Chaplainmike

What Was It Like for Christians in Rome When Romans Was Written?

To read Romans 1-11 well, one must know the context, and that context is mostly portrayed in Romans 12-16. • Reading Romans Backwards, p. 57 • • • In Scot McKnight’s new and wonderfully helpful book, Reading Romans Backwards, Scot contends that “Romans is too often read as if it were theoretical theology. It’s not.Continue reading “What Was It Like for Christians in Rome When Romans Was Written?”

God’s Good Earth: The Case for an Unfallen Creation, by Jon Garvey, Chapter 5 – Powers and Principalities

God’s Good Earth: The Case for an Unfallen Creation, by Jon Garvey Chapter 5 – Powers and Principalities We will continue our review of God’s Good Earth: The Case for an Unfallen Creation, by Jon Garvey. Today is Chapter 5 – Powers and Principalities. To complete the Biblical picture of the non-human creation, Jon givesContinue reading “God’s Good Earth: The Case for an Unfallen Creation, by Jon Garvey, Chapter 5 – Powers and Principalities”

A Post-Progressive Take on the Bible

A Post-Progressive Take on the Bible Richard Beck is moving fast in his “Post-Progressive” series, so I’m going to double up this week on my comments to try and catch up. His fourth post is about progressive Christians and the Bible. As I described in Part 2, progressive Christians have a fraught relationship with theContinue reading “A Post-Progressive Take on the Bible”

Another Look: The Lansdale Statement (Peter Enns, 2017)

Note from CM: We ran this a couple of years ago, when it was suddenly all the rage for Christians to publish “statements” taking stands on various issues. Noting that the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) recently committed to one of those statements in good Presbyterian dogmatic fashion, I thought we might revisit Pete Enns’sContinue reading “Another Look: The Lansdale Statement (Peter Enns, 2017)”

The Limits of Social and Political Activism

Richard Beck’s continuing series on his journey to becoming “post-progressive” includes a critique of progressive Christianity’s priority of political activism and social justice. Beck knows that there is a great deal of support in the biblical story for this emphasis, and thinks it appropriate that this is an emphasis for Chrsitian faith and practice. “BuildingContinue reading “The Limits of Social and Political Activism”

Another Look: The Form of Preaching and Its Context

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation ofContinue reading “Another Look: The Form of Preaching and Its Context”

The IM Saturday Monks Brunch: July 6, 2019

Americans need to embrace a more mature and realistic patriotism, one that recognizes that everything is not perfect but that there is still something worth celebrating. We must learn to love America without being blind to its faults. This love must be shown not by ignoring America’s problems but by dedicating ourselves to dealing withContinue reading “The IM Saturday Monks Brunch: July 6, 2019”

Scot McKnight’s Brilliant Insight

Scot McKnight’s Brilliant Insight This summer, I’ve dipped back into Paul’s epistle to the Romans, something I come back to time and time again. I’m trying to work through at least the passages that make the major argument in Douglas A. Campbell’s immense study, The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul.Continue reading “Scot McKnight’s Brilliant Insight”

American Independence Day 2019

American Independence Day 2019 On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave “remarks” at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where a savage, decisive battle had been fought in the American Civil War. Those “remarks” have endured as a timeless statement of the American project — to establish and maintain a “nation, conceived inContinue reading “American Independence Day 2019”

Reconstruction

I AM A PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN because I believe that doubting, questioning and searching is a legitimate and mature expression of faith, and that for many Christians a season of deconstruction is a necessary and vital part of the faith journey. I AM A POST-PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN because I believe a faith journey that terminates and exhaustsContinue reading “Reconstruction”