Thinking about the amanuensic process of how the Bible came to be, really opens up an interesting door in how we understand it. It means that from its very beginnings, this set of books that we come to regard as the heart, soul, and backbone of our faith, were forged in relationship with each other, even if these relationships carried a power differential.
The Gadarene Swine Fallacy is the fallacy of supposing that because a group is in the right formation, it is necessarily on the right course; and conversely, of supposing that because an individual has strayed from the group and isn’t in formation, that he is off course.
Mary puts her money where her mouth is. Woman of substance, she ministers with her substance. Call it what you will, it comes down to money. Verily, verily, I say unto you: the ecclesial meaning of Mary Magdalene is so much piss until you grasp and embrace the economic meaning of Mary.
Consider this: if we set out just to make the best of our talents, we are already limiting expectations, because we have a conception that there is an achievable “best.” But if we decide to take the risk of being in partnership with God, to invest in God’s venture with everything we have, then the returns will be beyond our wildest imaginings.
“One must have the courage to say that the goodness of Christ appeared greater and more divine and truly conformed to the image of the
The story was not about “what kind of cancer my great-grandmother had.” The story really was about what happened to everyone else in the family and how they felt about Louise’s death, and what carried over as a result of it in the next generation.
A New Testament scholar says a lot of people who advocate for “traditional family values” rooted in the Bible may not have much of an idea of what’s actually in the Bible – at least not on the subject of marriage.
The debate over what the Bible says about slavery is a matter of more than academic interest to proponents of LGBT equality. If the Bible is “wrong” on slavery, that is, if it seems to permit it, then aren’t we free to believe that it is “wrong” on the morality of same-sex relationships?
Is the biblical narrative true in the same way that a mathematical theorem is true? Is it true in the same a natural law is true? What about a historical account of an event? What about an eyewitness account? David Lose says that’s the wrong sort of question to ask.
Paul writes: “I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was knowledge of Jesus, and of him as the crucified Christ.” So we look to an icon of human weakness and failure to discover the power of God; this is one of the truly bizarre things about Christianity. But the strange, troubling image of the crucified can also be tremendously liberating.