Latest Posts
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Sanctifying Art: Dante’s Pilgrim on the Terrace of Pride
Read more: Sanctifying Art: Dante’s Pilgrim on the Terrace of PrideHaving emerged from the bowels of Hell, Dante and his guide find themselves upon the shores of the fresh and uncharted territory of Purgatory, a mountain surrounded by sea and pure air free from the stench and darkness of the Inferno. From the opening lines of Purgatorio, the poet distinguishes this place as God-graced: the…
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Some thoughts on Church Organization
Read more: Some thoughts on Church OrganizationWith only seven years of church ministry experience, I never saw myself as an expert in anything. If anything, I’m barely starting to hit a stride with my church! By the grace of God, I was invited to speak at the 4th annual Asian American Ministry Conference at Biola University. The topic that I was…
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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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The Best Commentaries on Luke
Read more: The Best Commentaries on LukeSince my thesis topic has me flipping through dozens of Luke commentaries each week, I thought I’d write a post on which commentaries are most helpful to me and why. Commentaries have five basic jobs: (1) give the reader a better historical understanding of the world in which the text was produced and (2) in…
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How Not to Seminar Well
Read more: How Not to Seminar WellThe best way to learn how to seminar well is to learn what not to do and, in desperation, avoid those things. Here is a list to help those who may be seminar instructors or participants alike engage in a thoughtful, provocative, and effective seminar. First, we must ask ourselves “what is our goal?” This…
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The Reformation: Good News for Sinful People and Sinful Theologians
Read more: The Reformation: Good News for Sinful People and Sinful TheologiansStudying theology and method has never been morally difficult to me, but the person behind the method has haunted me in certain cases. Most recently, I was blindsided by the scandalous affair surrounding Barth’s legacy. This from one of the most Christocentric theologians I had ever read had struck a rather sour chord with me,…
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Changing Sides on Racism – Lessons from the World Series
Read more: Changing Sides on Racism – Lessons from the World SeriesIf you have been watching the World Series, or have simply been online this week, you may have seen the storm that arose after Yuli Gurriel of the Houston Astros rubbed in a home-run off Iranian-Japanese pitcher, Yu Darvish, by slanting his eyes up and referring to him as “Chinito” [Little Chinese Guy]. People of the…
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Broken Theologians
Read more: Broken TheologiansMartin Luther was a racist against Jews. Karl Barth had a long-term affair with his writing assistant. A.W. Tozer was emotionally absent from his wife and family. I’ve recently been reading many blog posts about the sins and failures of these theologians, and it saddens me to hear about the reality of their lives, especially since…
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#ForeignerProblems
Read more: #ForeignerProblemsMy wife and I moved to the UK about a month ago and it is going brilliantly. I started a PhD program at Durham and will be here for the next few years. Although my wife and I have been out of the country before, we have never moved to another county. It is quite…
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John of Damascus on Divine Images
Read more: John of Damascus on Divine ImagesSt. John of Damascus penned the Treatises on the Divine Images in response to iconoclasm which swept across the Byzantine Empire under Emperor Leo III. Throughout his three treatise, St. John of Damascus works to distinguish veneration from worship, and he justifies icons imaging Jesus and the saints. As a modern reader the distinction between…