What I’ve Learned about Reading the Bible from Reading the Church Fathers: One Pilgrim’s Perspective (guest post)

Last updated on: June 17, 2013 at 9:24 pm By Peter Enns

Today’s guest post is by David W. Opderbeck, professor of law at Seton Hall University Law School, and Ph.D. Candidate, Systematic and Philosophical Theology, University of Nottingham. One of Opderbeck’s area’s of interest is science and faith, and he likes to bring into the evangelical discussion the often neglected work of the Church Fathers. While studying at an evangelical seminary, Opderbeck was introduced to the notion of the “theological interpretation” and did some basic reading in the Church Fathers. He then began... Read more

Tradition: It’s not an anchor to weigh you down but a sail to move you forward

Last updated on: June 16, 2013 at 9:39 am By Peter Enns

I came across this blog post, now over 3 years old, while meandering through the internet this morning. The point is made so succinctly and expresses so well my own thinking, I wanted to post it to see what you think. The author is Fr. Ted Bobosh, a priest at St. Paul the Apostle Church, Dayton, OH (Orthodox Church in America). He has degrees from the Ohio State University, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary and Fordham University, and was for 12 years... Read more

A Quick Word on Two New Books on (1) Evolution and (2) God’s Violence

Last updated on: June 17, 2013 at 9:22 am By Peter Enns

Bowing to the unreasonable pressures of publishers who actually expect me to produce something in exchange for money, I am WAAAAAAAAAY behind in my reading and in my blogging about what I am reading. Meeting this problem half way, I simply want to mention today two books I received over the past few weeks, both of which I have read/skimmed and that I plan on commenting on in the days/weeks to come after I’ve had a chance to read them more carefully.... Read more

Scot McKnight vs. Those “Pesky Calvinists”: What Does it Mean for God to be Sovereign?

Last updated on: June 12, 2013 at 12:58 pm By Peter Enns

Last week I read a brief e-book that just came out by my friend Scot McKnight, A Long Faithfulness: The Case for Christian Perseverance. His point is a simple one and he gets to it in the very first paragraph: McKnight doesn’t like how “the resurgent Calvinism” talks about God’s sovereignty. These “pesky Calvinists,” as McKnight calls them, promote “meticulous (or exhaustive) sovereignty,” where all things that come to pass are determined by God (weather, disasters, murders, sexual abuse, etc). Though... Read more

Is Christian Apologetics Secular and Unbiblical? An interview with Myron Penner

Last updated on: June 10, 2013 at 7:42 am By Peter Enns

Today’s post is an interview with Myron Penner (PhD, University of Edinburgh), author of the upcoming The End of Apologetics: Christian Witness in a Postmodern Context, slated to be released July 1. Penner is an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Edmonton, Alberta. He previously taught at Prairie College and Graduate School and served as a human development worker. He is the editor of Christianity and the Postmodern Turn: Six Views and coauthor of A New Kind of Conversation: Blogging Toward a Postmodern... Read more

5 Main Challenges to Staying Christian, and moving forward anyway (part 2)

Last updated on: June 5, 2013 at 11:32 am By Peter Enns

In my earlier post today, I summarized the comments I received from my initial question, “What are the one or two biggest challenges you face to staying Christian?” Now we move to part 2, which is ways in which you have found to move forward. Most of you found it very encouraging to be able to lay out the challenges you face, and I know many readers were encouraged by watching that process. I am hoping that part 2 will continue along... Read more

5 Main Challenges to Staying Christian, and moving forward anyway (part 1)

Last updated on: June 6, 2013 at 8:48 pm By Peter Enns

In a post last week, I asked you to think about the one or two biggest challenges you face to staying Christian. Including private emails, I got about 300 responses, many of them heartfelt and moving. Thanks for your courage and honesty! Although a wide range of challenges were mentioned and specifics naturally differ, I grouped them under five broad categories below. I hope this helps. One request at this point: As we continue here, I want to remind you that this is... Read more

In Other News, Germansrecognizetheyuseunnecessarilylongwords

Last updated on: June 4, 2013 at 10:00 am By Peter Enns

Sorry folks, I can’t resist this. Apparently my years-long letter writing campaign has born fruit: Germany is officially dropping its longest word, 63 letters, the title of a law regulating the testing of beef: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. The article will even show you how to pronounce it, though you might want to be sitting down and wearing a seatbelt. My parents were German immigrants and they always lamented how German was becoming more and more Americanized by taking American words and just... Read more

What Wine Would Jesus Drink? (a new book tells you)

Last updated on: June 3, 2013 at 7:53 pm By Peter Enns

Today’s post is an interview is with Randall Heskett, co-author of Divine Vintage: Following the Wine Trail from Genesis to the Modern Age. Heskett holds advanced degrees in biblical studies and ancient Near Eastern languages from Yale (S.T.M.) and University of Toronto (Ph.D), and his publications include Messianism within the Scriptural Scroll of Isaiah and Reading the Book of Isaiah: Destruction and Lament in the Holy Cities. A resident of Boulder, CO, Heskett has been studying wine seriously for 20 years. He is also... Read more

A Possible Paradigm Shift in Evolutionary Biology? Thank the Microbes

Last updated on: June 3, 2013 at 2:20 pm By Peter Enns

Full disclosure: This post is from the “I wish I had paid better attention in high school science rather than play Rock’em Sock’em Robots with the lab frogs, which is why I work in the humanities” department, but a friend of mine in the sciences passed this on to me a couple of days ago, and even *I* saw how interesting and important this might be. Apparently there is ferment in the life sciences as there is in Christian theology.... Read more