Only love can know love, only mercy can know mercy, only the endless mystery I am to myself is ready for God’s Infinite Mystery. When I can stand in mystery (not knowing and not needing to know and being dazzled by such freedom), when I don’t need to split, to hate, to dismiss, to compartmentalize what I cannot explain or understand, when I can radically accept that “I am what I am what I am,” then I am beginning to stand in divine... Read more
So we face a curious paradox. If biblical criticism leads to false and destructive results, and if it is indeed as intellectually bankrupt as some conservative theologians aver, then why have so many thoughtful believers entered university graduate programs with a vibrant devotion to God only to emerge on the other side of their studies with a dead or failing faith, and with the firm conviction that historical criticism easily bests the traditional viewpoint? Do Christian graduate students succumb to the deceptive... Read more
One of the chief marks of conservative evangelical biblical scholarship is that it claims to accept the validity of historical criticism but limits or adapts the critical method in order to avoid or reverse the standard conclusions of modern biblical scholarship…. [C]onservative evangelicals claim to be as interested as anyone in playing the academic game with historical-critical rules. They fully believe that the historical critical method, when employed properly, will sustain the Bible’s integrity and undermine the problematic results of modern biblical criticism.... Read more
I just needed to hear this today–and no I’m not becoming Roman Catholic, so calm down, though it’s not the worst things that could happen, and some of my best friends are Catholic, and even if you’re rabidly Protestant and think Catholics are just plain wrong and unbiblical and shouldn’t allowed near your children and pets you should still be able to get something out of this, for heaven’s sake, if you’re willing to overlook a couple of things (as I do), unless... Read more
I’m asked from time to time how I went about finding a literary agent and the whole “pleasepleaseplease publish my book” process. So I thought I’d say it in a brief blog post so I can refer to it when asked. The process isn’t complicated, but it’s time consuming. What helped me most was contacting people who were already doing what I wanted to do and finding out how they did it. Each contact is another contact to find an agent who is a match... Read more
A friend sent me this post by Fr. Stephen Freeman, “Has Your Bible Become a Quran?” Freeman makes several points in his post, but what drew me in was his provocative view that modern Christianity, especially in its view of the Bible, has more in common with Islam than with historic Christianity. I have to be honest, the thought never once crossed my mind, but Freeman’s post is worth pondering. He makes three points: The Bible is not the Christian Holy... Read more
I came across this article written back in 2008 by Dr. Robert Duffett, president of Dakota Wesleyan University at the time, and now president of Eastern University for just over a year. Duffett offers a perspective on the faith of our “founding father” that sobers popular notions of Washington being a church-going evangelical–not to mention our country founded from the get-go on distinctly Christian principles. As Duffett puts it, Washington’s religious views fit his temperament. Like his emotions, he kept his religious views largely... Read more
Today’s post is the third and final installment of my interview with Brian McLaren. As you may recall, Brian asked me three questions about my book The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It and I in turn asked him three questions. We are posting the exact same post on each other’s blogs simultaneously. As I’m sure many of you know, Brian’s latest book is We Make the Road by Walking: A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation, and... Read more
While the Eucharist has always been a consoling mystery with an ecstatic, mystical language surrounding it (such as “Happy are those who are called to the wedding feast of the lamb,” Revelation 19:7-9), it has also been clothed in the language of suffering, blood, and death. It makes clear the connection that the mystics always confirm: there is an inherent link between love and suffering. I think the tradition is correct in saying that somehow this mystery of the Eucharist is... Read more
Today is the second of three installments of my interview with Brian McLaren. He asked me three questions about my book The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It and I in turn asked him three questions. We are posting the exact same post on each other’s blogs simultaneously; we figured the internet has enough room. Brian’s blog is here if you’d rather see what it looks like from his part of cyberspace. As I’m sure many of... Read more
Peter Enns
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