Blog Archives
Flotsam and jetsam (1/14)
- David Fitch offers five reasons that “leadership” is not biblical.
I feel like I need to put out there why I think leadership in this mode is not Biblical, why we might need to find a new word when we are talking about what leaders do in a church, and why if we are ever going to truly “lead” a community into the Kingdom it requires a skill quite different than what many in the church have come to describe as “leadership.”
- Bob Kellemen shares the Top 10 Trends in Biblical Counseling.
- The beatification of Pope John Paul II will take place on May 1.
- Koinonia is giving away a copy of Michael Horton’s A Place for Weakness: Preparing Yourself for Suffering.
- Stuart is going to start running the news blog for Reclaiming the Mind. Stuart does a great job highlighting important news stories, this should definitely be worth following.
- And, on that note, Stuart also offers some interesting statistics on British evangelicalism.
- Diglot is putting together a list of journals focused on early Christianity.
- And, here’s The Wire‘s list of the 50 Most Influential People in Media This Year.
Flotsam and jetsam (1/10)
- Andrew Perriman discusses the “Missio Dei” in historical perspectives.
This shift of focus away from the activity of the church towards the activity of God, however, exposed a critical bifurcation in the argument, a fork in the road—and many theologians took the concept of missio Dei in a direction altogether unintended by Barth and the German missiologists….If the church participates in the mission of God, the possibility arises that the mission of God in the world may be thought to happen more or less independently of the church.
- Daniel Kirk has some interesting reflections on the seven “deacons” in Acts 6.
But there are other indications that though this event was used to bring about peace for a time, the twelve might not have been as faithful leaders at this point as we might have hoped.
- Roger Olson is frustrated that no one seems to know what “the kingdom of God” means even though they use the phrase all the time.
One of my pet peeves is the fact that most Christian lay people and even many pastors don’t seem to know what they think the “Kingdom of God” means or have no idea what the Bible really says about it and yet use the phrase all the time.
- Larry Hurtado offers an updated list all copies of all texts of Christian provenance from before the 4th century CE.
- Here’s a roundtable discussion on Christians an Internet Presence with Trevin Wax, Steve McCoy, and Brandon Smith discussing social media, blogging, and other forms of Christian presence on the internet. One interesting quote from Trevin Wax:
The blogosphere is a neat thing, but it’s also a gigantic echo chamber, and the noisy links create the false perception that we are very important and have something so valuable to say.
- The NYT discusses the fact that TV watching in on the rise in America. (HT)
- If you were wonder, here are the 100 Best Selling Christian Books of 2010.
- Eerdmans new blog is now up and running (HT).
- If you spent way too much time during your teen years (or youth ministry years) watching The Princess Pride, here is the quiz for you: “Prepare to Die: A Princess Bride Quiz.” I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I scored a 10 out of 10 on this one.
- And, here’s a list of 10 bestselling books that almost weren’t printed.
Flotsam and jetsam (10/13)
- There’s been a lot of talk lately about the need to create a national digital library, enabling free and easy access to a wealth of digital material.
- Along the same lines, Tim Bulkeley argues against traditional academic publishing and for a free and open exchange of ideas online. HT
- HuffPo has an interesting article on the quiet faith of Stephen Colbert.
- Nick Norelli points out a new blog offering book review in biblical and early Christian studies.
- Roger Olson explains that he’s only opposed to a certain kind of Calvinism.
- Justin Taylor continues to post excerpts from Tom Schreiner’s forthcoming book, this time with a section on the question “Is perfect obedience to the Law mandatory for salvation?“
- If you want to improve as a reader of fiction, you need to know what questions to ask. So,here’s a list of 20 questions to ask of a novel. HT
- And, apparently a morning donut can improve memory and concentration.
Flotsam and jetsam (9/9)
Carl Trueman reflects on the importance of the generalist and the “vortex of specialization” in academic studies.
- Joel has posted three articles on the role of women in the early church (here, here, and here).
- David Murray argues for the importance of preaching without notes. HT
- Mark has begun commenting on David Dewey’s A User’s Guide to Bible Translations.
- Logos is a developing the new Evangelical Exegetical Commentary series.
- Denis Alexander comments on how ideology guides the use of evolution in the science and religion debates.
- And, the guy who wrote the “Jump the Shark” episode of Happy Days actually defends the episode and argues that it did not signal the downfall of the show.
Flotsam and jetsam (7/15)
- J.R. Daniel Kirk tackles the question of whether Christianity has really done any good for the world, pointing to adoption, sex trafficking and peace as key areas of contribution. And Andrew Perriman offers his thoughts as well.
- The Vatican has tightened its rules on for disciplining priests involved in sexual abuse cases. NPR has a piece on it here.
- Larry Hurtado is at it again, posting his article “Jesus as Lordly Example.” He also announces the new blog site for his Centre for the Study of Christian Origins.
- Jesus Creed has a nice roundup of recent discussions on science and miracles.
- Inside Higher Ed has a very nice article on the Illinois adjunct who was fired for teaching about Catholic beliefs regarding homosexuality. Unsurprisingly, the situation is more complicated than they first appeared.
- Justin Taylor recommends a book for learning how to write non-fiction book proposals.
- And, apparently spending most of your time sitting down is bad for your health, even if you exercise regularly.
Flotsam and jetsam (7/7)
- Ben Myers offers an excerpt from an upcoming paper on “Prayer as Theological Method.” This particular section focuses on one of George Herbert’s sonnets and the way that Herbert uses poetry to create a space for prayer.
- Evangel discusses some of the difficulties inherent in the idea of a soteriological “age of accountability“.
- Larry Hurtado briefly reviews Jimmy Dunn’s Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?: The New Testament Evidence, noting a few points of minor disagreement. James McGrath offers a brief response to Hurtado’s claim that the early Christians did not participate in any sacrificial practices.
- Phil Sumpter continues his discussion of Brevard Childs’ exegesis, this time looking at the development of two distinct traditions regarding the origin of Moses’ office among the Israelites.
- Mike Bird offers a very nice summary of the events leading to the “Incident at Antioch” (Gal. 2:11-14).
- And, if you feel like you need to protect your children from the nefarious influence of religious rhetoric, you can now install GodBlock, a web filter that is “is targeted at parents and schools who wish to protect their kids from the often violent, sexual, and psychologically harmful material in many holy texts, and from being indoctrinated into any religion before they are of the age to make such decisions.” That’s fabulous. (HT Jim West)