A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Bible

  • Michael Ramsey on “demythologizing” the Bible

    From Ramsey’s* God, Christ, and the World (pp. 48-49): Demythologizing was taking place in the apostolic age. In the teaching of Jesus there were pictures of a future coming of the Son of Man on the clouds and of the establishment of a divine kingdom described in vivid apocalyptic imagery with the details of a Read more

  • Fact, metaphor, and the Bible: the case of the Resurrection

    “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.” – St. Paul I’m trying to get clear on the extent to which I disagree with Marcus Borg’s take on the “metaphorical” nature of the Bible, so I thought it might be useful to look at his treatment of the Resurrection of Jesus. Borg writes Read more

  • Heart of Christianity 3 – Bible

    Unlike his take on faith, I found Borg’s treatment of the Bible surprisingly weak. He starts out by saying that Christianity is centered on the Bible because it points to God, but that the Bible has become a stumbling block for many because of biblical literalism. Literalism, according to Borg, puts an undue emphasis on Read more

  • Countryman: Principles for a Christian sexual ethic

    We saw earlier that Countryman argues that we can’t, because of the vast gulf that separates our social world from those of the Bible, simply apply “the Biblical ethic” to contemporary concerns. But does that mean that the Bible has nothing to say to us regarding sexual ethics? By no means! First, as already mentioned, Read more

  • Countryman on modern individualism

    One of the main reasons we can’t simply apply the “Biblical” sexual ethic (or ethics!) to our contemporary world, argues Countryman in Dirt, Greed & Sex (see the previous post), is that we have gone from a family-centered society to an individual-centered one. The property ethic that governed sexual relations in the ancient world existed Read more

  • Dirt, Greed & Sex

    Having been stuck at home for the better part of a week, I’ve had ample time to catch up on my reading. One book I finally got around to was L. William Countryman’s Dirt, Greed & Sex, a study of the sexual ethics of the New Testament. Countryman–a professor of New Testament and an Episcopalian–focuses Read more

  • “Lord who saves man and beast”

    Lord, your unfailing love reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the lofty mountains, your justice like the great deep; Lord who saves man and beast, how precious is your unfailing love! – Ps. 36:5-6 (Revised English Version) Read more

  • OT bleg

    Any readers have recommendations for secondary material on the Book of Daniel? I’m looking for something a bit more specific than a typical commentary: information on the history of its reception and/or interpretation. Any book- or article-length suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Read more

  • Stumbling blocks

    There’s a good interview with Francis Collins, author of The Language of God, at Books & Culture. This passage in particular struck a chord with me: You take both the Bible and evolution seriously. Did the harmony you find between evolution and your faith just come naturally? You know, it really did. When I became Read more

  • Cognitive ethology, the Left, faith, and dominion

    A long but worthwhile essay that to some extent recapitulates the argument made by John Gray in Straw Dogs. Gray’s contention was that the secular Left has largely jettisoned the metaphysics of Christianity but held on to its anthropocentric outlook and belief in a progressive history. Echoing Nietzsche, Gray argues that the scientific, secular outlook Read more