Occasionally, I seem to think that I’ve got stuff pretty much worked out. I go through my life thinking that if I just make everybody at work happy, keep my family satisfied, advance myself somehow either in my career or educationally, if I just work hard enough or think long enough or talk with enough people that somehow I’m okay. Simon and Garfunkel had the lyric, “I am a rock. I am an island.” I […]
“Hey Tanner, remind me of the ministry opportunities you have at your church again?” asked Andrew, who followed up his question with his warm, yet focused and expectant stare through his thin framed glasses. “Oh, well, the primary help I try to provide is in organizing and planning different outreach ministries that our church seeks to get involved in.” Andrew and I have grown to be closer in the later chapters of our seminary days, […]
The September 2013 issue of the Journal for the Study of the New Testament is now available online and will be in print shortly. My article on the meaning of the Greek word ΠΑΣΧΩ in Galatians 3.4 is included in the volume (“Suffering In Vain: A Study on the Interpretation of ΠΑΣΧΩ in Galatians 3.4,” JSNT 36.1 [2013]: 3-16). If your College/University/Seminary has access to JSNT then you can download the .pdf file by navigating this link […]
Last time I wrote on this blog, I argued that art should be viewed subjectively and objectively. Art has absolute qualities that must be acknowledged to give it existence, and yet, it still must be experienced to call it art. But what is art in the scope of ethics? I’ll try not to make this as dry as the last post. But consider an art that has influence on today’s society: film. A little over […]
This is a story about the stories we tell ourselves every time we turn on the television, and every time we leave our homes. They’re the stories we tell whenever we see someone and assume we know who they are, what they’re about, before we’ve met them, before we’ve heard the actual stories that make them who they are. The Zimmerman trial ended a week ago, and there’s been a strong reaction to the verdict. I haven’t […]
A very interesting article floated its way through my Facebook newsfeed this week in which Greg Laurie offers his thoughts on why the United States “the one nation that is strangely absent [from the End Times scenario] is the United States of America.” More specifically, it seems that Laurie is puzzled that it is not mentioned “by name” or by some other definite means of identification. You can find the full article here: http://blog.greglaurie.com/?p=8931 It […]
Did you hear the news? J. K. Rowling wrote a new book! When I heard this I was absolutely thrilled. But there’s just one thing. J. K. Rowling used a pseudonym. Instead of using her famous pen name “J. K. Rowling” for her new detective novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, the book was written under the false name, Robert Galbraith. Some publishers turned down this “debut” by “Robert Galbraith.” Business Insider writes about how this reveals a lot about […]
A few months ago I was walking down the streets of Berkeley. The sun was setting, and as the city darkened I threw my purse around my neck in order to hold on a little tighter. There weren’t many people out and about so as I watched an African American male dressed in dark colors with a hat on approach me from a couple blocks away, my heart started to race just a bit. The […]
This weekend, my youngest brother will become the wedded spouse to fellow-minded companion in humor, his life coach and motivator, his faithful supporter and encourager, and his dear friend, Brittany. This is the second wedding in seven months in the Gish household (perhaps a sign that they’re a hot commodity- ladies take note, as there are few and fewer Gish in the sea). But more seriously, this has lead me to pray and to consider […]
In my last post I went through the cultural developments that led to the basis of our modern understanding of authority detailing the historical shift in religious and political viewpoints. Eventually we have come to understand in the modern context a delegated authority that tends to come from the will of the majority of individuals rather than the historical notion of a top-down delegation. Historically the factions that have understood a more top-down delegation were […]
Recent Comments