This upcoming Sunday is Oscar Sunday. The 84th annual Academy Awards ceremony will announce the best efforts in the film industry from 2011. Perhaps the most coveted award, Best Picture, will be decided among 9 nominees. The only film from 2011 to be nominated that I saw was The Tree of Life (I should have been able to include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two in this list… Biggest snub of the year). The Tree of Life has also been...
As I have grown older I believe I am able to better discern situations, and make a decisions based on what God’s will is for my life. Many people call this a “conscience”… or maybe just common sense. Some people say that they just do what “feels right”, and all of these things describe this feeling I have when I know that something is wrong or right in the eyes of the Lord. I made...
Introduction In my last post I addressed Karl Barth’s use of the term “Seinsweise” or modes of being. In this post I will look at the other two aspects of Barth’s doctrine of the trinity; his use of logos asarkos to distinguish the second person of the Trinity, and his concept of God being in threefold repetition. Logos Asarkos Now that the problem of Barth’s use of the term modes of being has been addressed...
Dear Bryan, You’re probably at the piano, writing songs about things you know nothing about, like love and loss. Or doing vocal warm-ups so you can audition for that blasted show choir. (Don’t bother. You won’t make it until your senior year, and when you do, you’ll become a bigger nerd than you already are.) I do hope you’ll find time for this letter. I’m writing from the future, of course, to warn you about...
Introduction After the Enlightenment a major shift happened in western theology. New disciplines like anthropology and psychology were arising that made theologians and philosophers look at the world with a more horizontal than vertical gaze. Attention was moving away from God and moving to the world. As a result the doctrine of the Trinity had lost its once prominent place in theology. “Schleiermacher had famously relegated discussion of the Trinity to the conclusion of The...
[Update (2/14/2014)—My new book Esther and Her Elusive God: How A Secular Story Functions As Scripture is now available. My posts on this site represent stages in the development of my thinking about Esther. For the full argument check out the book]. Over the last three weeks I’ve been looking at the book of Esther. In post #1 I addressed the book’s canonicity. In post #2 I looked at evidence of impiety (compromise). And last week in...
[Update (2/14/2014)—My new book Esther and Her Elusive God: How A Secular Story Functions As Scripture is now available. My posts on this site represent stages in the development of my thinking about Esther. For the full argument check out the book]. Over the last two weeks I’ve discussed the enigmatic nature of the book of Esther. Initially, I focused on the fact that Esther has been handed down to us within the canon of Christian scripture...
Denver stations want to know: did you find the Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketch about Jesus appearing in the Denver Broncos locker room after a big win in Chicago, funny or sacrilegious? If you aren’t a fan of SNL or haven’t seen the sketch it can be viewed at any number of websites including the Denver Post, ESPN, Westword, USA Today, etc. If you don’t want to go on-line to see it because you already know the tone...
If you live in Colorado, you will likely hear a news or sports story about Denver Bronco quarterback Tim Tebow at least once a day. However, when the Wall Street Journal Weekend dedicated two pages to Tebow, I knew it was time for pastors to start blogging. Tebow came to Denver in the 2009 draft, simultaneously heralded and maligned. He didn’t see much on-field action in his first seasons. The few times he played at the QB...
Withstanding the apostles and Jesus himself, Saint Aurelius Augustine is arguably the greatest Christian theologian of the first millennium. His contributions to the understanding and development of Bible interpretation are incalculable. He was a man ahead of his time. Indeed many of the current debates on hermeneutics and postmodern literary criticism appeal to Augustine for insight on issues of meaning, role-of reader, and semiotics. Augustine’s hermeneutical reputation is often limited to his allegorical exegesis, yet...
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