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Tyranny of the Agreeable

Inspired by the “Moscow Mood” Debate In a shocking 1961 study, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram would don an official-looking white lab coat and tell a volunteer to administer increasing shocks to another “volunteer” in an adjacent room strapped into an “electric chair” just out of sight. The shocks were incrementally…

by John CarpenterJuly 22, 2024
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Apostle Paul

Why Doesn’t Paul Quote Jesus?

My title and the substance of the article are borrowed from a section of David Wenham’s excellent book, Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity? I am appropriating ideas from the pages in his book which address the question, “Why Does Paul refer to Jesus’ Life and Ministry so…

by Ralph Allan SmithJuly 9, 2024
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James

The Epistle of James: Shotgun or Sniper

Some of us may be familiar with the notion that the epistle of James is like a New Testament version of Proverbs or other wisdom literature. According to this line of thinking, the epistle of James (together with the other wisdom literature) is basically a collection of timeless sayings without…

by Chris JohnsonJuly 4, 2024
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Virtue

Doing What You Don’t Want to Do

This summer I started walking a long trail that ran north from our home. On my best days, I would walk a total of five miles at a brisk pace. This trail follows the power lines that serve a significant portion of North Dallas and stretches far past the two…

by Mandi GerthJune 25, 2024
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American Culture

Is Queer Theology Christian?

I am an Australian. I went to the American Academy of Religion mega-fest last year to meet up with some friends, to present a paper at a ‘science and religion’ panel, and to marvel at the sheer scale of how Americans do things. It was quite a ride. Looking at…

by Paul TysonJune 18, 2024
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Ecclesiology

Consumerism, Oikos, and the Role of Women in the Church (Part 4)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 We evangelicals do not often understand the roles of men and women in ministry. Because our consumerist culture has gutted the notion of family as it was historically understood, all Biblical passages about women in church ministry (a familial organism) are almost incomprehensible to…

by John CarpenterJune 11, 2024

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Hamlet Before Romanticism

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is indisputably one of the most important dramatic works in the history of Western literature. It has been staged countless times, filmed often, and commented upon too often to recount. Unlike many other dramatic works, Hamlet has not been the province of critics alone, but has been an…

April 17, 2018

Spirit, Old and New

Proper time moves through redemptive history: The Father sends the Son to be incarnate at Advent and Christmas; the Son lives, dies, rises again, and ascends; and He gives the Spirit at Pentecost. The Church calendar climaxes with Pentecost, before moving into the “off-season” of Trinity. The church calendar is…

April 16, 2018

Jesus and Moses

Raymond Brown makes this comment in his discussion of the sign at the wedding feast: "Scholarly interpretations to the contrary, John does not put primary emphasis on the replacing of the water for Jewish purifications, nor on the action of changing water to wine . . . nor even on…

April 13, 2018

Scripture Is Music

Alastair Roberts and Andrew Wilson's splendid Echoes of Exodus begins with the claim that "Scripture is music" (21). Music functions as a controlling metaphor for Scripture and for reading Scripture. That means, for starters, that the Bible is written to a pulse of tension and resolution: "Sometimes two or more…

April 13, 2018

Paul and the End

N.T. Wright recognizes that the message of imminent judgment is central to the mission and ministry of Jesus (cf. Jesus and the Victory of God ). He insists too that Paul is aware of Jesus' prophecy and that Paul's mission is shaped by the looming catastrophe. This from Paul in…

April 13, 2018

Spirit-Led Scholarship

Discussing recent movements in Pauline studies, N.T. Wright ( Paul in Fresh Perspective , 17) insists on three points. First: "there are such things as texts; however much we deconstruct them, they bounce back with renewed challenge." Second: "there are such things as fresh and compelling readings of texts; new…

April 13, 2018

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