Recent posts
Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity: the question about the violence of God
McLaren asks, thirdly, ‘Is God Violent?’ We can eliminate the effects of the Greco-Roman distortion of the biblical narrative, we can read the Bible as a library rather than as a constitution, we can bring into the focus the stories of God as good creator, passionate liberator, and...
(03/10/2010 - 09:44)
Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity: the second question
McLaren’s second question is ‘How Should the Bible Be Understood?’ He lists three broad reasons why we need a ‘new approach to the Bible’. First, fundamentalism in its various varieties has, to our repeated embarrassment, made the Bible an enemy of science; secondly,...
(03/08/2010 - 13:05)
Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity: the first question
Brian McLaren’s new book A New Kind of Christianity addresses ten critical questions that he believes are transforming the faith. Christianity is in crisis – perhaps on the scale of the Reformation or the Great Schism between East and West (cf. Phyllis Tickle), perhaps at the end of a...
(03/07/2010 - 14:20)
Mk. 13:24-27 - In those days, after that tribulation...
Following the lengthy debate with Gustavo about Mark 13, I want to try to summarize what seem to me to be the main reasons for doubting that there is a fundamental shift in timeframe between Jesus’ prediction of events leading up to the desolation of the temple and the flight of the disciples...
(02/09/2010 - 09:27)
The punishment of Jesus
I wonder if we’re right to be quite so leery of the punishment aspect of the cross. I guess a lot of it has to do with not wanting to attribute vindictiveness, cruelty to God. Jesus’ death was an anticipation of the punishment of Israel – I suggest in my book on Romans that in Romans 8:...
(01/28/2010 - 17:07)
Mk. 13:24-27 - Re-registering the coming of the Son of man
Gustavo Martin’s excellent (though rather technical) Biblica essay on ‘Procedural Register in the Olivet Discourse’ has prompted me to look again at the place of the ‘Son of man’ section in Jesus’ prediction of future events in Mark 13.
Martin’s main...
(12/19/2009 - 11:32)
The unfamiliar face of Jesus
There is a classic image of Jesus that has predominated in Christian artistic traditions – a tall figure with long wavy, almost effeminate hair (because he’s worth it!) and beard, sorrowful eyes, white robe, and the original Jesus sandals. We do not imagine that this representation amounts to...
(11/27/2009 - 14:07)
Review of the (proxy?) review of the response to the critique of the argument: Wright and the righteousness of God
The rambling Anglican Ordinand Jon Swales has drawn attention to a Themelios review of N.T. Wright’s Justification: Paul’s Vision and God’s Plan, which was Wright’s response to John Piper’s critique of his attack on the Reformed understanding of justification. It gets more convoluted....
(11/26/2009 - 11:42)
