In our last installment, the argument was made that in an attempt to shore up appreciation and respect for the Old Testament—replete with its necessary connections to the history of Israel–by asserting that its importance was found in the fact that it contained the “moral law,” actually ended up helping to marginalize its truly radical claims. By the 13th Century, when Thomas Aquinas had come and reached full flowering as the towering mental giant of the Middle Ages, the 10 commandments had become the model for “natural reason,” and virtually synonymous with “natural law,” in a way that further solidified their claims…
Why Then The Law? Part 1: A Lawful Mess
Throughout the history of the church, the question of the role of the law in the Christian life has been of paramount importance. Indeed, as witnessed to by the writers of the New Testament themselves, the issue was of pressing concern to all involved. In the prologue to John’s Gospel, we hear the radical profession that “the Law came through Moses, but Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” What exactly is this distinction between the two about? Why didn’t he simply say, “The Old Law prohibiting shellfish and bacon came through Moses and the New Law of Love came through Jesus?”…
Hopelessly Devoted: Numbers Chapter Fifteen Verses Thirty Two through Thirty Six
To tide you over until our regularly scheduled blogging resumes post-Memorial Day, i.e. tomorrow, here’s a devotion from Mbird’s own Alex Large:
While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside…
“Wake me up inside…” (part 5b): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58)
(iv.1.58.4 cont.) In the doctrine of reconciliation humanity is not only confronted with the positive side of the truths in Jesus Christ, but also the negative side of the truth of sin in the world initiated by humanity and its victim. By Jesus’ atoning work, God reconciles covenant breaking humanity to Himself by Himself. Consequently, the doctrine of sin is dealt with simultaneously and in conjunction to the doctrine of reconciliation. It is not of its own ontological identity as something that “exist[s] in and for itself” as a part of God’s creation; rather it…
When Is A Steak Not A Steak?
When it’s a value judgment! A news story of Old Testament (and Luke 15) proportions, via Nothing To Do With Abroath (ht JD):
It was a bizarre case of sibling rivalry on Monday night, when Victoria B.C. police had to break up two brothers fighting over who got the bigger piece of steak. At around 11 p.m. that night, the 17-year-old brother “went berserk” and began smashing things in their Craigflower Road apartment with a hockey stick because, despite him doing the cooking, his 22-year-old brother got the larger piece of steak for dinner, according to deputy police chief John Ducker,…
It’s Not God Who Needs Saving–It’s Us
I ran across a review by John Cottingham–Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading and an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford–over at Standpoint entitled: “It’s Not God Who Needs Saving–It’s Us,” that adds to the long line of arguments and counter-arguments about the verticality of Dostoyevsky’s operating thesis: If God does not exist, then everything is permitted. He reviews two books from self-proclaimed atheists who are trying to incorporate what we would call a “spirituality of the cross” into their naturalistic worldviews. Hmmm… Adding to the ongoing discussion about the Pope’s recent comments at Westminster Hall,…
You Want Me To Do…What?
There are two messages coming from some pulpits today that I personally don’t like. I’m sure there are plenty of things being said from plenty of pulpits that could be addressed, but these two things have become so ubiquitous that I’m simply fed up, and feel I must say something.
The first of these is the admonition to “live into my baptismal vows.” The other is the admonition to “see Jesus Christ in the face of ‘the other’.” I’ll deal with the first one here, and the other one at a later date.
So you want me to live…
A Couple of Quotes on Paul’s Interpretive Method from Francis Watson
I’ve been trying to take advantage of the winter break between classes (with varying degrees of success) to make a dent in the ever-growing “must-read” reading list. I did manage to get through Francis Watson’s Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith the other day. (For those who aren’t familiar with the book, a quick summary is that Watson is arguing that Paul interprets the Old Testament in light of his “discovery of the tension-laden dynamics of the scriptural narrative itself” and that this “dissonance is both uncovered by the gospel and resolved by it, since its theological function is to…
How Will You Keep Christmas This Year? (Part 4)
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…
Nick Cave Introduces the Gospel of Mark
Almost ten years ago, Canongate Books published a series of single books from the Bible with prefaces from some unlikely people. Bono did the Psalms, Doris Lessing took Ecclesiastes, and Australian post-punk/goth singer-songwriter Nick Cave introduced Mark. I hadn’t gotten around to reading Cave’s piece until recently. For those with only a passing familiarity with Cave, a musician known primarily for the dark and violent content of his lyrics, the choice seemed odd. But anyone who had been listening closely knew that Cave’s music had long been soaked in Biblical language and ideas (his recent, critically acclaimed record Dig!!! Lazarus…
Thoughtful Faith Pieces from the New Yorker
Over the past couple of months, I have been really impressed by a couple of different book reviews from the New Yorker that center around issues of faith. The authors have not always reached the conclusions that we might hope, but their honesty and insight have been quite striking. Below are a few quotes with links:
From an article about the recent glut of books on the so-called Gospel of Judas:
Cumulatively, the commentaries on the Judas gospel are amazing in their insistence on its upbeat character. Jesus ridicules his disciples, denounces the world, and says that most of us will…
"Are You there Jesus? It’s Me, Woman.": The Fall, The Hope, and The Glimpse
This is part “two” in a four part series. For the introduction to the series and the first installment on creation, click here and here click, respectively.
The Fall. The fall disturbed humanity’s relationship to God, thus, the relationships between humanity and nature, and man and woman were also disturbed. In Gen. 3:16 we read, “To the woman he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be [against]1 your husband, and he shall rule over you.’” Prior to the Fall man and woman walked side-by-side, both reveling in…
Amazing Grace – The Man (in Black) Comes Around
Last night at our weekly Mockingbird Hour we took at the life of music legend Johnny Cash. One of the things we read was Dan Haseltine’s (lead singer of Jars of Clay) foreword for The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash. It was so good that I thought I’d share it with all of you.
Just to give some context, for those who are unfamiliar with Cash’s life and career a couple of his biggest hits were songs about prisoners, and two of his biggest selling albums were live recordings of him playing at Folsom Prison…
Underground Anthropology
Recently I noticed the following quotes from a series on the NYC subway called “Train of Thought”:
Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made. – Immanuel Kant
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. – Isaac Newton
I couldn’t help but feel encouraged by the humility of…
mark mcculley: 1 Corinthians 6:20 You are not your own for you were bought with a pri...
Bill Chapman: I really cannot see why anyone coulkd be opposed to Esperanto. I’ve us...
Carl Laamanen: This is by far my favorite of their albums, and the album is paced won...
B.I.C: Great review as usual, Carl. I will admit that when I listened to the...
B.I.C: Great thoughts here, William! Thanks for the comment....