Month: February 2017
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Exegetical Exercise – 1 John 4 7-19
Notes and questions on I John 4:7-19 (the Uniform Series text for Sunday, March 2, 2017) The text: (7) Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. (8) Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. (9) God’s […]
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Against “Proof-texting” in the Qur’an
Chapter 3 of Qur’an in Conversation begins with Jamal Badawi’s discussion of the factors affecting the interpretation of “one of the most misunderstood verses of the Qur’an”(78) 9:5, “Kill the idolaters [mushrikin] wherever you find them, capture them, besiege them, lie in wait for them at every place of ambush.” Badawi uses the verse as […]
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Prophetic Lament
This month’s belated study of Lamentations continues with Soong-Chan Rah’s Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015). The book is a volume in the “Resonate” series of commentaries, which addresses itself explicitly to readers who are more familiar with popular culture than scripture. This shows up in […]
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Christian Doctrine (6)
Summary notes on Shirley C. Guthrie, Jr. Christian Doctrine (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994) Chapter 6 “What Is God Like? The Doctrine of the Attributes of God” The “God is dead” movement in theology represents the death of inadequate models of God: the indulgent “heavenly Granddaddy;” the sovereign, arbitrary tyrant; an abstract idea (98). […]
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The Gita is not the “Hindu Bible”
One of the pitfalls of the “world religions approach” is students’ understandable tendency to want to fit everything into a paradigm they already know. Understandable, because the approach itself developed on the foundation of 19th century scholars’ and colonialists’ efforts to do exactly the same thing: to locate the religious structures that corresponded to the […]
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Exegetical Exercise – Galatians 5 18 – 6 10
Exegetical notes and questions on Galatians 5:18-6:10 (Uniform Series text for Sunday, February 26, 2017). This is the text: But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. (19) Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, (20) idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, […]
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Close Reading in the Qur’an
Notes on Chapter 2 (“Close Readings, Old and New”) of Michael Birkel, ed. Qur’an in Conversation (Waco, TX: Baylor UP, 2014) 33-35.] Mohammad Hassan Khalil unpacks the meaning of the opening line of the Qur’an, the bismillah, rendered into English in various ways, such as “In the name of God, the all-compassionate, the all-merciful.” He […]
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Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
A sermon on the Uniform Series text for Sunday, February 19, 2017, Galatians 5:1-18. The focus statement provided to Sunday school teachers has this to say about the text: “Rigorous self-discipline is appealing to some because it seems to promise mastery over temptation. What is the key to living a morally acceptable life? Paul urges […]
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In Review – The Book of Lamentations
Reviewing: David R. Slavitt. The Book of Lamentations: A Meditation and Translation Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2001. In this short, painfully beautiful and humane volume, David R. Slavitt shares both his remarkable translation of the book of Lamentations (the Megillat Eichah), and his meditation on the historical background of that book, both before and after […]
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Christian Doctrine (5)
Summary notes for Chapter 5, “Who is God? The Doctrine of the Trinity” in Shirley Guthrie, Jr. Christian Doctrine (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994) 70-96. Guthrie’s exposition of Christian doctrine really begins with the preliminary “who are we as theologians?” and then with revelation – so far, so Calvinist, and Barthian. Now he has […]
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Reading for World Religions
This [delightful, but massive] book1 has been on my shelf for at least five years – long past the time it was withdrawn from the Indian market, according to one commentator because it “wasn’t boring enough.” I have managed to read the introduction and chapter one more than once. But it has always gotten set […]
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Exegetical Exercise – Galatians 5 1-17
The Uniform Series text for this coming Sunday is Galatians 5:1-17: (1) For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (2) Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. (3) […]
Matters of Interpretation 