HT to Ross McKenzie for this useful analysis of the simplistic saying about giving a man a fish. Read more
HT to Ross McKenzie for this useful analysis of the simplistic saying about giving a man a fish. Read more
Allan Bevere wrote the following in a recent blog post: No amount of interpretive gymnastics can soften Jesus’ words here in the Sermon on the Mount. Essentially he is saying, if you are going to follow me and love the way I insist you should love, you have to love in a way quite different from the pagans. If you love only those who love you, if you love only those individuals you consider to be your neighbor, you have... Read more
It is aimed at speakers of German, but I imagine that even if you don’t know German yet (and if not, why not?!), this site focused on teaching the modern spoken Aramaic/Syriac of Eastern Christian communities will still be of interest and useful to you. http://userblogs.fu-berlin.de/aramaic-ol/ I’ve added it to the list of Useful Sites that I maintain here on this blog. And just so you know, I was serious when I asked why you don’t know German. Get the Pimsleur... Read more
A couple of days ago I tried to make a point about #AllLivesMatter drawing on the Biblical prophets. Today, a Facebook friend made a similar point in relation to Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Plain in Luke’s Gospel. His point seemed to me to deserve to be turned into a meme, and so here it is: On the one hand, the two messages might seem to be very different. Jesus seems to actually be saying that the poor... Read more
On Facebook, Diana Butler Bass shared the following words of pastor Jeremy Rutledge: A black man lay at the side of the road and we looked the other way passed by like a priest with somewhere else to be walked on like a Levite who had an appointment with indifference. It didn’t happen to us we thought but someone else in Ferguson Baltimore or Baton Rouge. A police officer lay at the side of the road and we looked the... Read more
I thought there were some interesting thoughts in a recent article interviewing Billy Smiley, formerly of the band White Heart and now of The Union of Sinners and Saints: Faith and spirituality can barely survive religion. Imagine how tough it is for art… I listen to Christian music now and ask, “Where are the poets? Where are the questions? Where are the champions or thought? Where are the dreamers? Where have they gone? What are the mysteries around us that... Read more
I have had comments on things I have posted on the blog and on Facebook, from commenters whom I don’t know and who’ve never to my knowledge posted on my blog or Facebook wall before. One was addressing the control of knowledge by the 1% to promote evolution and deny the truth about human origins. Others were claiming that the truth could be found in a study published in the Washington Post, but not by reading that article – instead, you had... Read more
I came across the above meme, which nicely highlights one of many absurdities that result from viewing Moses as the author of the Pentateuch. Read more
I am grateful to Fortress Press for sending me a gratis review copy of Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods, Volume 1: Life, Culture, and Society, edited by David Fiensy and James Strange. But I am perhaps even more grateful to have had the privilege of reading the book while traveling to and then around Galilee and other parts of the Holy Land. The book, and the geographical and archaeological realities in my surroundings, mutually reinforced and... Read more
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Defaulting to Disqus
The World Table commenting system never really caught on here, and so I asked Patheos to switch the default commenting system back to Disqus, where most of the discussion here has continued to take place. I hope this change makes it easier for you to comment! Other changes are coming to the blog soon too… Read more