From Julian Baggini, on Kierkegaard’s 200th birthday (May 5) and his continuing appeal: Discovering that your childhood idols are now virtually ancient is usually a disturbing reminder of your own mortality. But for me, realising that 5th May 2013 marks the 200th anniversary of Søren Kierkegaard’s birth was more of a reminder of his immortality. It’s a strange word to use for a thinker who lived with a presentiment of his own death and didn’t reach his 43rd birthday. Kierkegaard... Read more
From Out of Ur: Christians seem to swing the pendulum between pietistic disengagement and hard-boiled partisan politics. Should pastors and church leaders advocate a third way? The church of Jesus Christ isn’t a political action committee, affixing Bible verses to already-existing political programs. The church is a colony of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. That has social and political implications, but these implications are as much about the next trillion years as they are about the next four. You are... Read more
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In the beginning was the gospel (lower case “gospel”) so that all early Christian teaching was measured by the gospel, but the gospel was known through the apostolic testimony, and the apostolic testimony was known through the writings of the apostles (once they died), leading to this: all Christian theology begins with Scripture. We can finesse “Scripture” in a number of ways — it needs to be interpreted, it derives from the Holy Spirit, it derives from apostolic authority, it is... Read more
We have to fill in the lines but there appears to be a fairly common 1st Century slippery slope: If you compromise on this one, you’ll end up inviting the likes of Antiochus Epiphanes back into Jerusalem. The story is well-known and sketched well by Warren Carter in his Seven Events that Shaped the New Testament World. Four options were presented to the Jews when compromise arose: cooperation, flight, defy unto death, fight with arms. The villain is Antiochus IV Epiphanes,... Read more
From Suzanne Burden, an almost grad from seminary: I will graduate on May 11, mere days from now. God willing, I will soon possess a diploma that says M.A. in Theological Studies. I took the scenic, part-time, pay-as-you-go route through seminary, so this has been a four-year project. Which is why so many are recently asking: “What will you do after seminary?” In return, I often respond with an ironic, sad little smile. But I am not the only female seminarian... Read more
Some over do it and some under do it, but the fact is that the apostle Paul — here speaking of himself indirectly — was nothing short of a mystic: 2Cor. 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body... Read more
Kris and I want to wish all the mothers who read this blog a robust Happy Mother’s Day! Whatever you call your mom — and here’s a good listing — wish her a happy Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s day Mom, and this is our first Mother’s Day without Kris’ mom, Betty, and we will fill our days with her memories. Kris is a mom (Happy Mother’s Day) and Annika’s (Luke’s wife) is a mom (Happy Mother’s Day Annika). We want... Read more
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. Read more
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