There is a lot of discussion (at least there is in the online circles I move in) about claims to a doctrine of “headship” that is biblical and that means husbands should take a leadership role with respect to their their wives. Or possibly that men should over women more generally. In a recent discussion [&hellip...
These two chapters, as well as some (now several millennia later) boring stuff about wells, contain some of the heights and depths of human experience. A birth to a childless couple, well well after normal childbearing years, and nasty vindictive selfishness. But also an outrageous demand from God, blind obedience and a few hints of [&hellip...
Another video exploring how our preunderstandings (the things that we think we “know” in advance that a Bible passage is about) can make us miss the point...
As part of my seminar on Bible abuse at Easter Camp I talked about how a couple of sorts of context (cotext or social setting and culture) help us understand Jesus parable of the Big Feast (Luke 14:16ff.) more sharply. This podcast is a quick version of that focusing on questions of context. [Updated with [&hellip...
I’ve been asked about the prosperity gospel, which claims that not only does God want to bless us, but that if we do the right things God will bless us. In the context from which it was asked it’s a really important question, in my context too it’s a question that matters. Here’s part one [&hellip...
People like “old time religion”, “Give them more hellfire and damnation pastor!” the elders plead (somehow it is always “them” not “us” in this case), churches were full when preachers really put the fear of God into their audiences! But is ‘hell’ an important Christian doctrine, should every preacher touch on torment every month or [&hellip...
Can a currently unspeakable picture of God, which was in use for the first 1400 years of Christianity help us enrich our relationship with God? Many of the best known theologians and writing pastors of the first 1400 years of the Christian church (including Clement, Jerome, Augustine and Anselm) were happy to speak in different [&hellip...
What does it mean for Christian talk of God as motherly that Jesus called (even maybe named) God as -father-? Then we take a closer look at what Jesus meant when he talked about God as father. Finally I’ll think about what it means for this topic that Jesus was male. There is a lot [&hellip...
In part two we get drawn to the hymn in Phil 2 and discover not only what Jesus’ discension is all about, but also get to understand the talk of us being gifts in Eph 4:11-13 better. (If you have not listened to part 1 do listen to that first.) The original audio only version [&hellip...
It is about time I finished this casuistry thing (unless any of you know different), but first I think I should show that this approach to Scripture is not just a Matthew thing, but does indeed come from Jesus. We’ll look at a neat case from Mark ...
