Mercy, University of California goes from this ageless logo: To this! This ranks up there with the Baptist General Conference going to “Converge International Worldwide” Read more
In The King Jesus Gospel an argument is laid out that concludes the gospel is to declare that the Story of Israel (or the Bible) has been fulfilled in the Story of Jesus, who is King (Messiah) and Lord who saves. At the heart of this gospel then is a Story, a Story that begins with Adam and then all over again with Abraham and winds and wends its way all the way to Jesus. That Story is told in... Read more
Much of the quest for the historical Jesus has been shaped by one question: Was Jesus apocalyptic (or not)? What do you think? Yes or No? Not the point? Thus, most historical Jesus scholars propose either an apocalyptic Jesus (J. Weiss, A. Schweitzer, E.P. Sanders, D. Allison) or a non-apocalyptic Jesus (Jesus Seminar, M. Borg, J.D. Crossan). Much of the quest for the historical Jesus has also been shaped by reconstructing what Jesus was really like on the basis of individual... Read more
Here are some numbers: 78% of emerging adults drink; 47% binge drink; 10% drink 5x a week or more; 12% smoke pot weekly; 20% use illicit drugs. Here are some facts: “Alcohol consumption is a leading cause of death among youth, particularly teenagers, and contributes substantially to adolescent motor-vehicle crashes, other traumatic injuries, suicide, date rape, and family and school problems” (113, from Christian Smith, Lost in Transition). Why? What’s going on? What to do? Nonusers (22%) are of two sorts: the... Read more
Lisa Hymas: Richard Cizik has a knack for irritating right-wing evangelicals. He knows just how to do it, being an evangelical himself, though no longer one with standard right-wing political views. Cizik was a key leader of anevangelical Christian movement calling for climate action and “creation care” a few years ago, when he was vice president of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals. Some religious-right bigwigs tried unsuccessfully to force him out of that job in 2007 because of his environmental activism, and then ultimately succeeded... Read more
What is the good news, the gospel, at Christmas? Very simply there is one basic message we are invited to announce: Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph, is the King. Notice this text from Matthew 2:1-12; it is one of my favorite Christmas stories and I hope you take the time to read the whole: 1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magifrom the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is... Read more
Every year we choose Books of the Year for the Jesus Creed readers, and this year’s choices are a bumper crop — but also see the note at the end of this post. We sample books in a variety of areas. I hope you enjoy our choices. Book of the Year David Swartz, The Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism. Swartz unveils a history largely ignored, a history of a movement that has a decisive impact... Read more
An adjective seems necessary because the word “evangelical” is used by so many types. We’ve got conservative evangelical and progressive evangelical and European evangelical and moderate evangelical and charismatic evangelical. The need for an adjective doesn’t bode well for the word evangelical — it’s gotten too big for its britches. For two decades or more I was on the search for the purest and best kind of evangelical, a search that is unattainable (so I think now), but that search... Read more
I’m a non-fiction reader, but not reading To Kill a Mockingbird? Very Sad: “American literature classics are to be replaced by insulation manuals and plant inventories in US classrooms by 2014. A new school curriculum which will affect 46 out of 50 states will make it compulsory for at least 70 per cent of books studied to be non-fiction, in an effort to ready pupils for the workplace. Books such as JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a... Read more
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