Flotsam and jetsam (2/2)

• This fun video explains the difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England. Living in Scotland for a while, I quickly realized that these are important distinctions to get straight lest you accidentally tell a Scot that he/she is “English”.

• Jesse Bering explains his argument that our belief in God is just a product of how our brains work.

What if I were to tell you that God’s mental states, too, were all in your mind? That God, like a tiny speck floating at the edge of your cornea producing the image of a hazy, out-of-reach orb accompanying your every turn, was in fact a psychological illusion, a sort of evolved blemish etched onto the core cognitive substrate of your brain? It may feel as if there is something grander out there . . . watching, knowing, caring. Perhaps even judging. But, in fact, that’s just your overactive theory of mind. In reality, there is only the air you breathe.

• Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie calls for more passion and less civility in public discourse.

All this talk about civility is beginning to make me uncomfortable. Civility refers to courteous and polite behavior. But courteous and polite behavior is not, in and of itself, a religious value. At times, it is to be subordinated to other, more important values.

• Joseph Black discusses why Eastern Orthodox churches claim to be the one true church.

Orthodox Christians believe they have managed to preserve and pass down the traditions of the church from those days through the rest of the Ecumenical Councils, through the ‘great schism’ with Rome, despite pressure and persecution from Muslims, Crusaders, Communists and Protestants (!) without deviation; they see themselves as having faithfully managed Christ’s blueprint and agenda for his people to the present day.

• Jim West reports that the church in Laodicea may have been uncovered by archeologists.

• Rod over at Political Jesus is going to be blogging through Black History Month. That should be a fascinating discussion to follow.

• Mubarak says that he won’t run for re-election, the Egyptian army calls for an end to the demonstrations, and there are reports that the internet has been partially turned back on. But, all of this has done little to stem the demonstrations.

• Koinonia is giving away a copy of the NIV Application Commentary on Ephesians by Klyne Snodgrass.

Flotsam and jetsam (2/1)

• Mark Almie asks, Are We Afraid of Single Pastors?

Why were so many churches “requiring” a pastor to be married? Jesus wasn’t. Paul wasn’t. Almost all pastors were single until the time of the Reformation. Is it wise to “require” that our Evangelical pastors be married? Is it biblical?

• John A. Broadus on The Duty of Preaching Baptist Distinctives. (HT)

We must teach [Baptist] views in order to be consistent in holding them. Because of these we stand apart from other Christians. We have no right thus to stand apart unless the matters of difference have real importance; and if they are really important, we certainly ought to teach them.

• A Slate.com article explains how economic factors contribute to the crisis in Egypt.

Any number of political and social factors underpins the current unrest in Egypt—and as always, economics figures in. The upheaval has shined a light on two serious problems facing the country: Most jobs pay too little, and most food costs too much.

• The January 2011 Biblical Studies Carnival is up, with Jim West at his snarkiest best.

• Paul Helm offers some quotes from Calvin on preaching.

• Joel Watts is giving away a copy of James McGrath’s The Only True God.

• At least a million people rallied across Egypt in continued demonstrations. And Sarah Topol offers a view of the crisis from the streets.

• And, here’s a list of 7 Myths Mythbuster Proved But We Still Can’t Believe They’re True. My favorite: you really can stick your hand into molten lead without injury…briefly.

Flotsam and jetsam (1/27)

• David Roach summarizes some Lifeway research on how churches are using their websites. HT

Though most churches have a website, there is a divide between congregations that use their sites only for one-way communication and those that maximize their online presence with interactive technology.

• Al Mohler discusses Joel Osteen’s recent comments about homosexuality.

Joel Osteen found himself forced to answer a question that every Christian — and certainly every Christian leader — will be forced to answer. When that moment comes, and come it will, those who express confidence in the Bible’s teaching that homosexuality is a sin will find themselves facing the same shock and censure from the very same quarters.

