From NYTimes, where you can read all four of Ross Douthat’s points about “In Search of a Middle East Strategy“: Who do you think is offering the most plausible proposals for the Middle East? But of course it isn’t clear at all what Mitt Romney would actually do differently. Since their Tuesday night jab backfired, the Romney campaign has tried to flesh a more substantive critique of Obama’s foreign policy, but the actual differences seem to be less substantial than the posturing... Read more
From Roy Ciampa, used with permission. For Dr Ciampa’s fuller study, see this. What do you think of Ciampa’s idea of “identity mapping”? Where do we do this? Where do you see it? On Treating Modern Women as Ancient Greco-Roman Wives by Roy E. Ciampa, Ph.D. One of the most unfortunate habits of biblical interpretation in the past several centuries, in my opinion, is that of assuming that the teachings of biblical texts are directly transferable to other cultures, including those... Read more
We will grapple with Eugene H. Peterson’s (EHP) taxonomy of pastor from the opening chapters of his book The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction. The subtitle offers the huge clue: spiritual direction. Not Bible exposition, apostolic entrepreneurship, CEO, coaching, counseling, and religious shop-keeping. What does “pastor” mean to you? EHP opens with “A healthy noun doesn’t need adjectives.” He writes about “the naked noun.” For him, “pastor” is a virile, energetic term. “Pastor” doesn’t need propping... Read more
No event in the life of Jesus, no event in the plan of God, no event in the saving work of Christ, no doctrine, no belief, no line in the creed has been more eclipsed than the resurrection. In fact, it can be said that however much Protestantism protested Catholic theology from the Reformation on, much of Protestantism, especially some forms of evangelicalism, might as well have a crucifix behind the pulpit. But the Stone Table cracked, and without the... Read more
We all have crutch words, and they probably say something beyond what they say: Crutch words are those expressions we pepper throughout our language as verbal pauses, and sometimes as written ones, to give us time to think, to accentuate our meaning (even when we do so mistakenly), or just because these are the words that have somehow lodged in our brains and come out on our tongues the most, for whatever reason. Quite often, they do little to add... Read more
The video produced that has now incited riots and deaths in the Middle East emerges from our belief in the freedom of speech, though hate speech or speech designed to inflame will always be challenged in our context. I have not watched the video but I have been reading some on the issues, and I found this piece by Omid Safi to be insightful. I was unaware of the murkiness of the persons at work behind the video, including almost... Read more
John Bingham reports: A bishop is recommending that they set the alarms on their mobile phones to remind them of the new observance as part of a move to promote faith in the workplace ahead of the Church’s “Year of Faith”. It comes in the week that British government lawyers went to the European Court of Human Rights to defend the right of employers to ban the wearing of public symbols of faith such as the cross in the workplace.... Read more
The interpretation of scripture – and especially the interpretation of the creation narratives contained in scripture – comprises one of the most significant points of conflict in the discussion of the relationship of science and the Christian faith within the church. There is a gut reaction on the part of many Christians that faith is the underdog, forced always to accommodate itself to the high priest of science. The clear, traditional reading gives way to secular reason and naturalism. This... Read more
Often enough folks say Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom, John the gospel of eternal life and Paul the gospel of justification. Tim Keller joins these folks in his new book, Center Church. Keller’s intent though is not so much to join the chorus of diversity within the New Testament as to say the gospel can be expressed in a variety of ways. How diverse is Tim Keller’s gospel? What do you think of his grid for how to comprehend... Read more
This fellow pretends the evidence in his favor, when all the evidence suggests that modernity has not in fact eroded religious faith. There may be some nostalgia, but the evidence is not suggesting the decline of religion as much he suggests. My first reason (the increased acceptance of science) may seem counter-intuitive, especially in the US, where there seems to be a strong anti-science sentiment manifested by persistent opposition to well-established scientific theories like evolution, and a denial of the... Read more
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