via email and direct message to a particular hermeneutical dynamic in my recent book,
The Next Christian Faith: A Brief Sketch (kindly endorsed by Mike Bird, among others) that has somewhat surprised me. Throughout, I presuppose but also directly argue for a particular hermeneutic of the Old Testament that I take to be among the few that are genuinely Christian.
To illustrate the point, I sometimes ask my students at Houston Baptist University, “If we were to dig up, say, the book of Job somewhere in the land of Israel, and if, furthermore, there never had been any such person/thing as Jesus of Nazareth, the New Testament, and the subsequent Christian tradition, would this book that is, the book of Job be a
Getting Wrath Right
It’s holy week: a season of the Christian calendar matched only and then perhaps not quite by Christmastide.
It’s the week that commemorates the final and fateful week of Jesus’s historical life, focusing particularly upon Maundy Thursday (the Lord’s Supper), Good Friday (the crucifixion), Holy Saturday (the somber rest of the buried Jesus), and Easter Sunday (the resurrection).
Christmas is about Emmanuel, about the true God taking on flesh and dwelling in our midst.
Holy week is about what Christians sometimes loosely call the atonement: the saving work of Jesus focused especially upon his death, resurrection, ascension, outpoured Spirit, and perpetual heavenly session at the right hand of God the father.
Chris Kugler
A Plea and a Warning for “Evangelicalism”
“I’m surprised people are still even trying to run in those circles.”
That’s what my colleague a New Testament scholar who signs up to all the ecumenical creeds and staunchly defends the inspiration of Scripture said to me. And by “people”, he was specifically referring to Bible and Theology Profs running in conservative evangelical circles.
It’s simply assumed and one sees it again and again in practice that if you get the academic training, you will find life in many evangelical churches difficult, if not impossible.
But why? Why do most Bible scholars and Theologians say: “I give up. I’m exhausted. It’s time to go Anglican/Episcopalian/Methodist/Presbyterian, etc.?”
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Note: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are soley those of the Democracy Works hosts.
This episode was recorded on December 15, 2020, the day after the Electoral College voted to confirm Joe Biden as the next United States President. However, some Republicans refuse to accept the result and vow to continue fighting the result until Inauguration Day. Michael Berkman, Chris Beem, and Candis Watts Smith discuss what these challenges mean for the long-term health and legitimacy of American elections and American democracy.
They also discuss damage to the institutions that comprise America s liberal democracy and what it will take to repair them moving forward. Finally, they touch on increasing polarization and whether a generational shift will change the dynamics over time.