identity of God”), with these words: The gospel preaching in the NT nowhere makes explicit that Jesus is a divine person, coequal with the Father in being from all eternity, sharing... Read more
Source: SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Texas has seen the future of the public library, and it looks a lot like an Apple Store: Rows of glossy iMacs beckon. iPads mounted on a tangerine-colored bar invite readers. And hundreds of other tablets stand ready for checkout to anyone with a borrowing card. Even the librarians imitate Apple’s dress code, wearing matching shirts and that standard-bearer of geek-chic, the hoodie. But this $2.3 million library might be most notable for what it... Read more
OK, enough already: “I’m a follower of Jesus. I just don’t like church and so I’m not committed to the church but to Jesus.” This post, by Stephen Mattson, needs a good dose of Bonhoeffer’s famous observation that we must, must, must surrender our ideals of the church and learn to live with its brokenness and the brokenness of all those connected to it. The fundamental problem is that the person who thinks this way thinks more highly of himself... Read more
Back in November I put up two posts on a book by Warren Nord, Does God Make a Difference? Taking Religion Seriously in Our Schools and Universities (you can find the earlier posts: The Scandal of Secular Indoctrination and Religion in Science Courses? if interested). Nord’s hypothesis is that a liberal education – as in liberal arts not liberal politics – needs to take religion seriously because religion forms an important element of human existence. When we consider the role of... Read more
The issue for NT Wright in his Paul and the Faithfulness of God is how Paul reworked and revised the Jewish doctrine of election, and to do so in a way that preserves God’s covenant with Israel and expands enough to include how Paul expands the people of God on the basis of faith in Christ. So, at the end of his long chapter, a chapter that focus on justification by faith, NT Wright summarizes and sums up what he thinks... Read more
I agree: the generous use of “master teachers” is the best way, not classroom instructions. You learn to teach by watching good teachers and by teaching. Our experiences—Will’s as a member of Teach for America in Philadelphia and an education master’s degree candidate at University of Pennsylvania, and Michael’s as a researcher and writer—confirm what these statistics suggest: that all the money we spend on new teacher training does little to boost the quality of our beginner teachers. Fortunately, there’s... Read more
A very good set of observations by Howard Snyder, and if you go to the link he fleshes out each one. This issue of distorting the gospel is at the heart of our The King Jesus Gospel. 1. Interpret the gospel primarily through Romans. 2. Focus solely on “personal salvation.” 3. Make heaven the goal. 4. The clergy/laity split. 5. Thinking economics and politics are not directly gospel concerns. 6. De-prioritize community. 7. Neglect the Old Testament. 8. Limit justice to... Read more
One way of telling the story of American Protestant liberalism to fashion liberals as elites and out of touch with the ordinary person in the pew. I grew up on that story, I have read that story countless times, the news media repeats that story ad nauseam … so there must be some truth to it. But one good solid experience in most mainline churches (not the stereotype ones, and there are some of those) and you will discover what... Read more
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