Scot McKnight: July 2009 Archives

This week Kris and I were sitting with some others at a nice Italian restaurant in Wheaton when the server showed Mike Bird an assortment of teas. I could see them better than Mike so I mentioned a couple and finished with this: "Mike, how about some Earl Grey?"

Mike: "Are you kidding? Earl Grey tastes like an old dead lady ground up and turned into tea!"

(By the way, only an Aussie would drink "tea" at an Italian restaurant when you could have LaVazza!)

Read this and ponder -- one to keep in mind.

Garret's arms twist at sharp angles.  His eyes, vacant and unfocused, stare fixedly away into a void, veiled windows to a soul suddenly plunged into primordial darkness.  His brain fires primeval charges summoned from deep within the tohu wa bohu, his body tensing and releasing with their staccato rhythm.  Slowly the seizure subsides and he comes back, my little boy again inhabiting the body that betrayed him.

Nothing messes with your theology more than your own child's disability.  My boy has "epilepsy and apraxia of speech":  a diagnosis that tells me what I already know, that he has seizures and can't process language.  We communicate with some halting words, some signs, some pantomime.  We medicate and wonder when the seizures will strike again, if they will ever cease.

In the dark watches of the night my soul cries out to the Lord:  If he "cannot hear, how can the preacher share the good news with him," to follow up on St. Paul's vexing question in Romans 10?  What is "faith" for a boy with a miswired brain?  What is "hope" for the man whose heritage is shattered by rogue synaptic currents no one can control or predict?

Jaideep's arms twist at sharp angles.  His eyes, vacant and unfocused, stare fixedly into a void.  His brain fires its last chaotic charge, the death rattle shuddering to a stop.  Born on the trash heaps of Mumbai, dysentery and malnutrition absorb him into their hoary embrace.  He lived and died a Hindu without hearing of the carpenter from Nazareth.

Where were faith, hope and love for this eikon of God?  Is he any less precious than my epileptic apraxic boy? 

God of the mucky stable afterbirth, bearer of sharp-glassed leather on bare back, wearer of spit and thorns, whose arms were twisted at sharp angles fastened with nails, abandoned, god-forsaken Son with agonized cry for eternalperichoretic dance interrupted by Death's convulsions:  how will you redeem this suffering?  Do you hear Garret and Jaideep's cries?

From The Wall Street Journal ...

The decline in Sunday schools appears to be gradual but steady. A study by the Barna Group indicated that in 2004 churches were 6% less likely to provide Sunday school for children ages 2 to 5 as in 1997. For middle-school kids, the decline was to 86% providing Sunday school in 2004 from 93% in 1997. Similarly, there was a six-percentage-point drop in Sunday schools offered for high school kids -- to 80% from 86%. All in all, about 20,000 fewer churches were maintaining Sunday-school classes. And the future does not look bright: Only 15% of ministers regarded Sunday school as a leading concern. The younger the pastor, the study showed, the less emphasis he placed on Sunday school.

What is going on at your church? Is Sunday School fading?

Your dog has eaten?



We came home from somewhere one time and our dachsund had gotten into a deep dish pizza, had eaten some of it, but then she began to hide what was left -- two pieces -- under the blankets on our bed!

We thought we'd post some pictures of things (places, events, etc) of what we like about Italy ... so here goes... [click on them to enlargen]

First, historic cities like Siena --

... and historic churches like this Romanesque church in Monteriggioni...

A CNN.com article reports about gaccaca proceedings in Rwanda, and a book I read recently provides ample stories and illustrations of the same. After a tough history of tension with occasional bursts of violence and bloodshed, in April 1994 Rwanda...

I like the walls of building in Italian villages and cities. The walls tells stories of age and repair and design. So, when Kris and I are sipping a latte at an outdoor cafe, my eyes often wander to the...

Once again, Mary Veeneman, professor in theology at North Park University, steps up to guide us into understanding Pope Benedict XVI's most recent statement. This is the second of a two-part post.Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in Veritate is the latest...

It all begins with God -- what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God. What is our "narrative" of God? What are the narratives that...

One evening Kris and I dined in a lovely hill town called Lucignano, and one of our greatest delights about traveling in Italy is wandering and finding some small village or some city off the maps of tourists. Maybe our...

Once again, Mary Veeneman, professor in theology at North Park University, steps up to guide us into understanding Pope Benedict XVI's most recent statement. This is a two-part post and tomorrow Mary will explore the significance of this new statement....

Our friend, PW, writes posts for the Jesus Creed blog on what it is like to be a pastor's spouse (in her case a "wife" -- hence, PW). This one is about weddings, and I'd love to hear some pastor...

