On the Feb 7 episode of the Russell Moore Show podcast, Russell interviewed poet and Yale Divinity School professor Christian Wiman. Among other things, Wiman talked about the book of Job and mentioned the Gospel of Mark in passing when reflecting on Job. That caught my ear because I too have noticed the similarity of …
Yesterday (Nov 26) marked the end of the church calendar as it is observed in the Western church. It was also my saint day, in the Eastern church; thanks be to God for St James the Solitary. Our son invited us down to Omaha on Saturday night for dinner at a southern style restaurant (shrimp …
This week I want to continue pondering the implications of the resurrection, this time focusing on the bodily resurrection. The theological importance of bodily resurrection did not become fully obvious until Christianity moved beyond the Levant into Asia Minor and Greece, where the Semitic understanding of the world was far less significant and Greek and …
Every few years during my youth some church or community group would put together a living Nativity scene. No one ever tried to get a camel, although I suspect a Bactrian camel would have done just fine in our northern Montana winters. Cows and sheep were plentiful. The problem was always the donkey. Phillips County …
Continue reading Ox and Ass Before Him Bow (A Story of the Donkey Church)
“O come, Desire of nations, bind / all peoples in one heart and mind; / Bid envy, strife, and discord cease; / fill the whole world with heaven’s peace. / Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!” This is but one of the many verses of the hymn, “O come, O come, Emmanuel.” …
1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. 2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. …
I am a fan of Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujah, in spite of the fact that it is an utterly incomprehensible jumble of mostly biblical images that are mashed up in an illogical manner. It still, somehow, comes together into a truly great and mournful “love is hard and confusing” meditation. One of the things that …
Reading the Daily Common Lectionary, which is going through Hebrews at the moment, I am reminded that there are different metaphors for salvation, and those metaphors are not necessarily compatible with each other. If the metaphors are taken too literally or too far it will appear that there are contradictions within scripture. The four big …
I became acquainted with the Angolan novelist Ondjaki in an interview not long after he won the Jose Saramago prize in 2013. The interviewer asked if the stories in the earlier Good Morning Comrades, and the award winning Gramma Nineteen and the Soviet's Secret were true. Ondjaki carefully didn't answer the question. Later when reading …
One would think the creationism/evolutionism debate would just go away, but it hasn't. I have been surprised at how many staunch creationists still exist. They're not noisy for the most part, but when they find out I used to be a pastor, they assume that I must be a creationist also. Because of the persistence …
Continue reading Creationism: We’re Still Arguing About This?
Just Another Jim 