Just finished the rather daunting project of trying to understand Rene Girard through the selection of readings in The Girard Reader. Like most deconstructionist and phenomenological writers, Girard’s style makes hard work for the reader! I was very pleased to read at least these main parts of the primary source material but in the end…
A friend who is travelling on a similar road to me, away from Evangelicalism towards something that gives the character of God as shown in the words and actions of Jesus more centrality, posed the question of how we now pray. My friend suggested that it is no surprise that the first disciples asked Jesus…
Greg Carey writes on the Sojourner’s website: God does not prohibit Eve from eating the fruit. God fills the garden of Eden with trees that bear fruit. Yet God sets apart one tree as forbidden. “You may freely eat of every tree in the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and…
In a recent conversation with me, Jim Longley contrasted the Anabaptist approach to theology and ethics to what he labelled the “defensive” approach adopted by much of the church. My experience of Christianity supports that categorisation. The institutional church, especially the Evangelical variety, and many individuals hold a position that is profoundly defensive. It is…
A traditional Evangelical reading of the book of John’s Revelation seems to assume that the violent God of the Old Testament, after being temporarily assuaged by Jesus’ death, returns with the big guns to teach evil doers who is really the most powerful. I’ve never really thought about the violence inherent in that framework, and…
I’ve just read “Defining Omniscience: a Feminist Perspective”, by Daniel Farmer in Faith and Philosophy (Vol. 27 No. 3 July 2010). He draws on Lorraine Code and Jonathan Kvanvig to suggest the inadequacy of the traditional model of omniscience, viz, that God know all true propositions and believes none that are false. Is propositional knowledge…
In the podcast A Love Supreme: Jazz, Justice, Democracy, Otis Moss III builds a model for leadership on aspects of jazz. He makes some interesting connections, albeit extremely American. But I couldn’t pass up this gem: Church is not concerned about the love ethic any more … but a market-driven ministry … that turns the…
I recently read this section of Peter Kreeft‘s “Before I Go: letters to our children about what really matters” (p. 94). Jesus had a fantastic sense of humor. Even if you don’t detect it in the Gospels (but how can you miss it?), you can detect it in nature. He’s the mind (“logos”) of God…
In Faith and Philosophy (July 2009), Mark C. Murphy poses the old question of just what it means for Jesus to die for our sins. He criticises the “penal substitution” view, not for its moral repugnance but its conceptual failure. Then he proposes a view of “vicarious punishment” which, he claims, is just as faithful…
Someone recently said to me “Some people go to church for their religion, but I get my religious nourishment while canoeing”. She wasn’t a friend — in fact it was the first time we had met — so I couldn’t delve into what she meant, but it set me to wondering. All I could say…
