BrueggeBlog 6: First to the Jews, then to the Nations
Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy Okay, so I left a bit of a gap between posts 5 and 6. Sorry about that. For the sake of those…
What Are You Seeking?: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 19 January 2014
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 19 January 2014 (Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A) Isaiah 49:1-7 • Psalm 40:1-11 • 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 • John 1:29-42 First of all, so that nobody has to say…
Christian Humanist Profiles, Episode #4: Job Through the Ages
Perhaps no book in the Hebrew Bible is more disturbing, befuddling, and thought-provoking than The Book of Job. Believers and nonbelievers alike have wrestled like the ideas and emotions put…
BrueggeBlog 5: My Creatio ex Nihilo Copout
Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy I’m going to appropriate and extend Alasdair MacIntyre’s notion of a tradition here and posit that to be part of the tradition…
BrueggeBlog 4: Theological Dialectics
Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy Up to a certain point, reading one book of the Bible at a time (or, sometimes, one segment of one book of…
Signs of Life: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 27 October 2013
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 27 October 2013 (Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, Year C) Joel 2:23-32 and Psalm 65 • Sirach 35:12-17 or Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22 and Psalm 84:1-7 • 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 • Luke 18:9-14 Two things boggle my mind,…
BrueggeBlog 3: The Gospel of Plurality
Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy If the stories of the Biblical text are the core of the testimony (as I discussed in BrueggeBlog 2), certain questions arise:…
Becoming Israel: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 20 October 2013
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 20 October 2013 (Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost, Year C) Jeremiah 31:27-34 and Psalm 119:97-104 • Genesis 32:22-31 and Psalm 121 • 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 • Luke 18:1-8 When a passage in the Bible leaves us…
BrueggeBlog 2: God-Verbs
Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy My own Brueggemann revolution started with grammar: the main way that Israel articulates the core testimony about YHWH is in the form…
The Tenth: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 13 October 2013
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 13 October 2013 (Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost, Year C) Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 and Psalm 66:1-12 • 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c and Psalm 111 • 2 Timothy 2:8-15 • Luke 17:11-19 Sometimes Biblical passages just beg…
BrueggeBlog 1: Back into the Biblical Theology Fray
Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy There are all sorts of good things about defending one’s dissertation. I never have to correct a student again when he addresses…
What Habakkuk Saw: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings from 6 October 2013
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 6 October 2013 (20th Sunday after Pentecost, Year C) Lamentations 1:1-6 and Lamentations 3:19-26 or Psalm 137 • Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 and Psalm 37:1-9 • 2 Timothy 1:1-14 • Luke 17:5-10 Habakkuk is one of those short…
Holding the Truth: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 29 September 2013
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 29 September 2013 (19th Sunday after Pentecost, Year C) Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 and Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16 • Amos 6:1a, 4-7 and Psalm 146 • 1 Timothy 6:6-19 • Luke 16:19-31 As I often do, I’m…
Quiet but Never Silenced: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 22 September 2013
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 22 September 2013 (18th Sunday after Pentecost, Year C) Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 and Psalm 79:1-9 • Amos 8:4-7 and Psalm 113 • 1 Timothy 2:1-7 • Luke 16:1-13 Yes, it’s been a while since I wrote…
Jesus, History, and Interpretation: A Response to Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan 272 pp. Random House. $27.00. I’ll say this up front: New Testament Studies is a hard discipline. Its difficulty comes…