We were away when Jimmy Carter's oft-repeated idea about women and the Southern Baptists was recirculated in the media: he's evidently withdrawn from the Southern Baptist Convention over its tightened up restrictions on women and his perception that it has...

A friend sent this to me ... and I think it might come from Jay Leno. Anyway ...TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!  First, we survived being born to mothers who  took aspirin, ate blue...

I recently wrote a piece for Neue Quarterly (p. 94 ff) that works out an idea from The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible .And Kyle Strobel interviewed me for his blog, Metamorpha, about Fasting: The Ancient Practices...

Here is a letter from a reader and I'm wondering what you think? As an Anabaptist, I'm aware of this issue from a variety of angles, not the least of which is that violence and God's kingdom are at odds....

Andy Stanley contends there is one question that, if we ask it each time we make a decision, it will bring clarity to the important questions and problems and dilemmas in your life. Asking and answering this question could have...

What do you think is on the mind of Chesty, the Marine's mascot?...

Which of the sisters below is Kris? We're just outside St. Claire's in Assisi, my favorite place in the world. Behind Kris is the wide Umbrian expansive plain. And it is there that one can find St Francis' Portiuncola....

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal,...

Keep your pet alive? The news today in the Chicagoland area tells us that a family in the burbs paid $14,000 for a kidney transplant for their cat. They adopted a cat, it shared with their ailing cat, and now...

These are random notes from one student in one class of one professor (:mic) AND IT'S NOT MY CLASS OR NOTES FROM MY CLASS ... and it's hilarious.Taken from the 8:30 AM Bible and Religion 111: Biblical Literature and History...

When it comes to the Pastoral epistles of 1-2 Timothy and Titus, there is such an abundance of good commentaries that one might say it is is ridiculous. I'm not sure why there are so many top notch, career-shaped commentaries...

It all begins with God -- what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God. What is our "narrative" of God? What are the narratives that hinder...

I don't have a commonplace book, and were I to begin, I would surely fall behind, even if it would be a rush of joy for me just to sit down to write with one of my fountain pens. How...

It all begins with God -- what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God. What is our "narrative" of God? What are the narratives that...

A repost on a topic that is always relevant: The NY Times ran an article about pastors swiping sermons from sermon sources, and then Out of Ur ran a piece which got some comments. I'm wondering what you think. Here...

Great authors can sometimes be found in magazines and journals. I subscribe to some academic journals for my field and, like the evening shadow, they are covering the entire room with their shades. Others are for just reading and learning....

It all begins with God -- what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God. What is our "narrative" of God?James Bryan Smith, in The Good...

Friends of the Jesus Creed blog community, this is a heart-cry from not only this wounded woman but also from many in churches today. Let's pray and let's offer this woman -- and the many in this situation -- with...

Shelves, by the way, do make a difference. If my books had made me famous or wealthy (I'd prefer the latter over the former), and if publishers thought of me as someone worth marketing lavishly (which they don't), I would...

It all begins with God -- what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God. What is our "narrative" of God? Is our narrative one of...

So, in desultory style, I bought another of Epstein's familiar essays (which he defines as a "line out for a walk"), and then before the summer was out I had read seven books of familiar essays and four books of...

It all begins with God -- what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God. What is our "narrative" of God?James Bryan Smith, in The Good...

Do you have trouble getting rid of books? Are they accumulating like our national debt? (Sorry for the political suggestiveness.) Now the real questions: How many do you really need? How many of those will you need in 5 or...

Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our...

Kris found this B&B outside Siena.And our room is in one of the towers.Buongiorno!With friends staying at our home, we departed the USA Wednesday so my links aren't as bountiful as they might be, but there's some good stuff here...Treasure...

These sorts of questions and authors have kept me from reading much fiction. It is not that I don't appreciate the authors - I often read biographies of fiction writers - or that I don't think they have had their...

John LaGrou is avant garde when it comes to the power and value of technology. In this post, he questions the long term value and survival of the Sunday sermon. What do you think?Antoine at MMM asks, "How Do Faith-Based...

It seems that most folks I run into have a CS Lewis moment or event or book they like. I first read CS Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia when I was in college. Kris had read them and couldn't stop...

It all begins with God -- what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God.James Bryan Smith, in The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love...

This week's version of Pastor's Bookshelf is commentaries on 1 and 2 Thessalonians.Because it's my old stand-by, I turn first to F.F. Bruce, 1 & 2 Thessalonians (Word Biblical Commentary) (Vol. 45) but there are two recent commentaries that shake...

My heart, for instance, jumped when I recently re-read Dante Alighieri's (whom a Texan friend refers to as "Danny, Ally, and Gerry") The Divine Comedy, which title takes some brushing up against some intelligent folks to comprehend. I liked Dante,...

