-
Esther & Canon?
Read more: Esther & Canon?[Update (2/14/2014)—My new book Esther and Her Elusive God: How A Secular Story Functions As Scripture is now available. My posts on this site represent stages in the development of my thinking about Esther. For the full argument check out the book]. The Book of Esther is notoriously difficult. For many Christians this might seem like an…
-
No Room In the Inn?
Read more: No Room In the Inn?Everyone knows how the Christmas story goes. As Stanley Hudson vehemently asserted in the most recent episode of The Office (8.10 Christmas Wishes) regarding the sensitivity to celebrate everything but Christmas during the Holidays: I want Christmas! Just give me plain-baby-Jesus-lying-in-a-manger Christmas! When our culture boils down the Christmas event it looks like this: baby…
-
Time Travel & The First Christmas
Read more: Time Travel & The First ChristmasToday (Dec 13) I am flying home after my first term at St Andrews. It feels like time has sped up ever since I arrived. An hour seems a bit shorter than I remembered in the States. Whole weeks have felt like insignificant blocks of time that pass by all too quickly. Why does time…
-
Why I Wouldn’t Teach My Kids About Santa
Read more: Why I Wouldn’t Teach My Kids About SantaI don’t actually have a problem with Santa Claus. In fact, I enjoy the general holiday cheer, even if it isn’t specifically Christian. I’m fine with songs like ‘Santa Claus is Coming To Town,’ ‘Frosty the Snow Man,’ ‘Silver Bells,’ etc… Its all good fun. But of course, I appreciate the Christmas songs that contain…
-
Apologetics: To What End?
Read more: Apologetics: To What End?Last week I talked about advertising and evangelism. As a related issue, I also want to discuss the way in which Christians do Apologetics. How far can Apologetics take us? Do we assume that someone can be argued into the Kingdom? Is the goal of Apologetics merely to convince? Is being convinced the same as…
-
False Advertising
Read more: False AdvertisingI don’t know about you but advertisements bug me. It’s not so much the fact that they exist, but the methods used. I have often tried to corner my buddies studying Business Marketing into admitting that they specialize in deception, lightheartedly of course. But what particularly annoys me is when advertisements do not indicate anything…
-
David’s Tent as Temple in Amos 9: WTJ Article Summary
Read more: David’s Tent as Temple in Amos 9: WTJ Article SummaryThis week the new issue of the Westminster Theological Journal was made available. I am grateful to have been able to contribute to the esteemed Reformed journal and I thought I’d provide a brief summary of my new article. If you’re interested in reading it the full bibliographic details are: “David’s Tent as Temple in…
-
The Macho Version of Biblical MANhood
Read more: The Macho Version of Biblical MANhoodSo far on this blog we’ve had some discussion led by Ryan about how the biblical manhood movement (mis)uses statistical cultural analysis when applying it to the Church (For the relevant posts in the 6-part series: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6). I do not intend here to pick up the discussion further, or to…
-
Of Halloween & Horror Movies: What the Hell?
Read more: Of Halloween & Horror Movies: What the Hell?On Halloween it’s good to ask, why are people drawn to what horrifies and terrifies them? Robert California, played by James Spader, has this sobering nugget to say from the most recent episode of The Office (Episode 5 of Season 8: Spooked): Fear plays an interesting role in our lives. How dare we let it…
-
Harry Potter & Pagan Issues
Read more: Harry Potter & Pagan IssuesIn light of Nathaniel Warne’s recent post on Harry Potter, I thought I’d supplement his excellent post with additional issues related to Harry Potter’s much needed vindication among conservative Christians. Growing up everyone told me that Harry Potter was evil so I never read the books. Although to be honest, even if people had told…