A colleague stopped me in the hallway last week and passed on a positive comment from a student about one of my classes.  It was a shot in the arm and I appreciated it. It got me thinking about academic environments and passing on encouraging words.  In his memoir, Hannah’s Child, Stanley Hauerwas notes that […]

I have so thoroughly enjoyed teaching 1 Corinthians this semester.  It’s been a blast to participate in wonderful discussions with students keen to kick around every aspect of the text and its theological implications. At point after point, Paul stresses the unity of the church and the corporate character of Christian discipleship. His statement in […]

Several months ago, I reflected on teaching about cruciformity in various settings.  Some folks bristle at such talk because it sounds like passivity, resignation, surrender, or withdrawal. I suspect this is the case because in a world dominated by violence, we can only imagine inflicting violence on others or being the objects of violence.  You’re […]

In Reading Revelation Responsibly, Michael Gorman brilliantly captures Revelation’s critique of civil religion that undergirds empire: Revelation is a critique of civil religion (first of all, but not only, Roman civil religion), that is, the sacralization of secular political, economic, and military power through various mythologies and practices—creeds and liturgies, we might say—and the corollary […]

Michael Gorman’s wonderful book on Revelation, Reading Revelation Responsibly, is a challenging and prophetic word to the American church, situated in the heart of a global empire and subject to the temptations of civil religion. He regards Revelation as “anti-assimilationist, or anti-accommodationist, literature” (p. 24).  The Apocalypse of John calls the church to an ethic […]

Last Fall I taught a course on Galatians, so at home we read through Galatians 5:13-26 regularly.  This Spring I’m teaching 1 Corinthians, so we’ve read chapter 13 repeatedly over the last four months. I must confess (and I’m sure I’m the only one like this) that I tend to think first about how others […]

  Richard Hays on the centrality of the resurrection for Christian faith: Paul saw that underneath all the dismaying problems of the Corinthians lay one massive theological fallacy: they denied the resurrection of the dead.  And by doing that, they denied the importance of the world that God created.  They denied—whether they meant to or […]

I’m teaching 1 Corinthians this Spring and we’ve noted repeatedly how Paul’s pastoral theologizing is completely dominated by eschatology. The coming judgment, the resurrection of the body, and the transformation of all things orient his approach to the life of the church and the character of being Christian. Paul notes quite often that “waiting” for […]

In the wake of the Wheaton Theology Conference, I’ve been giving some thought to the church’s relation to politics.  IVP has several very interesting new books out along this line. I just received my copy of Jesus is Lord, Caesar is Not, edited by Scot McKnight and Joseph Modica.  I wish I had it a […]

A few recent conversations have sparked some thoughts about going to church as a critically-engaged exegete. Biblical exegesis is all about critical analysis of the details of a text and critical scrutiny of other exegetes’ work.  Several times after intense and involved class discussions, someone has commented that it must be tough to go to […]