Readings of Paul influenced by the work of Karl Barth – or, at least, supposedly Barthian readings of Paul – have recently been taken up by a number of interpreters. One recurring characteristic of such self-proclaimed Barthian readings is to construe Paul’s gospel as radically, purely, and thoroughgoingly objective: completely undetermined, unaffected, and untouched by human processes or actions. In this interpretation, the objective character of the gospel hangs on the exclusion of subjective realities...
Gifts constitute a critical social role in every culture. Though gifts exist throughout the world, the function, definition, and significance of gift-giving can be radically distinct from culture to culture—even contradictory—such that what we call ‘gift’ may be unrecognizable as gift to another from a different culture. These differences make the topic all the more fascinating to study. Ever since Marcel Mauss’s compressed yet provocative anthropological study, The Gift, the notion of gift has come into focus in other disciplines, including economics, theology,...
John M.G. Barclay, ‘Food, Christian Identity and Global Warming: A Pauline Call for a Christian Food Taboo’, The Expository Times 121 (2010): 585-93. Over the past couple years I have repeatedly returned to the article listed above. Not because I forget about the main point, but because I find it incredibly compelling. I just keep coming back to it. I pour over the arguments; they keep haunting me. And so, naturally, I tell everyone about...
[If you haven’t read Harry Potter, don’t read this post. Exit out of it and buy the first book here]. This week was the anniversary of when Harry Potter and his friends entered the department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic (in Order of the Phoenix). It is by far my favorite scene in the whole series (Order of the Phoenix, however, is not my favorite book!). For those who need a brief reminder: Harry thinks...
“By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust. And to dust you will return” (Genesis 3.19). Ever since then, humanity has been faced with a choice regarding this decree: either ignore it, avoid it, and live as if death were just an old wives’ tale, or understand it, accept it, and embrace it as a fundamental...
Until I recently moved to Scotland, I spent most of my Christian life in American Evangelical churches. In these churches, they have unanimously done communion with grape juice, without the option to use wine if one so desired. As much as I regularly experienced this, I never really understood why churches decide to use grape juice instead of wine, apart (of course) from the fact that it would make those who have had addictions to alcohol stumble....
I have been meditating on the book of Ecclesiastes lately. Tonight as I was driving home late I stopped on the coast to listen to the waves and look at the stars. I murmured to myself: I am free to not make an impact. I am free to not have a legacy. I am free to be unimportant. I am free to be forgotten. I am free to not be amazing in the world’s eyes. Of course,...
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