Cum Laude in Evading Bandits
Nicholas Kristof is one of my favorite liberals. I would love to win one of his trips! Here's just a little bit of his good advice to world travelers: 2. Carry cash and your passport where no robber will find it. Assuming that few bandits read this column, I’ll disclose that I carry mine in a pouch that loops onto my belt and tucks under my trousers. Read the whole thing...
The Shack
The Shack has taken America by storm, and like most storms it has kicked up a good bit of controversial dust along the way. I recently reviewed it in order to get a free copy. Mackenzie Alan Phillips is the central character in The Shack. His young daughter, Missy, was murdered by a serial killer, and over the years the resulting Great Sadness has almost incapacitated him. He's a Christian. A seminary graduate, in fact. But while his wife seems to have been able to find comfort in God, "Mack"...
Metametametalanguage
I'm writing a blog post about a blog post about an Internet article about the use of the Internet. So here goes. Click here for Alan Jacobs' comments on this New York Magazine article. Jacobs is a bit of a Christian Neil Postman sometimes. He helps me, anyway, look at my technological life with wiser eyes. (But he writes everything in BBEdit, which makes him part of the problem, not the solution! =)
In the Nick of Time
Kevin Bauder of Central Seminary is always worth hearing. And this blog hears him. It's my firm desire that this blog never be what he describes in the last line of the following paragraph of this excellent, timely essay: These young [fundamentalist] leaders are aware of the injustices of the past, and consequently they are very much on their guard against the imperfections of the present. When they perceive anything that looks like the old imperialism, they tend to react strongly. Given the...
ἀγάπη
I've spent much of the last two weeks trying to process and organize the usage data for ἀγάπη/ἀγαπάω (and, to a lesser extent, φιλέω) in the Greek New Testament, the Septuagint, Josephus, and even the Apostolic Fathers. BibleWorks and Logos were essential tools for this work. I'm going to present that material to you, and if you think you see a hole, feel free to point it out. First, I'll point to some usage data which I think casts doubt on the common view that ἀγάπη is always and only a...