O come! O come! Emmanuel! And ransom captive Israel; That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear. Advent is a time of mournful waiting. Participants in this season undergo a theatrical embodiment of the struggles of the people of God. In this drama, the Church relives, in a sense, a time in history in which the Messiah had not yet visited his people. We participate in such a drama in order […]
As a scholar of the decades preceding the Great Outage of 2059, I am always intrigued when a “paper” document of such tremendous historical and cultural influence surfaces from the clutter of the past. Rumors of the cultic devotion attributed to pagan deity Santa Claus have circulated through academic circles for years. However, it wasn’t until my habitually clumsy and inordinately inarticulate graduate student (whose name is not even worth mentioning in this prestigious platform), […]
Coco was probably one of the best films I’ve seen this year. The animations and cinematics were just mind-blowing. If I remember correctly, a special sneak peek at Disney California Adventure mentioned that there were more than 8 billion lights used in the Land of the Dead scene–CRAZY. Also, I grew up with folks that honored Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). While I wasn’t involved with the festivities, it was a treat […]
I recently taught a week-long intensive on Galatians at Zaporozhye Bible Seminary in Ukraine. The entire class was conducted in Russian, so I had a translator for all of my lectures (as well as for preaching and doing devotionals). My main translator was a Ukrainian named Volodya Lavrushko who is a Greek instructor at the Seminary. Volodya holds an M.Div. from Tyndale Theological Seminary in the Netherlands, and plans to pursue further theological education in […]
My first exposure to The Greek New Testament published jointly by Cambridge University Press and Crossway was at the recent SBL conference in Boston (if you’re interested in all of its unique features, methodology, rationale, etc, you can check out a little explanation here; similarly, here is a detailed blog that addresses several issues surrounding the new edition written by the editors). I purchased my copy and went straight to my next session. As I was […]
We should pray that those in hell suffer to the uttermost. Dante’s Inferno provides a glimpse into the historical theology of hell in a particular medieval iteration. One of Dante’s many points is that God’s judgment precipitates in the idea of contrapasso–the punishment resembles or contrasts with the sin itself. The main idea with contrapasso is the φύσιν (physin), or “natural order” (Rom. 1:26) that is contradicted by sin. Contrapasso contradicts that contradiction. Although all of God’s attributes are present […]
Commentaries, like any books, can be good or bad though it can be hard to articulate why we feel some commentaries are better than others. I think that’s because we all assume that commentaries should be doing something, but we aren’t sure exactly what that something is. In general, I think some people would agree that commentaries attempt five general tasks: (1) give the reader a better historical understanding of the world in which the text was produced and (2) […]
This conversation is, for the most part, generally toxic. It often results in two events: 1) The experience and input of women is generally ignored, disregarded, or chalked up to “merely anecdotal evidence”. 2) There are generally men who get defensive in the conversation. Perhaps a closer look at these three issues are necessary as most of the conversations I have been a part of, especially this past semester, have been nothing short of a […]
With the unsettling rise of international tragedies also comes the unfortunately now all-too-familiar swell of collective showings of solidarity on social media. In the wake of such horrific events, Facebook profiles have been seen switching en masse to familiar symbols and hashtags displaying strength amid loss: #BostonStrong #HoustonStrong #WeAreManchester #Aleppo #PrayForParis #JeSuisCharlie. So when the Thanksgiving holiday weekend was sadly marred by news of yet another terrorist attack, this time in a Mosque in Egypt claiming […]
In Time’s article on “7 Surprising Health Benefits of Gratitude,” Ducharme discusses different benefits of being thankful. The seven benefits include how gratitude can make us more patient, improves relationships, improves self-care, improves sleep, stops overeating, can help ease depression, and give happiness that lasts. These findings aren’t too surprising as it makes sense that gratitude is directly linked to positive well-being. There’s a reason why Paul said in Philippians 4:4-7, Rejoice in the Lord […]
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