Recently in Bible Category

I've taken some heat in the comment section for using yesterday's post on "unbiblical" and a "higher view of scripture" as a thin foil for my own disregard of biblical standards. To the contrary, I was pointing to the use of the word unbiblical as a stand-in for a particularly thin hermeneutic. There are, of course, things that are unbiblical: child pornography and shampoo, for instance. Both are technically unbiblical since they are never mentioned; further, the first is morally at odds with the biblical narrative, while the second is not.

So, to repeat, "unbiblical" is not a euphemism on its face; it is a euphemism when used as a stand in for a hermeneutical argument.

Today, I thought we'd poke at the liberals a bit, since the conservatives around here seem to be on the defensive. The euphemism of today is,

fundamentalist.

Again, I'm not implying that fundamentalists do not exist. They do. But liberals and progressives often use "fundamentalist" as a cheap and easy stand-in for someone who has a more conservative biblical hermeneutic.

In our attempt to exterminate Christian euphemisms from our vocabulary, Nathan nominated thusly:

"Unbiblical" when what the situation really is is "I really, really DON'T like that" OR "I disagree" OR "Your words challenge my deepest held idolatries posing as genuine Christian faith."

This euphemism seems to be more prevalent today than I remember it -- or maybe I just ran into it less in the past. Of course, what it implies is that there is a consistent, reliable, and mutually agreed upon hermeneutic for a particular passage, or for the entire narrative arc of the Bible.

I ran into this at the Cornerstone Festival this summer, while on a panel discussing gays in the church. The two anti-gay members of the panel, both "ex-gays" who were affiliated with Exodus International, repeatedly stated that theirs was the "biblical" position, and that opposing views were "unbiblical." They said this with no anger, and really no passion. It was said matter-of-factly, and simply, as though no counter-argument could possibly be summoned.

I was having a conversation with a friend about the evangelical interest in Jim Belcher's book, Deep Church.  Jim's written a good book, and I was happy to endorse it -- albeit with the caveat that he and I disagree significantly on some theological issues like the nature of God and the nature of scripture.

In the book, Jim takes aim at the "traditional" church and the "emerging" church.  He offers a "third way" between the two, though any fair reader can see that he's tougher on the emerging church than he is on the traditional church, and his third way leans significantly in the direction of traditional Reformed theology and worship.  Ignored are Catholic, Orthodox, Wesleyan, and Anabaptist visions of ecclesial life, and, as Jenell points out, women.

I don't begrudge Jim any of those (except the ignoring of women) -- he's entirely entitled to his own opinions, and to publish them.  I wish him success.  And that wasn't really even the point of my friend in our conversation.  Instead, he was intrigued that conservatives and Reformed folks would be so taken with Jim's book when he's pretty tough on them, too.

An interview with me on the issue of gays and the church just went live on the new interfaith website, Patheos.Q: In a now famous post, you came to the conclusion that GLBTQ folks can "live lives in accord with...

Today and tomorrow only (July 14th and 15th): TODAY ONLY Receive a copy of Ask, Seek, Knock: Prayers to Change Your Life for only $5 (plus free shipping)! Visit www.navpress.com and use the promo code H20E2M3X6 at checkout.Ask, Seek, Knock...

More good comments under the second lectionary post (and here's the first). So here are my concluding thoughts (for now).When I began working as a pastor at Colonial Church in 1997, David Fisher had just introduced the Revised Common Lectionary...

Paul's pivotal life experience is referred to as the Calling of Paul or the Damascus Road Experience--the day Jesus confronted Paul. Luke recorded the original incident in Acts 9:"Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?"[Paul] said, "Who are...

The next prayer we'll investigate is straightforward enough, but the action the apostles took seems curious to us. Shortly after Jesus "was taken up and disappeared in a cloud" (Acts 1:9, technically called the Ascension), and some time before Pentecost,...

I can hardly imagine a person praying during his torture and execution. I find it even more difficult to imagine that person praying for his executors. But Jesus was no ordinary person.He loved people to the end, and he prayed...

In The New Christians, I wrote a section chastising liberals for censoring the Bible in the Revised Common Lectionary. Although liberals often criticize conservatives for cherrypicking Bible verses, liberals do just the same thing when they leave verses out of...

Near the beginning of Solomon's reign, he does what we hope any ruler would do. In 1 Kings 3, he asks God for wisdom. After Solomon marries his queen, he travels to Gibeon to worship at the shrine (before the...

Some years after Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and after Joshua took them into the land that God had promised Abram, Israel was led by a series of judges. Moses picked the first judges, people who...

Last week, I ran some excerpts of a book I've written on the ancient practice of lectio divina. This week, I'll be posting excerpts from another book called Ask Seek Knock, in which I wrote about how we can use...

Praying the Bible Intro - lectio divina - reading - meditating - praying - contemplating Writing about contemplation is strange. It's weird because the fourth step of lectio divina is so unlike our everyday activities. The first three steps of...

Praying the Bible Intro - lectio divina - reading - meditating - praying - contemplating In the movie The Apostle, Robert Duvall plays Sonny, a preacher-evangelist who has made a few mistakes in his life, one of them a big...

Praying the BibleIntro - lectio divina - reading - meditating - praying - contemplatingDepending on what version of the Bible you use, the word meditate appears about fifteen times in the Old Testament. (It's not used at all in the...

