Category: Biblical Studies
-
No Room in the Inn? (Re-post)
Read more: No Room in the Inn? (Re-post)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 Jesus in a manger. We’ve seen…
-
An Evangelical Black Theology of Liberation
Read more: An Evangelical Black Theology of LiberationIn James Cone’s revolutionary work, Black Theology & Black Power, Cone depicts a theological system that is truly black in its methodology and biblical in its exegetical foundation. Prior to his work, there was no theology by and for black people, and the prevailing theology of the day, a burgeoning evangelical theology, was decidedly white…
-
Celebrating Prof. N. T. Wright: One God, One People, One Future
Read more: Celebrating Prof. N. T. Wright: One God, One People, One FutureOne week ago I had the privilege of presenting Prof. N. T. Wright with a Festschrift (German for ‘celebration writing’), which is a sub-genre of scholarly books comprised of essays from former students, colleagues, and long-time friends. This kind of book celebrates the contributions of a particular scholar, typically on the occasion of a major birthday or…
-
Our New Book: Ancient Readers and Their Scriptures
Read more: Our New Book: Ancient Readers and Their ScripturesI am thrilled to say that our new book is finally out, Ancient Readers and Their Scriptures: Engaging the Hebrew Bible in Early Judaism and Christianity. The book was published by Brill just a few weeks ago and will be on display just in time for the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature beginning this weekend in…
-
Does the Apostolic Decree Command Christians Not to Eat Thanksgiving Turkey? Musings on Food and an Appeal to Reduce Meat Consumption
Read more: Does the Apostolic Decree Command Christians Not to Eat Thanksgiving Turkey? Musings on Food and an Appeal to Reduce Meat ConsumptionThe time was almost ten years ago precisely. Maybe you remember the shocking video I was watching. On my screen was Sarah Palin (in one of her many regrettable public moments), conducting an outdoor interview about pardoning turkeys, casually sipping her coffee, while two turkeys were being strangled to death behind her. I have neither…
-
What the Biblical Authors Skipped and Why it Matters Today
Read more: What the Biblical Authors Skipped and Why it Matters TodayReaders of the Bible may be shocked to discover that an important historical event is missing from its narrative. Most people have never heard of it, even though this event may have well changed the course of history. And more intriguing, it seems that the biblical authors and editors may have sought to suppress this…
-
Check out my New Article on Pauline Chronology and Eschatology
Read more: Check out my New Article on Pauline Chronology and EschatologyMy new article in Journal of Biblical & Theological Studies is now officially out. The paper is entitled, “Eschatological Emphases in 1 Thessalonians and Galatians: Distinct Argumentative Strategies Related to External Conflict and Audience Response.” In this article I am addressing a couple of different issues at once. To begin, there is the issue of the chronological…
-
Pushing Past Literalism
Read more: Pushing Past LiteralismEver since I started down the path of academic theology I have been plagued by a single word: “literal”. No other word has caused me near the same amount of frustration and headaches than this word. Not only is it often, ironically, ill defined and vague, it becomes, also ironically, a license to interpret or…
-
Bearing Fruit
Read more: Bearing FruitIn John 15:1-17, Jesus talks about “bearing fruit” and “friendship.” This is a reflection on the meaning of “bearing fruit” in Scripture, the ways in which John innovates a relationship between fruit, friendship, and death in this passage, and an argument about the counter-intuitive places I think we should look for friendship in Scripture. Bearing…
-
The Image of God
Read more: The Image of GodWhat is the image of God? As I thought and read about this I came through very interesting concepts that are worth sharing. Let’s start with Paul’s statement of the image of God. Colossians 1:15 states that Jesus is the image of God. Now, Jesus was not simply human, he was fully God and fully…