-
Three Takeaways from Rehearsing Scripture
Read more: Three Takeaways from Rehearsing ScriptureAnna Carter Florence Rehearsing Scripture: Discovering God’s Word in Community Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2018. Pp. 215, paperback, $16.99 ISBN 9780802874122. In Rehearsing Scripture, Rev. Dr. Anna Carter Florence (Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary) offers a compelling vision for how the Church can read scripture afresh by adopting it as a script…
-
Mark 1-14 is about the Eucharist: Part II of III
Read more: Mark 1-14 is about the Eucharist: Part II of IIIIn the Gospel According to St. Mark, Jesus introduces and institutes the Eucharist Feast in very few words: And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take, this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks…
-
The Ideology of Love and the Garden of Eden
Read more: The Ideology of Love and the Garden of EdenThe Ideology of Love in Film We have all seen it; a film wherein a lover pursues another for the duration of the movie, creating tension and perpetuating the feeling of an unattainable partner. This is necessary for the plot and for the ideology of love to function. If the lover’s partner is obtained in…
-
Empire & Kingdom: Should Christians Support Strong Borders?
Read more: Empire & Kingdom: Should Christians Support Strong Borders?You’ve probably seen by now all the pictures of children being taken away from their parents. You’ve also probably seen the detention centers, the TIME magazine cover, the blog posts, the tweets, AG Jeff Sessions defending the practice by quoting Romans 13, President Trump saying that he couldn’t do anything about it, blaming Democrats, doing…
-
Coming Out to Diagloue
Read more: Coming Out to DiagloueWe all hold to a worldview. Depending on our personal convictions, we are free to express it however we want. The Two Cities is a collaboration of my evangelical Christian colleagues who freely write about anything related to theology and culture. This isn’t to bring down those who may disagree, but the hope is to…
-
Towards a figural reading of… To Kill a Mockingbird?
Read more: Towards a figural reading of… To Kill a Mockingbird?This summer, I got to read through Ephraim Radner’s Time and the Word: Figural Reading of the Christian Scriptures. When we flipped the calendar to August, and I traded theology for middle school literature, sharpening the transition from student to teacher, I was surprised to discover how theologically rewarding my experience would be. I want to tell…
-
What has Hollywood to do with Jerusalem?
Read more: What has Hollywood to do with Jerusalem?The early Church father Tertullian once asked a similar question to explore the connections between Christianity and Greek thought. This question is designed to explore a literary connection between how we watch movies and how we read the Bible. The issue here is how are we to interpret the Old Testament narratives? Are they history…
-
Review of As it Was in the Beginning by Mark D. Owen
Read more: Review of As it Was in the Beginning by Mark D. OwenOwens, Mark D. As It Was in the Beginning: An Intertextual Analysis of New Creation in Galatians, 2 Corinthians, and Ephesians. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2015. Paperback. 241 pages. Retail: $29.00. ISBN: 9781498202404 In As It Was in the Beginning, Mark D. Owens compares “new creation” concepts in Galatians, 2 Corinthians, and Ephesians through an intertextual…
-
How Calvin helped me read the Bible
Read more: How Calvin helped me read the BibleThis fall I started rereading Calvin’s Institutes, which may be my favorite book. When I first seriously engaged with Calvin it was the most theologically formative book I had read (that may still be the case). Once while I was in a conversation with a Ladder Day Saint I quoted Calvin and was then asked…
-
Reading Other Peoples’ Mail
Read more: Reading Other Peoples’ MailReturning from the mailbox, you flip through the stack that is your recent prize. You begin the important task of separating the pertinent letters from the ones that will be quickly discarded without even being read. Postcards and invitations in one stack, ads in another; bills, the things you wish you could throw away, on…