I, Too, Don’t Trust “Organized Religion”
By all accounts, we are well into a cultural period defined in part by the decreasing importance of religion in peoples’ lives. We hear and read almost daily about the millennial generation’s a-religiosity, the so-called “nones,” and those who profess spirituality without religion. People discount and decry “organized religion” with a tone of contempt. After all, Continue reading The “Nones” and I Have Something in Common
Part II
In the most recent entry in this blog, I reacted to Brent Strawn’s, The Old Testament is Dying: A Diagnosis and Recommended Treatment by offering reflections concerning factors that may contribute to the phenomenon Strawn describes. This second entry on the subject will examine some of the dangers for believers and for the church inherent in Continue reading No Stream without a Source
Part I
A few days ago, an email brought to my attention a review of a new book by Emory OT professor Brent Strawn (The Old Testament is Dying: A Diagnosis and Recommended Treatment [Theological Explorations for the Church Catholic; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017]). Strawn concludes from surveys of biblical knowledge, statistics Continue reading No Stream without a Source
Amnesia
“Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic…Now we languish; there is nothing in sight except manna.” (Num 11:4b-6)
Beginning in Exodus 19 and continuing through all of Leviticus and on to Numbers 10 (all or significant parts of three of the five books of the Torah), the Bible records the Continue reading Crossword Two Down – A Seven Letter Word for “Nostalgia”
“…what I in turn had received” (1 Cor 15:3, NRSV)
I grew up wanting to believe that I was not much like my Dad, although I was not a very vigorous rebel. I remember sitting across the table from Dad and thinking, “Boy, are you wrong about that,” without saying a word. Beginning in my twenties and accelerating in my thirties when I became a father myself, I began to realize, for example, that my Continue reading Tradition