• Fred Sanders interviews Shaun Williams on teaching Augustine’s Confessions to middle schoolers.

The 14 year old is ripe for the picking in terms of Augustine’s discussions of sin, God, prayer, etc. The narrative and reflective style of the book is perfect for having Socratic and mind-blowing moments with 8th graders.

• The collective over at Near Emmaus is giving away a copy of Eugene Peterson’s The Pastor: A Memoir.

• Here’s an inspiring list of 10 Great Philanthropists Who Are Kids

• CNN has a fun list of 7 internet sins that could make you go viral with your friends.

• And, the Old Spice Guy is back.

Flotsam and jetsam (11/30)

• Roger Olson argues that Arminianism is God-centered theology. From a rather different perspective, apparently over 20% of the readers over at Covenant of Love think Ariminiasm is a herey.

• Paul Helm discusses Thomas Aquinas on Divine Impassibility.

• Scot McKnight raises The Baptism Question.

• James McGrath had the students in his Revelation class evaluate a website and post their comments. He set up a blog for that purpose and is inviting everyone to check it out. I’ve only glanced at it so far, but it looks interesting.

• Dane Ortlund offers a thought from Richard Baukham on why the Gospel writers thought history was so important.

• The official Mormon “handbook” is now available online.

• Matt Dabbs is giving away a copy of Andy Stanley’s The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry.

• And, apparently almost half of all Britons believe in aliens. God is debatable, but aliens are in. HT

Flotsam and jetsam (10/25)

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Some interesting links from over the weekend:

• Richard Beck writes in defense of Halloween, arguing that it’s a time of remembering or own frailty and fears.

Psychologically, I think Halloween performs two important functions. First, Halloween allows us to collectively process our eventual death and mortality….Second, Halloween allows us to work through our fears of the uncanny, the things that go bump in the night.

• Similarly, Patheos is hosting an interesting series addressing the question, Are demons real?

In this season of haunted houses and horror movies, we couldn’t imagine a better time to grapple with the subject of demons. In the Christian traditions, demons take center stage in numerous biblical stories and continue to chill us today as central characters in popular and religious culture. But do they really exist outside of our imaginations and nightmares? Are demons real, today?

• Bryan Lilly argues in favor of a more profound materialism, offering four reasons that Christians should value the human body: (1) creation; (2) incarnation; (3) the sacraments; and (4) the resurrection.

Evangelicalism has teetered between a compete disregard for the body…, and a gnostic-inspired view that sees the material world, including our bodies, as something we would be better off without.

• Michael Jensen discusses what “fundamentalism” is and what’s wrong with it. HT

As Carnell wrote: “Fundamentalism is a lonely position. It has cut itself off from the general stream of culture, philosophy and ecclesiastical tradition. This accounts, in part, for its robust pride. Since it is no longer in union with the wisdom of the ages, it has no standard by which to judge its own religious pretense.”

• Daniel Kirk argues that although we usually focus on our need to be more like God, what we really need is to become more  human.

Humanness is not an opponent in the story of attaining to God’s purposes for us, humanness is the goal of the story, and Jesus is the helper sent to take us there.

• And, Justin Taylor is giving away 20 copies of Kelly Kapic’s God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity.

Book giveaway – The Theology of Martin Luther

As I mentioned after last month’s book giveaway, a generous individual has decided that he would also like to share the wealth (i.e. give away a book that he accidentally bought two copies of). So, this month we’re giving away a new copy of Paul Althaus’ The Theology of Martin Luther. Although this book was published in English in 1966, I think this is still one of the best books around for understanding Luther’s theology. So, if you’re interested in engaging Luther’s thought more closely, this would be a great place to start.

As with our previous giveaway, the rules are simple. If you’d like a chance to win the book, you need to do at least one of the following. Each different way that you enter the contest will increase your chances of winning. (Assuming that I don’t just decide to give the book to the person whose name has the same numerical value of the guinea pig I had when I was a kid.)

