Theology – Page 5 – The Two Cities

Neither Jew, Nor Greek, Neither Republican, Nor Democrat – Christian Unity in a Divided Age

Sep 29, 2016

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 If we imagine Paul writing this to the churches in America today, we might add: “Neither Republican, nor Democrat.” At a time when the church appears to divide along political, social, and racial lines in painfully visible ways, Paul’s appeal to unity is profoundly...

Depression, Anxiety, and Theology

Sep 28, 2016

I am a Christian who struggles with depression, anxiety, and chronic pain, and Jesus Christ has something to do with it. To reconcile the resurrection of Jesus Christ with the persistent rebellion of my body and mind is an absurd thing. It has become abundantly clear that I cannot understand the whys and hows of my suffering. I’m thrust into a Kierkegaardian framework wherein true faith stands opposed to human rationality, and the gospel to...

The Word and Their Words: How to Listen to Speeches Theologically

Sep 20, 2016

Theology and language are inseparable. Theology is speech about God, and this speech is linguistic and therefore culturally defined. Languages, particularly those of civilizations with imperial and colonial histories, are the words of the most affluent and well-to-do. (This is why words like ‘suwanne’ and ‘purdy’ are not found in the OED). Words of conquered civilizations were often lost and replaced with cognates from the conquering language. Therefore, when humanity speaks about God, even in the...

Rule of the Community, the Prophet, and the Two Messiahs

Aug 25, 2016

In the Qumran text Rule of the Community it states, “They shall be judged by the first judgements in which the men of the Community began to be instructed, until the coming of the prophet and the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel” (1QS 9.10–11).1 We have here “the locus classicus for Qumran messianism.”2 Although this passage appears to be absent in the fragments of 4Q MS E (4Q259), it is nevertheless indicative of Qumran beliefs...

Jesus Is Coming Soon

Aug 22, 2016

Jesus is coming soon. This is the Bible’s continual answer to the question of when our Lord will return to judge the wicked and vindicate the righteous. The Book of Revelation is part of an apocalyptic tradition that followed the exile of the Jewish people. Apocalyptic literature is often political in its form and theological in its content. The Book of Revelation is a perfect example of this kind of polemical, political, theological treatise for...

DuPriest: “Christian Unity begins in Friendship”

Aug 20, 2016

In 1985, drawing heavily both from Jeremy Taylor’s “Discourse on Friendship” and his own personal experience, the Episcopalian English professor, Travis DuPriest, argued that “Christian unity begins in friendship.” Why is this worth knowing? For one thing, it’s happening. For another, it is true to who we are, both as humans and as humans united to Christ. Trans-denominational Friendship: It’s happening On his Sabbatical tour de three countries, DuPriest enjoyed a remarkably diverse experience of hospitality...

Domesticated Jesus and Highlighter Christianity

Aug 18, 2016

Lesslie Newbigin tells an illuminating story about his time as a foreign missionary to India. In the Hindu Ramakrishna monastery, there is a gallery of portraits of the great religious teachers of humankind. Among them is a portrait of Jesus at which worship is offered every Christmas Day. Lest anyone mistake this worship for a gesture toward conversion in India, Newbigin explains that this is simply “the co-option of Jesus into the Hindu worldview. Jesus...

Do You Know Why You Go To Church?

Aug 12, 2016

What is the local church? Not physically so much, but what is the point? I asked this question for years ever since I started going consistently of my own volition in my senior year of high-school. I really only went because I had friends there, and occasionally I’d hear an interesting point about some passage in Scripture or a funny story, but I mostly just went because it was just what you did as a...

Excising the Experts

Aug 11, 2016

The Root Issue: Failure to Listen In my previous blog post, The Art of Listening, I discussed the important and wise lesson behind one of my favorite biblical versus—Proverbs 18:13: “He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him” (NASB). If you have not already done so, I highly recommend reading through that previous post as this topic is in many ways a continuation of that [all too common]...

The Art of Listening

Jul 28, 2016

My Favorite Proverb There is one particular biblical verse with which I have been infatuated for some time and which I have made a constant conscious commitment to follow. That verse goes a little something like this: “Ten cubits shall be the length of each board and one and a half cubits the width of each board…” No… no… wait. Hold on, that’s Exodus. That’s not it… let me see here… ah, yes. Okay –...