via Imgur

Good Reads

• The Call and Agenda for Pastor-Theologians: The church wants education and needs theological leaders. In this day when many pastors lead non-theologically, and academics work in a way that is lost on the people of God, we need pastor-theologians who can minister the Word in ways that edify the saints and offer a winsome public witness to the goodness, truth, and beauty of the Lord and his will for us.

• The Failure of Christianity Is a Myth: The Enlightenment had to tell that story because it had to tell history with itself as the goal and the center, while Christianity had an entirely different eschatology — so the Enlightenment pushed religion into the private world and told it stay put.

• Make That Digital Elephant Disappear: There is an illusion—an act far more enchanting than having an elephant disappear before your eyes—that has spread far and wide across the world wide web. It’s an illusion that is captivating millions. The line of thinking goes something like this: if it’s online then it’s easy. If it’s digital then it’s inexpensive. If it’s composed of bits and bytes then it’s quick.

• What’s Wrong with Inerrancy?: It is not hard to see why non-evangelicals might object to the idea of an inerrant Bible. But why would someone who has already bothered to affirm that the Bible is true, and God-breathed, struggle with the idea that it does not contain mistakes? Come to think of it, what does it even mean to say that something contains mistakes but is nonetheless true?

Continue Reading…

Just Hangin' Out (via everywhere)

Good Reads

• Was John the First Baptist? Was John’s baptism the first baptism the world knew? Commentators are not quite agreed on the history of Christian baptism. Obviously Christians baptize, and obviously Jews don’t. But was John the Baptist the first to actually baptize? Or were the Jews doing baptisms in the inter-testamental period?

• Questions about Contextualization: Of course, contextualization is not merely a communications issue.  Proponents really offer contextualization as a necessary missiological strategy.  The intent is to find ways to faithfully communicate the gospel message to other cultures (though not all missiologists and practitioners hold to this principle or are successful at its application).  In the domestic context, doing missions where we live, I have a few questions and thoughts I’m trying to flesh out.

• Coaching Young Leaders Effectively: Seven Observations: Young, developing leaders are looking for relationship, and they will receive coaching and mentoring from those with whom they have relationship.

• America’s “Angriest” Theologian Faces Lynching Tree: When he was boy growing up in rural Arkansas, James Cone would often stand at his window at night, looking for a sign that his father was still alive. Cone had reason to worry. He lived in a small, segregated town in the age of Jim Crow. And his father, Charlie Cone, was a marked man.

Continue Reading…

Dublin Zoo

Good Reads

• Really Practical Theology: Pastors, teachers, parents, and employers are daily deluged with people’s problems. Oftentimes we resort to simplistic and formulaic practical counsel that has short-term benefits at best. Other times we are tempted to ignore the problems, to deny them, to run from them, or sometimes just to give up….Stop and study the attributes of God.

• Returning to the Sermon on the Mount (NYT): Read alone, the Sermon on the Mount will either confuse us or merely reinforce the moral prejudices we bring to it.  To profit from its wisdom we need to understand it through traditions of thought and practice within or informed by Christianity.  This does not require membership in any particular church, but it does require immersion in the culture and history of the Christian world.   In this sense, to forget the church is to forget Jesus.

• Learning to Delight in Scripture: When you read Bible verses in which the author talks about loving or delighting in Scripture itself, how do you usually respond? For me personally, I often feel guilty or anxious about the lack of these verbs in my life. I have even doubted my salvation on occasion when forced to admit that I do not love or delight in God’s word as much as I “should.”

• The Upside of Ignorance: The joy of not knowing, of learning by learning that you were wrong, is one of the chief joys—and one of the great benefits—of science, Stuart Firestein, author of Ignorance, explains in an interview with Casey Schwartz.

Continue Reading…