We come to the end: James 5:19-20: My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring them back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the way of error will save them...

Long ago an English writer announced that our God was too small -- and he then listed the ways that Christians generally have bad ideas about God.James Bryan Smith, in The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love With...

This is an unpublished essay I wrote a few years back and want to post it this and next week while we are in Italy wandering from one Tuscan village to another. Enjoy...Never Alone"...the truth that reading and its necessary...

James explores healing through prayer and anointing. What he urges, and here we clearly hear resonances of faith in James 1:6-8, is to pray in faith -- to pray trusting that God can heal and that God will heal.Here...

Another post from my colleague, Mary Veeneman, based on a book by Harper and Metzger. Let's hear what you are thinking about church discipline.When I was in college, I had a professor who had previously been a full-time pastor.  In...

A wonderful German scholar once said, "The first and the final thought of Jesus was thought about God." (I translate.) That theologian, Adolf Schlatter, gets it exactly right: what you think of God matters most. So I want to begin...

Here's the link to Tom Wright's response to the The Episcopal Church (USA). Our friend David Neff, at Christianity Today, an Anglican, is saddened (by the American Episcopal's church decision)[saw this on his twitter account].Any thoughts here?...

Have you heard of the cackle around Derek Webb's new album (Stockholm Syndrome) and the lyrics especially in "What Matters Most--re"? What are you hearing? Too explicit? Too sensitive? Too harsh? Sure, but needed?...

We are looking at the last passage in James, James 5:13-20.James urges the messianic community to summon elders to pray over the sick:Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them...

Joan Ball has a wonderful story to tell, and her memoir (Flirting with Faith) will be published early in 2010 -- but she is writing a guest blog for us today on what it was like to enter the Christian...

Regina Benjamin lives out her creed (and read the whole article).President Obama announced Monday his choice for surgeon general -- Dr. Regina Benjamin, a 52-year-old family practice doctor who has spent most of her career tending to the needs of...

Nobody, and I mean nobody, makes coffee better than Intelligentsia. Never mind that this is pure Chicago, it's a simple fact: nobody makes coffee better than Intelligentsia. Just grab a cup of latte and answer me one question: "Does anyone...

We turn to our last week on the book of James, which we have explored through the angle of it being the wisdom of Jesus' brother. Our next study will be on the Book of Acts, and we will...

In our last post in this series, John Piper has a chapter on singleness, and I didn't know what to expect. I say this for two reasons: some leaders in recent years have made some incredibly insensitive remarks about singleness...

 How Old Is Evangelicalism?  Andrew Tooley There is a dustup these days about the origins of evangelicalism: is it to be traced to the Reformation or to the 18th Century? (Never mind that many just say it goes back to...

We at the Jesus Creed blog, both Scot and RJS, are inviting one and all to enter into a conversation and discussion about John Walton's (professor at Wheaton) new book, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the...

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus...

Embedded video from CNN Video...

Yesterday President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI met and discussed, among other things, ethical concerns like abortion. Below is an extract from Newsweek. I hope the Pope pressed him on two things: (1) that talking about reducing either the need...

Picking the very best of this week's stories for you!A Judge questions the no-fault divorce policy and wants to do something about it. A writer questions the sanity of her dog and has done something about it. Christine questions Andrew...

This was the prayer for the morning prayers in Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours, originally in The Book of Common Prayer:O God, you have taught me to keep all your commandments by loving you and my neighbor: Grant me the grace...

Have you seen this?...

This Friday is for Friends post is from our long-time blog friend, "T," the one who once won a contest on this blog in which we gave away a pair of crocs. T, you still wearing them? By the way,...

We are discussing marriage by examining the recent book of John Piper's called This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence. What then about this "submissiveness" that is so emphatic in Piper's complementarian approach to reading the roles of husbands...

Now we turn to commentaries on Colossians in our ongoing series on commentaries. And once again, speak up if you think a commentary deserves mention.I taught Colossians for years, used a commentary I really liked, and so I still turn...

Out of nowhere James says this in James 5:12:Above all, my brothers, do not swear--not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned. He has...

We are discussing marriage by examining the recent book of John Piper's called This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence. If you know the debates today among (mostly) evangelicals -- I don't know this debate outside that circle, you...

Kris and I were back in Atlanta last weekend for my second teaching session on the Jesus Creed. But first, awesome worship band led by Todd Fields. The final song -- don't remember the name of the young man who...

I mentioned three possible responses to suffering yesterday but there is probably at least one more: turning against one another under stress. So James 5:9-11:Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at...

Laura Sessions Stepp, a well-known journalist at The Washington Post, has a book about the nature of life for women in the hook-up culture, and the book is nothing less than a bold revelation of things you might not...