Praying the Bible Intro - lectio divina - reading - meditating - praying - contemplating One of the best meals I've ever had was in an upscale restaurant, Daniel's Bistro, in New York City. My entrée was called the DB...

Praying the Bible Intro - lectio divina - reading - meditating - praying - contemplating Though dates differ, Guigo II lived from about 1115 to 1198. His official title was the Ninth Prior of the Grand Chartreuse of Carthusians. That's...

Recently, Stanley Fish wrote about the problems with the way the liberal intelligentsia thinks about religion vs. science -- or reason vs. faith. He was, of course, slaughtered in the comment section of his NYTimes blog by, um, the liberal...

Last week, I spent time with some new friends in Canada. Most of them were church leaders in the United Church of Canada, the result of a denominational merger in 1925. The United Church is unabashedly liberal in its social...

Adam has convened a great conversation at Pomomusings called Plurality 2.0. My friend, Phillip Clayton posted last week.  Money quote:I'm guessing that most readers of this post in fact already live in Pluralism 2.0. If you're one of those people,...

The doods at Homebrewed Christianity have taken my conversation with Bart Ehrman about his book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know about Them). You can, of course, get it on iTunes, or...

Earlier this week, I interviewed Bart Ehrman, New Testament scholar at UNC. We talked about his latest book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know about Them). Among the other topics: philosophical hermeneutics,...

Some of my favorite commenters (like Annie) have accused me of "straw man" arguments this past week. I disagree. That would mean that I had overinflated the arguments of my theological opponents and then popped their balloons.  But, in fact,...

No. I simply deny it pride of place.  Here's what I wrote in October, 2006 about my lunch with John Piper:One thing that won't surprise anyone who knows about these things: John Piper basically equates a penal substitutionary understanding of...

I'll be interviewing Bart Ehrman tomorrow for Bnet regarding his latest book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know about Them).If you've got a question you think I should ask, leave a comment....

I'm on no quest to reject the penal substitutionary theory of the atonement (PSA). (I merely intend to dethrone it.) :-)  In fact, that's the understanding of Jesus' death that was taught to me in my youth group as a...

It's Good Friday, the day that we Christians "celebrate" -- actually, commemorate -- Jesus' crucifixion. For the last several years, in my little corner of Christianity, there's been lots of talk about the atonement -- that is, about what exactly...

Well, my time here at Claremont is just about up. I'm sitting in Mudd Auditorium, listening to the second of two public panels.  Here are my reflections, looking back on the last three days.First, I have to note that...

Sara weighs in on Original Sin: And now it's time for a woman's perspective on "original sin." Eve, the woman, fell for the snake's deceit. Eve, the woman, was a deceived transgressor, not Adam (1 Timothy 2:14). Eve, the woman,...

There's been a tasty little discussion here at The New Christians about turning the other cheek, and I was reminded of a moment in 10th grade -- the only time I know when I actually did it.  I was in...

More on the Sermon on the Mount, now from Mark Van Steewyk:Hrmpfh. I could write volumes in response to the different assumptions and assertions already popping up here. But I'll try to keep it brief. :) First of all, the...

Angela, on the Sermon on the Mount and martial arts:People are always telling me that when Jesus said "turn the other cheek" he meant "within reason," that when he said to carry the pack an extra mile, he meant "if...

The right-wing Christian Post picked up on the Dallas youth pastor fight club silliness, and did a follow-up interview with the Keysi Fighting Method instructor, Jeff McKissack.  CP picks up on my blog post,* then gets this odd defense from...

stormtrooper #274.52 objects to Brian's apologia for Pelagius:wow. I can't express how strongly I disagree with Brian's support for Pelagius' teachings. I find such theology to be soul-crushing, gospel-destroying, and faith-squelching. In my eyes, it truly amount to no less...

Hate....

I'm glad to see that my weekend quote of Dante stirred up some commentary.  Here's one, from Ben, followed by a response from me. (My apologies for Ben's masculine language.)I'm not sure how to understand Dante's use of "free will"...

For the sake of our discussion of Original Sin, commenter Brian has translated Romans 5 [UPDATE: it seems to be Romans 14-15] on our behalf.  Thanks, Brian!  (N.B., mean-spirited comments about his translation will be immediately deleted.  Thoughtful, albeit critical,...

Under Original Sin: Paul, Romans 5, and the Heart of the Issue, Emergent Pillage brings up a point that has vexed me for some time.  He (I assume EP is a "he") baldly asserts that if you think that Paul...

Under Original Sin: Paul, Romans 5, and the Heart of the Issue, Brian provides with a helpful primer to the various views of interpreting Romans:Romans is important to the conversation about the doctrine of "Original Sin" for several reasons. First,...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionI'll take a break on substantive posts on this topic over the weekend, and launch back in by tackling Romans on Monday.  (It is interesting how many commenters on the last post were unwilling to deal with...

Why does a close examination of the doctrine of Original Sin matter? Because it is the "foundation" upon which much other Western doctrine is based. Scott M, take it away: Hmmm. Part of the problem may be that we have...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionLet me start with some throat-clearing.  At least one friend and not a few commenters were bothered by the fact that I wrote about my own intuition before I started reflection on the biblical passages at play. ...