Well, there it is... G.W.Bush was sort of elected by the conservative right in order to make a Christian nation influence democracy in the world at large and take stands that the former Democratic president wouldn't agains "evil" in the world. This "neo-con" agenda was however coincidentally linked with the messianic expectation of Christians ( Read more... )

So, my father, with his quirky sense of humour has always said, when I've encouraged him to get a will was, "If I'm dead, what the hell do I care what happens with the stuff, I'm dead." The subject is all the more pressing now that he actually has cancer ( Read more... )

"The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder." V. Woolf. This was fittingly generated for me by one of the online blogthing generators as my "Glamour Icon"... I wonder how it knew, since this just happens to be one of my FAVORITE quotes ( Read more... )

The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely. -Lorraine Hansberry, playwright and painter (1930-1965 ( Read more... )

I love my dad... His quirky personality is summed up in the scene that happened often at dinner. Mom would try something new, ask how it was, and then get the reply "Marginal ( Read more... )

So, covenantalists have always admitted that you START with hermeneutical assumptions... OT-NT, specifically is what this admission is aimed at, what with dispensationalism being the theology du jour. The justification behind this is that you examine the text with the tools it gave you ( Read more... )

Today the national guard was sent in to curb the rapidly escalating violence in New Orleans. WOW! The nation has largely forgotten about Katrina and its aftermath, but, since I'm moving down there I've had pause to reflect on what really happened on the ground ( Read more... )

I have been waiting for the Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR)'s (aka Hershel Shanks' printed academic blog;))response to the Gospel of Judas. With great expectation I wondered whether my initial suspicion that the importance of this document was pure hype by National Geographic Magazine and cable channel would be confirmed, or whether BAR too ( Read more... )

You know, I pondered the brave new world in college, and when I was surrounded by postmillenials hearing about the means of grace, and about how God uses means, I wondered if there would ever be a postmillenial apologetic for the brave new world. People thought I was crazy when I came up with this. Anyway, Wikipedia featured this article on ( Read more... )

Is it possible that there is a sanctified hermeneutic? If you ask too much of this, you end up without communication being possible, reader - text - author - text' - reader'. We talk in biblical studies about original autographs, which we don't have, and discerning authorial intent which is difficult at best even within our own cultural matrix, ( Read more... )