John “Golden Mouth” Chrysostom preached the first known Christmas sermon in AD 386 (the same year that Augustine converted to Christianity — what a year!). In this case, the first is the best. It both beautifully written and theologically profound. How I would have loved to have heard him deliver it! I commend it for your reading in the next couple of days. BEHOLD a new and wondrous mystery. My ears resound to the Shepherd’s song, piping no soft melody,... Read more
I had a great time hanging out with Andrew Marin last summer at the Cornerstone Festival. We immediately became friends, and I think you can see the affection in the video that he recently posted on his blog. Therein, he asks me about my views on gay and lesbian persons in the Christian faith, among other things. You can watch it below. Andrew has become the leading spokesperson in the evangelical world for bridging evangelicals and gays, which is not... Read more
Some of our most beloved Christmas songs are written by our Jewish brothers, to the chagrin of Garrison Keillor. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Feed the World) Holly Jolly Christmas I’ll Be Home for Christmas It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Santa Baby Santa Claus is Coming to Town Silver... Read more
I’ve been asked to preach at my home church and former employer, Colonial Church, next Sunday, December 27. As a good guest preacher (known in the biz as ‘pulpit supply’), I’m using the lectionary text so as to not import everything I want to say to this congregation into my sermon (and Lord knows, there’s a lot I’d like to say!). In the lectionary, this coming Sunday is known as Christmas 1C, and the Gospel text is Luke 2:41-52, which... Read more
As part of my work for SparkHouse, I’m writing short theological backgrounds for a product that we are developing. One of them centers around the importance of the virginity of Mary to Christian belief. The virgin conception of Jesus has been questioned since the beginning of the church. As early as AD 177, the anti-Christian philosopher Celsus claimed that Jesus himself made up the story of the virgin conception to cover up his own illegitimacy. Others, including more liberal biblical... Read more
It seems that James Duncan is a professor of communications at Anderson University in South Carolina. And it seems, based on his blogroll, that he’s compatriots with some of the websites who believe that I am the spawn of Satan. But theological differences aside, he writes an amazing narrative of what happened to him at the hands of a staff person and several members of a church in his city. It seems he wrote some blog posts critical of the... Read more
A couple new reviews of The Teaching of the Twelve were posted this week. The first, by Wes Ellis, is positive. Wes particularly likes the modern translation of the Didache that we’ve provided, and calls that the best chapter of the book. He goes on to write, How does this fit in with Jones’ other works? This question only needs to be asked because Jones usually writes about the Emerging Church and he usually stays away from such involved studies... Read more
I received an early Christmas gift — Hank Stuever‘s wonderful and hilarious look at over-the-top Americana Christmas in Frisco, Texas, Tinsel: A Search for America’s Christmas Present. Stuever writes like I’d like to write some day: witty, smart, compassionate, and snarky, all at the same time without ever going over the top. He immersed himself in Frisco, an exurb of Dallas/Fort Worth, for three Christmases, and hung out with the very people who camp out at Best Buy the night... Read more
PW has posted their review of my new book: The Teaching of the Twelve: Believing and Practicing the Primitive Christianity of the Ancient Didache Community Tony Jones. Paraclete, $14.99 paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-55725-590-7 Calling the Didache “the most important book you’ve never heard of,” Emergent leader Jones (The New Christians) briefly unpacks the theological and practical lessons to be gleaned from one of early Christianity’s most overlooked texts. Less than half the length of the shortest New Testament gospel, the... Read more
Theoblogy
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In