Disagreeing Well (because people are watching)

Last updated on: August 10, 2012 at 9:56 am By Peter Enns

Davis Williams (you’d think he was paying me for reposting his stuff) put this up today from Francis Schaeffer. Before a watching world, an observable love in the midst of difference will show a difference between Christians’ differences and other men’s differences. The world may not understand what the Christians are disagreeing about, but they will very quickly understand the difference of our differences from the world’s differences if they see us having our differences in an open and observable... Read more

“What is the Gospel?” Good Question (and chances are you are wrong)

Last updated on: August 10, 2012 at 8:17 am By Peter Enns

David Williams has two recent posts (here and here) on the question, “what is the gospel?” [FYI, with a captial ‘G’, Gospel refers to one or more of the four Gospels in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. With the lower case ‘g’ it refers to the concept, as in “preaching the gospel.” I usually charge good money for this information, but I’m in a good mood today. You’re welcome.] Some people roll their eyes, no doubt. “What a silly... Read more

If the Bible is Broken, How Do You Fix It?

Last updated on: August 8, 2012 at 3:39 pm By Peter Enns

Today we continue our playful romp through Kent Sparks’s recent book Sacred Word, Broken Word: Biblical Authority and the Dark Side of Scripture. (The first post is here and the previous post is here.) In chapter 10, “Listening to the Diversity and Unity of Scripture,” Sparks begins to tie together the previous chapters and move toward a more positive construction. In other words, he’s been talking about what the Bible is, and now he is going to start talking more about what we are supposed to... Read more

Does Jesus Have Anything to Say about How We Relate to Others (and is anybody going to listen?)

Last updated on: August 7, 2012 at 9:05 am By Peter Enns

Over at GospelFutures, Neil Williams (D.Th., University of South Africa and author of The Maleness of Jesus: Is It Good News for Women?) has begun a new book project Chasing the Wind: The Quest for Relational Transformation. The issue, in a nutshell, is how the life and message of Jesus can be truly transformative in our relationships. No this isn’t a self-help book about how to get along your spouse or in-laws. Williams is after a much bigger, and more controversial, issue: the ethics... Read more

GospelMemes? What are they? Are they legal? And how much does it cost to feed them?

Last updated on: August 7, 2012 at 9:06 am By Peter Enns

All kidding aside, over at GospelFutures, my buddy Peter Kress is starting a discussion on what he calls GospelMemes. Working off of his own spiritual journey, Kress wants to invite others, to participate with me in a process of assessment, query and discovery with the goal to find ways to explain, confess, express and seek gospel that make sense and inspire hope in this 21st century. Kress is calling for a collective effort to find different ways of talking about, thinking... Read more

It’s not “the Bible” but Holy Scripture (or, Who Gets Invited to the Barbecue?)

Last updated on: August 6, 2012 at 9:07 pm By Peter Enns

After a couple of weeks of Philadelphia heat, getting caught up on some late projects, and being held in the grip of the drama that is synchronized diving, I am back to posting on Kent Sparks’s provocative and thoughtful book Sacred Word, Broken Word: Biblical Authority and the Dark Side of Scripture. (You can find my first post here and follow the thread.) In chapter nine, Sparks talks about what it means to read “sacred Scripture.” Not the Bible. Anyone can read the Bible–academics, atheists, Red Sox... Read more

“And Always Let Your Context Be Your Guide”: Reading the Bible in Context

Last updated on: August 2, 2012 at 10:25 am By Peter Enns

Over at Jesus Creed, the inveterate and insightful blogger “RJS” has begun a discussion of the role of historical context for biblical interpretation. RJS begins the post by talking about creation in the Bible vis-a-vis science, and rightly suggests that how one reads the biblical material is affected by how one understands the historical/literary context of Genesis. In other words, progress in the science/faith discussion involves not simply reading Genesis literalistically, as if that is a default approach of faith by which... Read more

“Genesis for Normal People” 2.0 Now Available.

Last updated on: August 1, 2012 at 8:36 pm By Peter Enns

The e-book I recently wrote with Jared Byas, Genesis for Normal People: A Guide to the Most Controversial, Misunderstood, and Abused Book of the Bible, has just come out with one very significant change. Hidden inside six of these e-books is a magic e-ticket. If you happen to find one of these e-tickets, you will invited on a tour ….wait …sorry. Not sure where that came from. Let me try again. The change is the addition of a study guide... Read more

And Brief (and let’s hope final, but If I know me probably not) Comment on God’s Violence in the Old Testament

Last updated on: July 30, 2012 at 8:51 pm By Peter Enns

I’ve been writing some posts lately, beginning here, about God’s violence in the Old Testament, especially toward the Canaanites. I don’t mean to beat a dead horse (pardon the violent metaphor), and I am certainly not pressing the issue because I am bored and don’t know what to do with myself. I am taking the time to talk about God’s violence in the Old Testament because it is a window onto a large and perennially central theological topic that can be expressed as follows: What is the... Read more

A Brief Note on a Recent Book about the Adam of Genesis

Last updated on: July 27, 2012 at 11:08 am By Peter Enns

Several months ago, Pickwick Publications was kind enough to send me a copy of Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to the Torah and Tanakh by Seth D. Postell. This is a brief note on a valuable book for understanding the purpose of the Adam story in Genesis. As the title suggests, Postell sees Adam not as the first human, but a foreshadowing of Israel. Specifically, Genesis 1-3 is an introduction to the Torah and the Old Testament as... Read more