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Misreading Barth in Pauline Scholarship
Read more: Misreading Barth in Pauline ScholarshipReadings of Paul influenced by the work of Karl Barth – or, at least, supposedly Barthian readings of Paul – have recently been taken up by a number of interpreters. One recurring characteristic of such self-proclaimed Barthian readings is to construe Paul’s gospel as radically, purely, and thoroughgoingly objective: completely undetermined, unaffected, and untouched by…
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Why You Should Study The Gift
Read more: Why You Should Study The GiftGifts constitute a critical social role in every culture. Though gifts exist throughout the world, the function, definition, and significance of gift-giving can be radically distinct from culture to culture—even contradictory—such that what we call ‘gift’ may be unrecognizable as gift to another from a different culture. These differences make the topic all the more fascinating to study. Ever…
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A Pauline Call for a Christian Meat Taboo
Read more: A Pauline Call for a Christian Meat TabooJohn M.G. Barclay, ‘Food, Christian Identity and Global Warming: A Pauline Call for a Christian Food Taboo’, The Expository Times 121 (2010): 585-93. Over the past couple years I have repeatedly returned to the article listed above. Not because I forget about the main point, but because I find it incredibly compelling. I just keep…
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Harry Potter: Worse Things than Death, Better Things than Life
Read more: Harry Potter: Worse Things than Death, Better Things than Life[If you haven’t read Harry Potter, don’t read this post. Exit out of it and buy the first book here]. This week was the anniversary of when Harry Potter and his friends entered the department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic (in Order of the Phoenix). It is by far my favorite scene in the…
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Speaking ‘To Dust You Will Return’ to a Death-Fearing Culture
Read more: Speaking ‘To Dust You Will Return’ to a Death-Fearing Culture“By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust. And to dust you will return” (Genesis 3.19). Ever since then, humanity has been faced with a choice regarding this decree: either ignore it, avoid it, and live…
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Why did Jesus use Alcohol for Communion?
Read more: Why did Jesus use Alcohol for Communion?Until I recently moved to Scotland, I spent most of my Christian life in American Evangelical churches. In these churches, they have unanimously done communion with grape juice, without the option to use wine if one so desired. As much as I regularly experienced this, I never really understood why churches decide to use grape juice instead…
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The Freedom in Being Meaningless
Read more: The Freedom in Being MeaninglessI have been meditating on the book of Ecclesiastes lately. Tonight as I was driving home late I stopped on the coast to listen to the waves and look at the stars. I murmured to myself: I am free to not make an impact. I am free to not have a legacy. I am free to…