Posts tagged "New Testament"
PZ’s Podcast: Christian Meanings of “My Sharona”
Bible / Death / Grace in Practice / Philosophy / Religion / Theology

PZ’s Podcast: Christian Meanings of “My Sharona”

by Mockingbird on Jul 15, 2011 • No Comments

A little change-up, just in time for the weekend, we bring you the must-hear companion piece to this past Monday’s ‘cast, “My Sharona,” in which our hero, um, explains himself. Together they represent something of a summation, or, as PZ puts it, This is Grace in Practice for 2011.

EPISODE 55

The Four Theses I wrote for “My Sharona”, which is Episode 54 of PZ’s Podcast, express some convictions I have about reality. I expressed these convictions in a way that is somewhat new, or at least new for me.

Now I would like to take these convictions and express…

Read More »

Conference Preview: Gracious Apologetics: Building Bridges to the Human Heart Through Similar Interests
Conferences / Religion / Theology

Conference Preview: Gracious Apologetics: Building Bridges to the Human Heart Through Similar Interests

by Jacob on Mar 24, 2011 • 6 Comments

I personally was really hoping that the 4th Annual Mockingbird Conference would finally be all about end time prophecy, and my break out session was going to be entitled “Are You Rapture Ready?” Alas, that is not the case so instead I will be leading a session on apologetics. I am a firm believer in the apologetic task; however this session will not be a fact seminar where one is given a bunch of proofs for Jesus’ resurrection, and the validity of the New Testament (although believe me the facts and the evidence exist).Instead this session on apologetics will…

Read More »

David Brooks Gets Inside Your Head
Books / Psychology

David Brooks Gets Inside Your Head

by David Zahl on Mar 9, 2011 • 1 Comment

The final post in our neuroscience extravaganza should come as no surprise: David Brooks’ editorial in yesterday’s NY Times, “The New Humanism.” Building on the comments he made in last week’s interview with The Daily Beast, Brooks synthesizes some of the recent neuroscience findings in a characteristically digestible way, offering us another preview of his new book, which came out yesterday. Not much to add here, and less to subtract – I’ve reposted almost all of it – suffice it to say, you have to go out of your way not to be struck by how much Brooks’ insights jive…

Read More »

Another Week Ends: U-Bending Happiness, South Park Religion, Charlie Sheen, Louie CK, Friday Night Lights
Grace in Practice / Music / News / Psychology / Religion / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: U-Bending Happiness, South Park Religion, Charlie Sheen, Louie CK, Friday Night Lights

by David Zahl on Feb 18, 2011 • 6 Comments

1. From one of the December issues of The Economist, some interesting findings about “Age and Happiness”. The main discovery being the “U-Bend” – i.e. the finding that people are happiest in their youth and old age, and least happy in between. The most relevant section for us has to do with “the death ambition” (ht VH):

Maybe people come to accept their strengths and weaknesses [as they grow older], give up hoping to become chief executive or have a picture shown in the Royal Academy, and learn to be satisfied as assistant branch manager, with their watercolour…

Read More »

The Humbling of Oscar Wilde, Part 3
Literature / Suffering / Theology

The Humbling of Oscar Wilde, Part 3

by Todd Brewer on Jan 28, 2011 • 3 Comments

The follow is the third of four posts highlighting the deeply Christian thought of Oscar Wilde while serving time in Reading Gaol. Having been given a Greek New Testament for reading, Wilde thinks about the suffering of his life and the person of Christ in a fresh way. The passage below reflects a version of the theology of the cross as applied to suffering and sin. Ultimately, Wilde sees God’s redemptive work through such suffering. It is a lengthy quote, but worth reading in its entirety. (See also Part 1 and Part 2.)

But it is when he [Jesus] deals with…

Read More »

“Wake me up inside…” (part 6): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58) **final**
Theology

“Wake me up inside…” (part 6): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58) **final**

by L.R.E. Larkin on Dec 15, 2010 • No Comments

(iv.1.58.4 cont.) In a final turn, Barth deals with the dependence of the individual on community and the community on individuals; of the Christian on the Church and the Church on the Christian. For, “there cannot be one without the other”. The Holy Spirit assembles and sustains the Church, Christianity, not as a heap of individuals functioning autonomously, but as a collective of confessing persons proclaiming the same truths each cognizant of their individual calls; this is the delicate tension between the “objective ascription” and the “subjective appropriation” of salvation. “Salvation is ascribed to the individual in…

Read More »

“Wake me up inside…” (part 5a): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58)
Theology

“Wake me up inside…” (part 5a): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58)

by L.R.E. Larkin on Nov 19, 2010 • No Comments

iv.1.58.4 Barth works out the threefold form of the Christological aspect of the doctrine of the reconciliation*. In and by Jesus, humanity is confronted with God. In Jesus, God—by becoming man—actively intervenes and takes up His cause—the covenant—“with and against and for man”. Jesus “is the authentic revealer of God as Himself God”. By Jesus one understands the Godhead because Jesus defines it and it does not define Jesus. “[Jesus] is God as he takes part in the event which constitutes the divine being” and He does this by becoming man. In this becoming…

Read More »

