One More Reason to be a Pastor

Last updated on: August 14, 2012 at 11:29 am By Scot McKnight

From Forbes: HT: DS In my article on the Ten Most Hated Jobs, there were some surprises. There are also some surprises in the ten happiest jobs, as reported a General Social Survey by the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago. (I am indebted to Lew Perelman for drawing my attention to the Christian Science Monitor article.) 1. Clergy: The least worldly are reported to be the happiest of all 2. Firefighters: Eighty percent of firefighters are “very satisfied” with their jobs,... Read more

The Wellsprings of Conflict (RJS)

Last updated on: August 12, 2012 at 8:43 am By RJS

I am currently reading Christof Koch’s memoir Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist. Christof Koch is a Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology at CalTech. Raised in a Roman Catholic family, son of a German diplomat, born in Missouri, growing up in Amsterdam, Bonn, Ottawa, and Rabat. In the second chapter of the book he writes, among other things “about the wellsprings of [his] inner conflict between religion and reason” and “why [he] grew up wanting to be a scientist.” In... Read more

The New Perspective Revised

Last updated on: August 14, 2012 at 8:17 am By Scot McKnight

In my life time the most significant book on Paul has been E.P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977) because it both shifted interest in Judaism but completely shook up how scholars understood Paul. Since Sanders there have been major articulations of Pauline theology, including those of J.D.G. Dunn and N.T. Wright, but they build on and take further what was said by Sanders. In Mike Bird’s new book, The Apostle Paul, there are four views of Paul: the Reformed... Read more

Non-Religious Reasons for Church

Last updated on: August 13, 2012 at 3:45 pm By Scot McKnight

Nick Shell (HT: JR): Therefore, I am attempting to explain why going to church is a good idea for you and your kids, not from a religious perspective, but from more of a scientific one. 1. Friends. For you as well as your kids. Most of my friends and my wife’s friends are somehow traced back to our church. In fact, we met each other through a mutual friend that I met through a group of friends I knew through my church. 2. Community. Similarly,... Read more

Gender Gap in Pronouns

Last updated on: August 13, 2012 at 7:45 am By Scot McKnight

By Jen Doll: There’s a new study that reveals that shifts are being made in the way we write. For a research project led by Generation Me author and San Diego State psychology professor Jean M. Twenge, with W. Keith Campbell and Brittany Gentile of the University of Georgia, the three combed through 1.2 million texts in the Google Books archive, tracking pronouns by gender in works published from 1900 to 2008. Their survey of those books (note: the archive contains 4 percent of books... Read more

Spacing Out? Good!

Last updated on: August 10, 2012 at 2:19 pm By Scot McKnight

From Charlie Jane Anders: I’m totally into spacing out, finding myself in a reverie, and it is not uncommon to encounter creative ideas in that space-out zone. How about you? We all experience the state of “mind wandering” on occasion — sometimes it feels almost like going into a trance. You can be in the middle of a meeting at work, and suddenly your mind is just going off on its own, with a train of thought you couldn’t reconstruct... Read more

What to do?

Last updated on: August 13, 2012 at 6:29 am By Scot McKnight

This post is from a friend of this blog, and he wants to have an open discussion about a topic of interest to many — here goes: I’m a middle-aged dad, married to my wife of many years, with two teen-aged kids, one a Freshman and the other a Senior in High School. We’re currently experiencing a dilemma about church attendance. My kids have grown up in a typical community evangelical church, with high energy praise music and a high... Read more

Is “Incarnation” the Right Word for Ministry?

Last updated on: August 10, 2012 at 2:45 pm By Scot McKnight

J. Todd Billings, a good young theologian in Michigan, has a new CT article that pushes against the propriety of using “incarnation” for what we do… What do you think? Do you think “incarnational ministry” is a good theological category? In recent decades, scores of books, manuals, and websites advocating “incarnational ministry” have encouraged Christians to move beyond ministry at a distance and to “incarnate” and immerse themselves into local cultures. Some give a step-by-step “incarnation process” for Christians crossing... Read more

Coming down from Mt Olympics

Last updated on: August 12, 2012 at 1:30 pm By Scot McKnight

Well, they’re over. The Olympics, or at least the sports part of the Olympics, are over. Tonight is the closing ceremony, which is about as much about the Olympics for us sport-lers as information about rubber tracks is about Usain Bolt’s amazing accomplishments. But I promise not to dwell on the hoopla around the Olympics. What are your thoughts? What were your favorite events? What was the singular most moving accomplishment?. For me it was the Men’s 4×100 world record... Read more

Prayer for the Week

Last updated on: August 4, 2012 at 9:17 am By Scot McKnight

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more

Which Christian festival begins with Ash Wednesday and ends at Easter?