I’ve been reading through the Bible in Hebrew for many years now, and I’m just over half way through. In the Jewish ordering of the canon, that means that I’m getting toward the end of Isaiah. I’ve made my way through the marvelous chapters 40-55 and am now up to chap. 60. One of the things I enjoy about reading Hebrew is the rich word play that the authors engage in, particularly in poetic texts such as Isaiah (though there’s... Read more
Jonathan Huddleston, an old and dear friend of mine who is an OT scholar, has challenged the picture of OT revelation that I gave (somewhat tangentially) in my last post. Here are his comments as posted on Facebook (reproduced with his permission), followed by my response: In what was almost a tangent from his main point, Edwin took some time to portray a thumbnail sketch of the OT revelation that simply doesn’t agree with what I learned during my OT... Read more
So the Internet has been buzzing these past few weeks–my corner of it at least–with discussion of Larycia Hawkins, the Wheaton College political science professor who has been “placed on administrative leave” for reasons Wheaton has not clearly explained but which have something to do with her claim that Muslims and Christians “worship the same God.” Practically everyone who blogs about Christian stuff has now weighed in on this in one way or the other. The negative position is primarily... Read more
I first met David Steinmetz in April 1995, more than twenty years ago. I was not quite 21; he was nearly 59. (It is sobering to realize that I am now, at 41, closer to the age he was then than to the age I was then.) Craig Farmer, who taught church history at my alma mater, Milligan College, had strongly encouraged me to attend grad school at Duke to study with Steinmetz. I had read several of his books... Read more
When I got out of graduate school,I applied to a Christian college,Where I found it was the golden ruleTo integrate faith and knowledge.Worldviews that did with this conflict,I poked ’em full of holes, sir;And my concern was very strictTo save my students’ souls, sir. Refrain: And to this rule I shall agreeUntil I am a wraith, sir;That whoever shall give a job to me,I’ll sign their statement of faith, sir.When tenure time was coming round,My prospects seemed uncertain.So I took... Read more
I was invited to participate in a panel of responses to Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to the U.S. Here it is. The title I would have chosen if they had asked would have been “Pope Francis and the alternative to empire,” or, if I’d been feeling particularly punchy, “Pope Francis confronts the Empire.” Read more
I hadn’t planned to write a formal blog post about Kim Davis. I’ve gotten involved in several conversations about her on FB recently, mostly playing devil’s advocate, and I thought probably that was enough–or even too much. But then my beloved wife Jennifer complained that she didn’t have anyone writing about Davis on the Patheos Faith and Work Channel, and I agreed to write a blog post here and have her repost it over there. So, with some misgivings, here... Read more
The BBC/PBS miniseries Wolf Hall is six hours of some of the most absorbing television (or just storytelling generally) I’ve ever seen. I have not yet read the books by Hilary Mantel on which the show is based, but now I certainly intend to. The series does a splendid job of dramatizing the tense and devious politics of the Henrician court, and its central character, Thomas Cromwell, is splendidly acted (by Mark Rylance) and a riveting fictional portrait. Emphasis on... Read more
This summer, I wrote a series of blogs on my experiences at the “Acton Institute” and my reflections afterwards. You can read them on the Patheos “Mission:Work” blog here (this takes you to the last post, which has links to all the others). Read more
One of the strongest Catholic arguments against Protestantism is the challenge, “how do you explain the canon of the New Testament on sola scriptura principles?” At the same time, Catholics often throw away their advantage by silly overstatement. It is nonsense to say, for instance, that “there was no Bible for 300 years,” and it is not self-evident that the Church that canonized the Bible was simply identical to the contemporary “Roman Catholic Church,” or that accepting the canon automatically... Read more
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