Luther didn’t start the fire: Peter Waldo (1170-1184)
Church / Reformation

Luther didn’t start the fire: Peter Waldo (1170-1184)

by JDK on Oct 29, 2010 • No Comments

From here: Some men’s personal lives are eclipsed by the movements they start. Peter Waldo was such a man. He appears on the scene of history in 1170 in Lyons as a successful businessman who, touched to his core by a traveling minstrel’s religious ballad, gave away his money to live in poverty as a preacher of the Gospel. Having persuaded a sympathetic priest to translate large sections of the New Testament from Latin into the regional language, Provençal, Peter wandered through Lyons, bringing the message of Christ to anyone who would…

Read More »

Reformation Day Quiz: Punk Rock Edition
Law / Music / Reformation

Reformation Day Quiz: Punk Rock Edition

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Oct 29, 2010 • 2 Comments

Early Reformation Day Quiz: Can you name the man in this picture?

(Note the Stealth bomber bolo tie and unmistakable Halloween-themed Jack T. Chick tract)

Here at Mockingbird, we’re always looking for people, places, and cultural artifacts “out there” that reflect the historic truths of the Christian message (helpfully articulated by the Reformers we celebrate every October 31). One such artifact is this quote from the above-pictured former frontman of the super-important punk band, the Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra:

“For every prohibition you create
you also create an underground.”

A major theme here at Mockingbird is the idea that human behavior does not respond…

Read More »

Leon Morris on The Atonement
Theology

Leon Morris on The Atonement

by Jeff Hual on Sep 3, 2010 • 1 Comment

“We ought to be quite clear that no full and final theory of the atonement has yet been given and that this is not simply because we have not yet been fortunate enough to hit on the right solution. It is because we are not good enough as men and not profound enough as thinkers ever to get to the bottom of the subject. The problem is too big for us. Our minds cannot take in at once and the same time all the complexities involved.

“But the problem is not only a mental one. It is…

Read More »

Humor / News / Religion / Theology

Joel Osteen: Crazier Than We First Thought?

by Bryan J. on Jul 29, 2010 • 13 Comments

Proofs that can be derived from this video:

1) We always thought Joel Osteen interpreted the Bible wrong. Now we can rightly assume that he has simply never read it before (especially the New Testament).

2) If Joel Osteen is going to live under the law, at least he has the moxy to live under all of it, including the dietary laws.

3) If I could attain righteousness by switching to Turkey Bacon, I’m still not sure I could attain it.

4) Joel Osteen has moved up on all our lists from nuisance to Judaizer- an old Christian legalist heresy that said Gentiles…

Read More »

Fern Seed and Elephants
Bible / Theology

Fern Seed and Elephants

by Stampdawg on May 2, 2010 • 2 Comments

Fitz Allison suggested at the recent Mockingbird conference that we take a look at an essay by C.S. Lewis called “Fern Seed and Elephants.” It was in the context of Fitz talking about how to read the Bible — and how it makes a big difference, as it does when you are falling in love, with whether you approach the Bible (or beloved) with Trust… or with Suspicion.

Here are a few selected bits… click here to read the whole thing.

It is hard to persevere in a close study when you can work up no prima facie confidence in your teachers.…

Read More »

Mockingbird Glossary: Pneumatology aka The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
Glossary / Theology

Mockingbird Glossary: Pneumatology aka The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

by SZ on Mar 16, 2010 • 10 Comments

A basic theological question in Christianity is: how is God present to us today? In New Testament times, the answer was pretty easy: God is present to us in Jesus of Nazareth. If you lived back then and you wanted to be near to God, a good bet was to go find this Jesus character and follow him around.

Things, of course, are somewhat different now. Jesus is no longer present on earth the way he was in the Gospels. Indeed, God can often seem completely absent from the world. It is much harder to say with certainty ‘God is here’…

Read More »

How Will You Keep Christmas This Year? (Part 4)
Bible / Christmas / Theology

How Will You Keep Christmas This Year? (Part 4)

by Jeff Hual on Dec 18, 2009 • 1 Comment

Having considered in previous installments of this series why Christ came into the world, we turn our attention now to how he came.

Jesus came in the manner of God’s king, the Messiah, and he came in such a way that his birth, life, death and resurrection fulfilled all that had been foretold of him by the Old Testament prophets. It’s simply not possible to overemphasize the importance of the prophetic fulfillments in proving that Jesus is the Christ.

The basis for this method of testing the Messianic claim is biblical. It’s laid down in Isaiah 41, starting with verse 21: 21…

Read More »

Exclusive Interview: Mark Galli of Christianity Today (pt. 1)
Church / Interviews / Religion / Theology

Exclusive Interview: Mark Galli of Christianity Today (pt. 1)

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Nov 20, 2009 • 14 Comments

Back in July, many of us at Mockingbird discovered (see earlier blog posts here and here) the writings of Mark Galli, Senior Managing Editor of Christianity Today, the flagship magazine of Evangelicalism (started in 1956 by Billy Graham). Galli’s grasp of the Gospel—God’s grace in Jesus Christ to broken human beings (including Christians who can’t get it together)—was as deeply refreshing as it was (almost) unique in the wider world of Evangelical Christianity. We were so intrigued that we sat down with him to find out more. It proved to be a fascinating conversation about the current landscape…

Read More »