Walter Brueggemann sums up the Bible’s perspective on Money and Possessions in six propositions: Money is a gift from God. Wealth is a reward for obedience. Possessions belong to God and are held in trust. Money can be a source of social injustice. Possessions are to be used and shared in a neighborly way, for the common good and not selfishly. Money can seduce us toward idolatry. These six are the pillars of what Brueggemann calls “neighborly” economics. Most of... Read more
Romans 10:9–10 is arranged in a straightforward chiasm: A. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord B. and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, C. You shall be saved. B’. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness A’. and with the mouth he confesses unto salvation. Paul moves from mouth to heart, then from heart to mouth. He moves from confession to belief, and then from belief to confession. It’s significant that... Read more
“Remember His wonders which He does,” the Levites sing when the ark is brought to Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 16:12a), doubtless referring preeminently to the wonders of the exodus but more distantly to the wonder of doing/making creation. At creation and in the exodus, God’s wonders are the wonders of the Word: The Levites memorialize “His marvels and the judgments of His mouth” (16:12b). Solomon also does/makes a “wonder”: the house he builds (2 Chronicles 2:9). The temple is something of... Read more
Few pop stars have been as mercurial as Bob Dylan. Folk singer, rock star, gospel singer, a mimic of James Dean, Christian, Jew. Each change in his musical trajectory has been accompanied by a change of personality. Even his voice has changed over his decades of fame. As Andrew McCarron puts it in his forthcoming psychobiography (Light Come Shining), “The same voice that was described by Minnesotan friends as “pretty” and “beautiful” in his late teens transformed into the nasally... Read more
In his published conversation with Zygmunt Bauman about Liquid Evil, Leonidas Donskis observes that “Optimism is, above all, a Christian construction – it’s based on the faith that good can overcome evil and that unexplored possibilities and alternatives can always be found.” As Christianity’s influence has declined in the West, so has optimism. “We live in an age of pessimism,” one ripe with ancient beliefs about the irradicable nature of evil. Donskis points out that “the twentieth century was excellent... Read more
The world is full of activists and “change agents,” but Duncan Green doesn’t think anyone has a clear idea of how social change occurs. In How Change Happens, he offers elements of a theory of change, along with case studies and some practical direction for people who want to change the world. He takes a “systems approach” that emphasizes the complexity of social phenomena; uncountable variables interact in all sorts of ways with each other. “Many of the mental models... Read more
The world is full of activists and “change agents,” but Duncan Green doesn’t think anyone has a clear idea of how social change occurs. In How Change Happens, he offers elements of a theory of change, along with case studies and some practical direction for people who want to change the world. He takes a “systems approach” that emphasizes the complexity of social phenomena; uncountable variables interact in all sorts of ways with each other. “Many of the mental models... Read more
Stuart Banner attempts to draw the fine line between investment and gambling in his forthcoming Speculation. Among other things, his book is a history of America’s double-mindedness about speculative investing. Visitors to the early US regularly made comments like this from German journalist Francis Grund: “An American merchant is an enthusiast who seems to delight in enterprise in proportion as it is connected with danger.” Lincoln hated speculators, and risky investing was blamed for economic crashes long before 2008. Banner... Read more
Stuart Banner attempts to draw the fine line between investment and gambling in his forthcoming Speculation. Among other things, his book is a history of America’s double-mindedness about speculative investing. Visitors to the early US regularly made comments like this from German journalist Francis Grund: “An American merchant is an enthusiast who seems to delight in enterprise in proportion as it is connected with danger.” Lincoln hated speculators, and risky investing was blamed for economic crashes long before 2008. Banner... Read more
Maxwell Anderson’s forthcoming Antiquities surveys the world of antiquities, summarizing law, history of collection, the difference between the interests of archeologists and antiquities dealers, forgeries and their detection, the market in antiquities. Everything you’d want to know. Anderson places the rise of interest in antiquities in the context of the emergence of national identity: “With the emergence of statehood came pride in ancestral origins, even if embroidered to the point of invented memories. Pride in the cultural heritage of a... Read more
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