In this month’s Christianity Today, David Neff interviews Kallistos Ware of the Eastern Orthodox Church.  Neff mentions the Protestant impulse “to crystallize a central message and a central experience.”  He asks whether the fullness of the faith in the Orthodox church sometimes obscures the faith’s center. Neff’s identification of this “boiling down” impulse stuck with […]

This NY Times article tells the story of a young couple who wrote a book about the biblical mandate for natural family planning.  They subsequently had four children, moved from Wisconsin to Nashville, repudiated their views on birth control, divorced, and now share custody of their children. It’s a sad story when one considers their […]

That may seem like an odd title.  My friends and colleagues in religious studies will think immediately of an entire host of fundamentalist errors.  I’m thinking, however, of George Marsden’s description of a fundamentalist with reference to David Bebbington’s four-fold definition of an evangelical. Bebbington claims that four features constitute an evangelical: Biblicism, cruci-centrism, conversionism, […]

One of my favorite weeks of the year is here–the week of The Open Championship.  Most Americans know it as the British Open, but when it began it had nothing else from which to distinguish it.  So it’s just The Open Championship. This year it’s being played at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England, the southernmost course […]

The field of Pauline studies is well past the “new perspective” era.  The interpretive insights gained over the last thirty years or so have been supremely helpful for coming to grips with Paul’s relationship to his Jewish heritage and his discussions related to the Mosaic Law.  Debates doubtless will continue in forthcoming books and commentaries […]

I’ve often heard Christians express doubts about their fitness to participate in the Lord’s Supper.  They say things like, “I don’t feel worthy to take it,” or “I feel like I need to get some things right before I take communion.” This is an understandable sentiment.  We know ourselves and our failures and we fear […]

I employed a dramatic frame for reading Ephesians when I wrote The Drama of Ephesians and very much enjoyed the exercise.  I’ve since discovered the fascinating work of others who have been reflecting on drama and theology for quite some time. Wesley Vander Lugt works in this field and he’s sharing his reflections at Theatrical Theology.  Check it out!

I posted a few times on divine election to demonstrate that there is no tension between this notion in Scripture and the love of God.  In this post I will draw this topic to a close, though we can continue discussion in the comments. Israel was God’s chosen people, elect for the purpose of showing […]

We can never talk enough about serving others in the name of Jesus.  We don’t talk nearly enough, however, about being served in the name of Jesus. Truly being neighbors, friends, and siblings in Jesus–serious Christian mutuality–means we need to cultivate the twin skills of giving and receiving gifts.  Make no mistake, these are indeed […]

Not only am I seeing resonances between U2 and Romans these days, but between Romans and “True Grit.”  The kids gifted me with this great work of theology for Fathers Day. Paul says this in Romans 12:19: “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for wrath, for it is written, ‘vengeance is mine, […]