We are discussing marriage by examining the recent book of John Piper's called This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence. Piper is a well-known advocate for what most call "complementarianism," and I don't know how to define this in...

I think Sarah Palin is done with politics and I doubt she'll run for President in 2012. The tones of that resignation, and the messages that are coming through suggest to me that she's had it -- she's tired of...

I've heard this a number of times, I've read it more than that, and I know it is popular with many. Here it is:"I'm spiritual but not religious."What do you think people mean by this claim?...

There are three basic approaches to suffering: violent reaction, passive absorption, or the Jesus-following alternative of living aright while waiting for God to bring about justice. James prefers the third option, so it seems to me. Notice the emphasis on...

Jeremy Bouma is live blogging this preaching conference with Pete Rollins and Shane Hipps ... and Rob Bell -->Drop comments here if you'd like....

We are discussing marriage by examining the recent book of John Piper's called This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence. Piper connects marriage to justification and to forgiveness. For marriage to "display God" the husband and the wife are...

Today I'm following (here and here) the live blogging of the conference on preaching at Mars Hill with Rob Bell, Pete Rollins, and Shane Hipps. In the midst of the comments I have heard is one potent question and I'd...

Conference Call with Scot McKnight Tomorrow (July 7th) Our next LIVE conference call will be tomorrow July 7th from 1-2pm (PST). Join us for an interview and Q&A with Scot McKnight, the author of The Jesus Creed and The Blue...

We turn the corner now in our study of the letter of James from the angle of James absorbing and passing on the wisdom of his brother, Jesus.James 5:7-11:Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer...

Jeremy Bouma is live blogging this preaching conference with Pete Rollins and Shane Hipps ... Drop comments here if you'd like....

I got this letter last Friday, July 3d, as a comment on a post and I want to post it today to generate a conversation. What is your advice?Dear Scot,I'm not a Christian and don't intend becoming one. However, my...

We are discussing marriage by examining the recent book of John Piper's called This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence. "Marriage," Piper says, "is more wonderful than anyone on earth knows" (29). And he argues that we need God's...

Jeremy Bouma is live blogging this preaching conference with Pete Rollins and Shane Hipps ... Drop comments here if you'd like....

Where are the 20somethings attending church? According to some studies (linked below), your best chance of finding them is in a megachurch -- contrary to some of the hype that has circulated in the last five years. The ability to...

Margaret Feinberg, at The Origins Project site, has asked a question and would love for you to speak up."Why do you go to church?"...

O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one...

Anyone know why Sarah Palin has resigned?Here are the words of William Kristol:William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard and a supporter of Ms. Palin, said that in the end, this could turn out to have been a smart...

It's summer.That means sunflowers.(Wouldn't Van Gogh have loved this picture.)Interview at the Smith's home in Alexandria, and I'm with Taylor Mertins. Collin Hansen, ever the pro-Reformed journalist for CT, has a post up that reviews a volume that examines the...

TV program of all time? We're talking TV programs in the evening, sit coms or otherwise.I have to admit that this man is my favorite of all time: Jay North and Dennis the Menace....

AHH has been reading and occasionally commenting on the Jesus Creed blog since Fall 2008.  He lives in Colorado where he works at a government science lab, and he is ordained as an Elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  He...

We are discussing marriage by examining the recent book of John Piper's called This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence.  In the first chp Piper examines marriage in two respects:* It is from God.* It is for God's glory.Anyone...

What, in your view, are the top five mistakes made in marriage by couples? I got this question from Gretchen Rubin here. Her top five are:1. Wanting the gold stars of appreciation.2. Using a snappish tone.3. Getting angry about a...

Once again, James draws us into the world of Jesus. James 5:6 reads: "You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you." A more literal reading, here quoting from the NASB, tells a different story: "You have...

We started yesterday, with a post of our own, a series on marriage by examining the recent book of John Piper's called This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence. Question added at 9:25am CT (find at bottom of post).John...

I'm not keeping up with this commentary list, spending too much of my time doing what Paul seems to be doing to the left, but here goes on Philippians.The first commentary I consult on Philippians is Gordon Fee, and I...

James personifies with a vivid imagination, something he perhaps learned from Jesus or one of the prophets. Here are the words of James, from 5:1-6:Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out...

I begin a series today on John Piper's new book about marriage (This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence ) but I do so by posting a recent essay of mine from Out of Ur: it was called there "The...

In a recent post we discussed the hooked up culture and the neuroscience connected to hooking up -- the brain, so those authors argue, is the most influential sexual organ. That book discussed the facts and interpretation of neuorscience. Laura...