It Begins Early

Last updated on: November 16, 2012 at 7:32 am By Scot McKnight

Women are often trained into a stereotype, and these women want to do something about it: Year after year, three female students sat through college engineering and math classes asking themselves the same question—where are the girls? The students—Jennifer Kessler, Alice, Brooks, and Bettina Chen—realized they all shared childhood experiences that drew them to technology, business, and math, fields typically dominated by men despite women’s educational asecendence. So they invented a toy girls can build from the ground up to inspire them to... Read more

Praying for Peace in the Holy Land

Last updated on: November 16, 2012 at 7:33 am By Scot McKnight

Almighty God, kindle, we pray, in every heart the true love of peace, and guide with your wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth, that in tranquillity your dominion may increase until the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples... Read more

From the Shepherd’s Nook: John Frye

Last updated on: November 14, 2012 at 8:03 pm By Scot McKnight

Our good friend, John Frye, has sent to me four posts while he is ministering in the Ukraine, so you can pray for him as you read these posts of his over the next month of Fridays. Eugene Peterson: “Exegesis is the farthest thing from pedantry; exegesis is an act of love.” Pedantry is slavish attention to rules, to detail. Exegesis is an act of love. Most pastors are trained to execute good and effective exegetical skills. Any pastor who... Read more

Evangelicals, Militarism, and Romans 13 (Preston Sprinkle)

Last updated on: November 14, 2012 at 8:00 pm By Scot McKnight

This post is the 3d in a series of three by Preston Sprinkle, whose information is at the bottom of this post. In my last post, I showed that the Old Testament actually condemns militarism, even though it sanctions (on some occasions) warfare and violence. But most who defend militarism race past the Old Testament and camp out on Romans 13:1-7, a passage with a checkered, and quite frightful, interpretive history. Adolph Hitler, Robert Mugabe, and other recent “Christian” dictators... Read more

It Takes Two

Last updated on: November 15, 2012 at 1:06 pm By Scot McKnight

Yes, it will take two sides of the aisle to reform our tax and benefits systems: 8:44PM EST November 14. 2012 – Whenever talk turns to the federal deficit, activists on the political left have a common refrain: Don’t touch our benefits! Since Nov. 6, they’ve been trying out a variant that goes something like this: Because our side won the election, definitely don’t touch our benefits! This argument, being made by labor and seniors groups in an advertising and grass-roots... Read more

A Place at the Table

Last updated on: November 13, 2012 at 1:17 pm By Scot McKnight

Last weekend, at the kind invitation of the leaders at New Covenant Fellowship (The Bridge) in Champaign IL, Kris and I traveled through the windy plains of central Illinois to do a Jesus Creed weekend. One of our home town friends, and someone I grew up (in church) with, Lorna Engels, planned, organized and … did everything for the event, and it was fantastic to see her again. Thanks Lorna! Kris and I experienced the generous hospitality of pastor Rom... Read more

New Wine: Grape juice or the real thing?

Last updated on: November 13, 2012 at 9:54 am By Scot McKnight

C. Michael Patton, after sorting through some Christian nervousness about Jesus’ making wine — real wine — at the wedding in Cana, concludes he did… The implications for all of this are important for the discussion about alcohol and the Christian. Christ, in celebration of the Kingdom, produced an alcoholic beverage that could intoxicate. Christ was a bartender! This certainly does not solve any of the problems associated with alcohol. The problems are tremendous. But to be controlled by alcohol is not... Read more

The Roles of Biblical Criticism (RJS)

Last updated on: November 14, 2012 at 9:49 pm By RJS

The introduction to the new book by Marc 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, provides a brief sketch of the history of biblical interpretation and the rise of historical criticism. The emphasis of this book is on the Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament with Marc Brettler providing a Jewish perspective, Peter Enns a Protestant perspective and Daniel Harrington a Catholic perspective.... Read more

The Gospel, The Synoptics

Last updated on: November 15, 2012 at 6:58 am By Scot McKnight

About a year ago Jonathan Pennington, a professor at Southern Seminary in Louisville, e-mailed me about my old (and first) book, Interpreting the Synoptic Gospels, which was going out of print at Baker. I assumed that his book was going to be their replacement for my book, but his new book, Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction, is a more robust (268 pp!) kind of introduction and not so much a methods book. I was looking forward to reading... Read more

Texas and the Secession Movement

Last updated on: November 14, 2012 at 6:15 pm By Scot McKnight

From Chicago Trib: The petition filed by Texas residents has racked up about 100,000 signatures. Six others from Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee have collected 30,000. Among the seven states, only Florida gave its electoral votes to Democratic President Barack Obama in last week’s election. The Texas petition says the United States is suffering from economic troubles stemming from the federal government’s failure to reform spending. It also complains of alleged rights abuses committed by agencies like... Read more