Many evangelical churches’ and colleges’ professions of faith contain a statement on the inerrancy of the Bible. The Bible, so it goes, is inspired by God and is inerrant in the original manuscripts. This belief certainly has its staunch–and I mean staunch!–proponents, but it seems to me that a great many people are, frankly, embarrassed by this doctrine. Attempting to engage with broader theological concerns myself, I am more than aware of what a theological […]
“…you become better and better by looking for so great a good which is both sought in order to be found and found in order to be sought…” -St. Augustine “Ethics” means more than understanding how one should act in a certain situation in order to be free from blame. This type of ethics is sinful man at his worst, worrying only about himself. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that this type of ethics started at the […]
It is hugely disappointing to me that I still have to defend my love for the Harry Potter series to other Christians. In good Two Cities fashion of “reconciling Evangelicals with the ‘Bad Guys,’” I will give two reasons why the Harry Potter series is not a threat to the Christian worldview and is actually a good means of teaching Christian moral values to children and adults. Harry & Stoicism The Harry Potter series is […]
Yesterday, Richard Beck of Experimental Theology wrote a post on what the word “biblical” means. As will be obvious, I don’t much care for what he had to say. In fact, it made me so grumpy that I thought I’d respond. I hope he takes it as a compliment. In his piece he concludes: Biblical is a sociological stress test. When groups gather…to have a conversation about what is or is not biblical they are engaging […]
Raise your hand if you love textual criticism! As I look at the kind of responses and readers we see here at the Two Cities, it might actually be the case that a couple of you raised your hands (or at least raised your eyelids). Certainly, the blogosphere isn’t the normal medium through which the difficulties disputed within this discipline are discussed, but I hope to stimulate some discussion on a passage that has stirred […]
Earlier this year I submitted the following entry for The Lexham Bible Dictionary. This will be the entry for “Philosophy”. It’s obviously too late to change it for the dictionary, but let me know what you think anyways! (I like it alright, but the quote from Kierkegaard and the use of Kelsey make it a bit eccentric. Not sure what I was thinking!) Philosophy (φιλοσοφία) “Philosophy” (φιλοσοφία) literally means “love of wisdom.” The term takes […]
There is love, in the red letters There is truth, in the red letters There is hope for the hopeless, peace and forgiveness There is life, in the red letters These lyrics come from the song Red Letters sung by dc Talk in their album, Supernatural, released in 1998. For some, this song is undoubtedly very encouraging (that is, if you’re still listening to dc Talk). The Red Letters contain love, truth, hope, peace, forgiveness, […]
In the undergraduate class I am teaching this semester, one of the research assignments students can choose is an analysis of the Barth and Bultmann debate over the nature of Jesus’ resurrection. One student who chose this assignment later changed their mind; this person sent me an email asking if it would be possible change to another assignment because, they asked rhetorically, “Isn’t Karl Barth heretical?” In fact, this person went so far as to […]
When I originally saw Sweeney Todd at the theatres in December 2007 my first thought was, “I need to preach a sermon on this.” So in this season leading up to Halloween I thought I’d relive some of those original thoughts and share them with you. Also, if you are looking for a good movie to watch this October, I’d highly recommend Sweeney Todd (although it’s not for everyone!) Back Story At the outset of […]
Job is my favorite book of the bible. In some ways, this is a bit terrifying. Something in the back of my mind tells me that liking the book of Job so much might not be such a good idea. I say this because if you are always pondering the book of Job, then it seems likely that God will eventually have to test you like Job, to insure that you really do “understand” the […]
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