Pastors often find themselves ministering to people who assume the pastor believes just what they believe about something. Often enough the parishioner doesn’t ask “You agree with me, don’t you?” or even ask the pastor to sign on the line for some belief, but sometimes that does happen. This kind of incongruence is not uncommon, but I want to probe the issue of the pastor and doubt from a different angle today. Pastors are required to be “on” all the... Read more
From Mimi Hadad, President of Christians for Biblical Equality: Analogies can be powerful tools that bring clarity to complex issues. Educators suggest that metaphors and analogies enable individuals to grasp quickly the essential elements of logic in what are otherwise complicated discussions. Perhaps this is one reason Jesus used metaphors and analogies when explaining spiritual realities. Because the biblical interpretation is often complex, it can be helpful to use analogies to grasp the meaning of passages such as 1 Timothy... Read more
Aron Heller, from AP: JERUSALEM (AP) – Deep in the heart of Mea Shearim, a Jerusalem bastion of hardline ultra-Orthodox Jews, hundreds of bearded young men in black suits have their noses burrowed into books, immersed in biblical study and oblivious to their surroundings. They are the creme de la creme of a cloistered community, the Harvard of the ultra-Orthodox world, who are expected neither to work for a living nor serve in the military with other Israelis. But it’s... Read more
By Michael J. Altman: The real question for historians of American religion and especially historians of American evangelicalism is “what are the politics of the category evangelical?” Why do we want more African Americans in a list of evangelicals? Why do we want more women? Because it is a privileged category. It is also a constructed category. It is, to use my favorite Jon Butler phrase, an interpretive fiction. It is an invention, first within the minds of Protestants since the Reformation... Read more
Michael Patton had an interesting post over at Credo House last Friday. This is not surprising, as he often has good stuff, well worth reading, on this blog. For that matter, the whole Credo House concept is fascinating and has great potential. I don’t see eye-to-eye with Michael on some issues (he would say the same about me), but these are secondary and his thoughtful consideration and comment always provides an interesting read and a valuable perspective. These kinds of... Read more
Aaron Chambers is a professor and administrator at Tabor Adelaide. Technology by Aaron Chalmers: When horses and chariots were new In the world of ancient Israel horses and chariots were a relatively new military technology, having made their debut in Egypt and the Hittite kingdom during the mid-second millennium BC. Overall, however, the OT displays an ambivalent, if not openly hostile, attitude towards them. Why? Is the OT simply anti-technology? Or is there more at work? Perhaps the main and... Read more
Will Oremus puts his finger on a sensitive topic: the correlation of weather and views on climate change. Before the financial crisis hit, Americans were pretty sure that the globe was warming, and that humans were causing it, and that it was kind of a big deal. As the economy slumped, Americans decided that climate change wasn’t actually happening—and even if it was, it wasn’t our fault. And now, after a flurry of wild weather—deadly tornados, floods, droughts, an uncommonly... Read more
From NYReview of Books by Gary Wills — his advocacy for political realism and not political idealism: Roberto Unger, descended from a famous Brazilian family, is a respected philosopher, a famous political activist, and a professor at the Harvard Law School (tenured there, thirty-six years ago, at the unusually young age of twenty-nine). He has many just grounds for being famous. But he is best known now, in recent news items, for having taught Barack Obama two courses at Harvard.... Read more
David McGregor is a professor at Tabor Adelaide. Story: David and his wife took Kris and me out to eat in Adelaide, David made a wonderful choice for dinner … and then was interrupted by an emergency need at the hospital for his ailing father, he had to leave… and now we await another time to dine with David and enjoy some Barthian discussions! Kingdom of God by David McGregor: The Kingdom of God The kingdom of God ‘comes.’ It... Read more
No doctrine strikes some moderns with utter mystification like the Holy Spirit. Some talk about the Holy Spirit as if it were a constant presence while others “believe” in the Spirit but never say a thing … and how do you know if you’ve got the Spirit? Mike Nappa did a survey of 845 Christian teenagers, The Jesus Survey, and asked them about their beliefs in the Holy Spirit. Before we get there Nappa has an intermission in which he... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Jesus Creed
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In