I’m about to lecture on 1 Corinthians 1-2, and I’m struck again by the parallels between the Corinthian church and American evangelical life.  A repost on this topic: Mickey Maudlin, Rob Bell’s editor for his book, Love Wins, wrote about his experience with Bell and his thoughts on the responses to its publication. He states that: As a […]

Yesterday’s post raised the question of Christian identity.  I claimed that in the Roman church, the Jewish Christians regarded non-Jews as “ungodly” and “sinners,” whereas they presumed they enjoyed “most favored nation” status with the one true God.  This presumption drove their claims to privilege over non-Jewish Christians. Paul subverts this presumption by arguing that […]

Paul’s overriding pastoral aim in his letter to the Roman church(es) is to see them unified as siblings in God’s one new family in Jesus.  Both groups need to see themselves as vitally connected to the other. He has already argued that both groups share in humanity’s condemnation and both are justified before God on […]

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl.  I hope it’s a good game and I must confess I’ll probably check out of the halftime show.  I’m sure Beyoncé will do a fine job, but there’s no topping U2’s arrestingly sublime performance from 2002.  This is a repost from last year, the day after the big game. The Giants and […]

I’m using Richard Hays’s brilliant commentary on 1 Corinthians this semester and am enjoying it immensely.  This is Hays on Paul’s opposition of corrupted human wisdom vs. the shameful cross of Christ. God, however, has revealed in Christ another kind of wisdom that radically subverts the wisdom of this world: God has chosen to save […]

  By your Word were all things created By your Word were all things given That all might live in your garden Eat the fruit of the land Drink your living water Grow in strength and wisdom Husband and wife Brother and sister Mother and child   God of Peace, sow seeds of hope in […]