Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
From time to time, when I’ve lectured on how to read the Bible, I’ve used art-music as one example thereof. When we listen to a simple folk song, we hear the same melody over and over again, but this is not how composers write "high" music. Let me amplify. A…
Sermons are rarely more tiresome than when they strive for relevance. Drawing from the latest headlines transforms the preacher into a one-man MacLaughlin Group, a Crossfire without the cross though perhaps with some of the fire, and leave the congregation thinking, "If I wanted Meet the Press, I could have…
Part One: The Old Testament “Drink is in itself a good creature of God, and to be received with thankfulness, but the abuse of drink is from Satan, the wine is from God, but the drunkard is from the Devil” Increase Mather in Wo to Drunkards (1673). 1. The “wine”…
28. These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away into exile: in the 7th year 3023 Jews. 29. In the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar 832 persons from Jerusalem. 30. In the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile 745 Jewish people; there were 4600…
Revelation 21:24 says, concerning the light shining from the New Jerusalem, "and the nations will walk by her light, and the kings of the land will bring their glory into her." Similarly, Revelation 22:2 says, concerning the Tree of Life, that "the leaves of the tree were for the healing…
Jeremiah and the Beginning of Jehoiakim’s Reign Now comes Jeremiah, at the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign, with similar words (Jeremiah 26). Harken to God’s law, he said, or else God will destroy the Temple the same way He sent the Philistines to tear down the Tabernacle at Shiloh (Jeremiah 26:6;…
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Tallis is Not Saussure about post-structuralism, but that’s partly because he things posts distort the original structuralism of Saussure. Even if Saussure is correct that there no ideas before language links a sound with a concept, that doesn’t mean that there is no differentiation in the world that wasn’t put…
Raymond Tallis ( Not Saussure ) is no friend of post-structuralism, but he recognizes that absent texts shape the reading of present ones: “What seems to be offered to us when we confront a particular work is at least partly determined by the silent presence of other works belonging to…
Also from Robinson’s essay: Clarence Darrow defended two young men charged with the murder of the child. One he defended by saying he got his ideas from Nietzsche: “Is there any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsche’s philosophy seriously and fashioned his life upon it? . . . Your honor,…
In a wonderful opening essay on Darwinism in her book, The Death of Adam , Marilynne Robinson (of Gilead fame) offers a few paragraphs on the Scopes trial: “It requires a little effort . . . to remember that [Bryan’s] attack on Darwinism came from the left , from the…
Another of my lectionary meditations at the Christian Century web site: http://www.theolog.org/blog/2008/06/blogging-toward.html.
INTRODUCTION Herod Antipas, the third Herod to appear in Matthew (cf. 2:1-18, 22), is as murderous as the others. He rules a kingdom of death, while Jesus brings life and healing ( 14:13 -15, 34-36). THE TEXT “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus and said…
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