A Thinking Reed

  • Jesus and the gospel of God’s coming reign

    I’ve been sick for the past week or so, which hasn’t left much extra energy for blogging. But I want to get back to (and hopefully wrap up!) my series on R. Kendall Soulen’s The God of Israel and Christian Theology. Previously, we’ve seen that Soulen tries to re-cast the biblical narrative as one of…

  • Prong, “Whose Fist Is This Anyway?”

  • Libertarianism and the politics of human frailty

    Jim Henley, who’s long been one of my favorite bloggers, has been writing a really interesting series of posts touching on aspects of his defection from libertarianism toward a more liberal/social-democratic politics. In his most recent post, Jim wonders if libertarianism is “an inevitably temporary political outlook.” He notes that many people seem to “outgrow”…

  • Machine Head, “A Thousand Lies”

    This is from their epic 1994 debut “Burn My Eyes.” Their new album “Unto the Locust,” a follow-up to 2007’s excellent “The Blackening,” comes out next week. I’m probably looking forward to it more than any other metal release this year. (Well, maybe neck-and-neck with Anthrax and Mastodon.)

  • The story so far…

    In the eighth and final chapter of The God of Israel and Christian Theology, R. Kendall Soulen provides a helpful summary of the argument thus far, which I’m going to quote at length: The gospel is the story of the God of Israel’s victory in Jesus over powers that destroy. Just so, God’s victory in…

  • Redemption for the sake of blessing

    If the great theme of the Bible is one of blessing, it can’t be denied that sin, or curse, and redemption is an important sub-theme. The God who is Consummator is also Redeemer and Deliverer. So how should this theme fit into the canonical narrative that Soulen is proposing as an alternative to the traditional…

  • Blessing and difference

    In the second part of The God of Israel and Christian Theology, R. Kendall Soulen provides the outline of an alternative framework for reading the Bible that, he argues, avoids the supersessionism inherent to the traditional canonical narrative. Key to this is a reorientation of the narrative away from the drama of sin and redemption.…

  • King’s X, “Black the Sky”

    (Continuing my exploration of the King’s X back catalogue.) For their fifth studio album, King’s X took a slight turn from their signature progressive, soulful hard rock toward a heavier, more grunge-influenced sound. No doubt this was in part due to hooking up with storied producer Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, etc.). The result, 1994’s…

  • What you see is what you get

    Parts of the Internet are abuzz with some dumb comments made by filmmaker and lefty gadfly Michael Moore about Presdient Obama “governing like a white guy.” The racist nature of these comments aside, what continues to surprise me is how many people apparently thought they were electing a wild-eyed liberal when they voted for Obama.…

  • Supersessionism and the flight from history

    R. Kendall Soulen brings the first, critical part of his God of Israel and Christian Theology to a close with two chapters on early modern and 20th-century theology, respectively. In chapter 3 he examines the thought of two influential thinkers who tried to reconcile the core of Christian belief with the worldview of the Englightenment–Immanuel…