From Chris Hodges, at Charisma Mag: Invisible, unpredictable, powerful… As the years passed, I learned to dismantle my misconceptions and inherited prejudices about the Holy Spirit. One of the main reasons was because my own Christian experience—fueled mostly by my own efforts—ended up being a failure, to say the least. When I finally invited the Holy Spirit to fill me, my prayer was a mixed bag of double messages—something like this: “Holy Spirit, I want to receive You, but at... Read more
Yoram Hazony, at NYTimes, a Jerusalem Jewish thinker, weighs in on the idealism of the God of perfection: How do you deal with those passages in the Bible? Does the Bible-as-Story/Narrative relieve any of this problem? Is God perfect? You often hear philosophers describe “theism” as the belief in a perfect being — a being whose attributes are said to include being all-powerful, all-knowing, immutable, perfectly good, perfectly simple, and necessarily existent (among others). And today, something like this view... Read more
The first essay in the new book by Marc Zvi Brettler (Brandeis University), Peter Enns (Eastern University) and Daniel J. Harrington (Boston College), The Bible and the Believer: How to Read the Bible Critically & Religiously, is by Brettler. In this essay he reflects on the development and diversity of Jewish engagement with the Scripture and what this means for the believing Jewish scholar. The picture to the right is of a fourth or fifth century synagogue at Bar’am National... Read more
Theology, better yet, knowing God, is like observing the sun. You look at it and you go blind; instead, you snatch glimpses and you learn to see everything else in light of the light the sun generates. That is, “… there may be certain things that are themselves too great to understand but that nevertheless enable us to understand lesser things with remarkable clarity” (xiii). Yes, that’s a riff on the famous line by C.S. Lewis, but it is also... Read more
Mercy… Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — Starbucks Corp. has started selling a specialty coffee that costs $7 for a 16-ounce “grande” cup, making it the company’s priciest brew, as customers demand more premium products. The Costa Rica Finca Palmilera coffee costs $40 for a half- pound bag and $6 for a 12-ounce “tall” cup, Lisa Passe, a Starbucks spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. It’s made from a rare, difficult-to-grow varietal called Geisha. The new coffee is available at only 46 locations... Read more
From eric barker: Via The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study: …many (but not all) of the recommendations for happiness are nearly identical to recommendations for maintaining health. For example, those trying to improve their happiness are advised to do the following things: • Watch less TV • Improve social relations— spend time with friends • Increase levels of physical activity— go for a long walk • Help others and express gratitude... Read more
Emily Matchar‘s report of many, including professors, seeking employment overseas: After applying for 279 jobs over two years, my husband finally got the offer he’d been hoping for: a well-paid position teaching philosophy at a respected university. We should have been thrilled. There was just one little thing. The job was in Hong Kong. “I feel like we’re being deported from our own country,” my husband said. “It’ll be an adventure,” I replied, trying to sound game. “I wasn’t looking... Read more
It is not unusual for a first-time Bible reader to encounter a New Testament author quoting an Old Testament author, for the reader to wander back to the Old Testament to read that text too, and discover — “Wow, that’s not quite what the Old Testament author had in mind.” One of my favorites is how Matthew sees Jesus’ parents taking him to Egypt and then back to the Land of Israel (to the Galilee in fact) and to see... Read more
How does one read the Bible “biblically,” that is how does one read it right? That word “biblical” has some options and it is not quite as simple as some suggest. Some theologians study a theme hard and then run the whole Bible — or much of the Bible — through that theme and sometimes they discover some parts don’t fit their framework so they ignore those elements of the Bible. Very, very few “biblical” theologies or Story-approaches to the... Read more
Adam Shatz: The ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hamas in Cairo after eight days of fighting is merely a pause in the Israel-Palestine conflict. It promises to ease movement at all border crossings with the Gaza Strip, but will not lift the blockade. It requires Israel to end its assault on the Strip, and Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets at southern Israel, but it leaves Gaza as miserable as ever: according to a recent UN report, the Strip will... Read more
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