• Blog about the giveaway and link to this post
• Link to the post from Twitter and let me know in the comments
• Link to the post from Facebook and let me know in the comments
• Comment on this post and indicate that you want the book
• Come up with a list of 95 Theses that you’d really like to debate with someone. Write your theses on an old-looking piece of paper and making a video of you nailing your theses to the front door of some church (not your own). Bonus points if you can get the pastor to come out and yell at you.

Flotsam and jetsam (9/29)

Conserve water, or this fish dies!

 

• Near Emmaus is giving away a copy of Fred Sanders’ The Deep Things of God: How the Trinty Changes Everything.
• And, speaking of, Fred Sanders has an interesting discussion of the Trinitarian theology of Keith Green.
• Michael Patton takes Roger Olson to task for arguing that we should consider the possibility of a Protestant purgatory.
• Patheos offers some good resources for introducing people to the five major religious traditions.
• Here’s a good post on developing a Lutheran perspective on honoring saints. (HT)
• And, for you Star Wars fans, here’s a life-sized and fully motorized R2D2. You can even get in a drive it around. That would have to make you the coolest person on your block. 

Morning links (9/17)

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• In his weekly roundup, Brian points out a very helpful list of influential Christian thinkers who have passed away since 2000. Talk about an impressive list of people.
• There’s an interesting discussion going on at Inhabitatio Dei about whether we should consider postliberal theology to be a unified theological project.
• Diglot is giving away a copy of Holy Writings, Sacred Text by John Barton.
• The Guardian has a fascinating slideshow of pictures from the Vatican archives.
• First Thoughts has some interesting reflections on the strongly negative reactions to the Pope’s visit being expressed by many in the UK.
• Joel points out a couple of upcoming marches on Washington that you should absolutely consider attending. Jon Stewart wants us to Rally to Restore Sanity, while Stephen Colbert thinks we should March to Keep Fear Alive.
• CNN wants you to know what to do if your body parts start falling off. Very helpful stuff. This happens to me all the time.
• And, a woman in my own town of Vancouver, WA has hit the national news for faking her own acid attack.
  

Romans commentary winner!

We had a great response for our giveaway of Doug Moo’s commentary on Romans. Sadly, though, I was only dumb enough to have acquired one spare copy. So, that’s all I have to give away.

The winner of our little contest was Kevin Sam who runs an interesting blog over at New Epistles. If you’re particularly frustrated that you didn’t win the commentary, you can probably go over there and leave him hate comments or something. I’m sure that’s what Paul would have done anyway.

I’ve also been contacted by someone who liked the idea of sharing the wealth by giving away duplicates of good books, and that person has contributed another really good book for us to give away next. Keep an eye out for that announcement soon.

Book giveway – Moo’s commentary on Romans

For some reason, I seem to have two copies of Douglas Moo’s The Epistle to the Romans from the NICNT series. At just over 1,000 pages, I can’t figure out how I managed to end up with two of them. But I did. And, being the cheapskate wise steward that I am, I was going to sell the extra copy. Then I realized that there might be some interest out there in a book like this and that it would be good for me to spread the wealth instead. So, I’m going to give it away. (But don’t tell God that I’m doing it publicly. I want to score some rewards in heaven for my generosity while I’m at it.)

As usual, the rules are simple. If you’d like a chance to win the book, here’s what you do (UPDATE – you only need to do one of the following, though you can do more if you choose):

• Blog about it and link to this post
• Link to the post from Twitter and let me know in the comments
• Link to the post from Facebook and let me know in the comments
• Comment on this post and indicate that you want the book
• Make a video of yourself on a busy street, dressed like a Roman citizen, explaining to random pedestrians why the book of Romans is important. Post the video on YouTube and leave a comment here.

You can enter as many different ways as you’d like (bonus points for the YouTube video) and increase your odds of winning. I’ll accept entries through September 15, and then randomly select a winner.