I’ve been doing some writing lately, and a nagging topic keeps coming up in one way or another and won’t leave me alone. Last year, I put up a few posts on divine violence against Canaanites in the Old Testament (here, here, here, here, and more recently here), which is enough of a topic to keep you busy. But what about God’s retributive violence–where God exacts swift judgment in the form of physical brutality against his own people for disobeying?... Read more
Two dear friends of mine, Steve and April Bohannon, have had more than their share of challenges, struggles, and fears. For the past decade, April has had recurring bouts with brain cancer (see her brief story below). Beyond the worries that accompany such trials, the financial strain of medical costs have been oppressive. April has not been able to work in nearly two years. Steve, a seminary graduate, works several part-time jobs. I am sure many of you can relate to the stress the Bohannons... Read more
John Schneider (former professor of theology at Calvin College) recently posted an article online: “The Fall of ‘Augustinian Adam’: Original Fragility and Supralapsarian Purpose.” The title is a mouthful, but his basic point is whether Adam in any sense is compatible with evolution. His answer is yes, provided it is not the Adam the western church has inherited from the 5th century Augustine but the Adam of 2nd century Irenaeus. In other words, first humans as “comparable to innocent, but morally undeveloped... Read more
“The goal of human knowing is neither to exalt science over other forms of inquiry nor to use theology as a magic wand to make things we can’t otherwise explain vanish. The goal of human knowing is instead to seek to engage God, the world, and ourselves in one unified frame of meaning.” ~The Very Rev. Gary Hall (Dean, Washington National Cathedral), “Cathedral Age” (Autumn 2012) Recently I stumbled onto a website of the Episcopal Church, The Network for Science,... Read more
After teaching almost entirely at the seminary and doctoral levels for eighteen years, I’ve been teaching Bible courses to college students at Eastern University for the last three semesters. So, of course, this makes me an expert. All kidding aside, I’ve had to do some thinking about how to pull this off. Teaching Bible in a Christian college can be tricky, especially introductory courses (I teach both OT and NT Intro), because the students are in so many different places. Some... Read more
Today we continue Denis Lamoureux’s series of brief slideshows on his popular book I Love Jesus & I Accept Evolution. In the previous three slideshows, Lamoureux covered chapters 1 and 2, chapter 3, and a supplement to chapter 4 where he looked at the sources of Genesis. Today’s lesson covers chapter 4 of his book, “Biblical Accounts of Origins.” Lamoureux covers the stylistic and perspectival differences between Genesis 1 and 2, the importance of the role of story (rather than straight history) in biblical theology, and other matters. Lamoureux... Read more
Recently, Daniel Kirk posted his thoughts on the historical Adam question in Fuller Theological Seminary’s Spring 2013 issue of “Theology, News, and Notes.” He followed up with a post on his own blog. Many know Kirk from his books Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul?: A Narrative Approach to the Problem of Pauline Christianity and Unlocking Romans: Resurrection and the Justification of God. Kirk is associate professor of New Testament at Fuller. I saw this article several months ago in an earlier version,... Read more
Respectfulconversation.net has just launched its 6 part series on “American Evangelicalism: Present Conditions, Future Possibilities.” Each month for 6 months a different topic will be discussed with posts from various perspectives. This month’s topic is “Evangelicalism and the Broader Christian Tradition” and I wrote one of the 6 posts, “Evangelical Identity and the Broader Christian Tradition.” An excerpt is below. Click on the SECOND link above to read all 6 posts and join the conversation with your comments. Evangelicalism has been going... Read more
Today we continue Denis Lamoureux’s series of brief slide shows on his popular book I Love Jesus & I Accept Evolution. In the previous two slide shows, Lamoureux covered chapters 1 and 2 and chapter 3. In chapter 4 of his book, Lamoureux covers the biblical accounts of origins. But before launching into that, Lamoureux wants to set up that discussion by talking about something he does not address in his book: the ancient sources behind these accounts, which Lamoureux considers part of... Read more
Peter Enns
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Learn about the Cultural Background to the Bible (with pictures and everything)
In 2009, Zondervan released the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. The Old Testament portion of this set is a massive 5-volume, 3000+ page, hard cover boxed set that cost about as much as my first car. (The New Testament set is a mere 4 volumes.) The dilemma is that this heavy and expensive set (about $35/volume) is also immensely helpful for giving interested readers a sense of the cultural background to the Bible. Zondervan has begun responding to this problem... Read more