Sin needs to be demoted from its status as the dominant Christian metaphor for what’s wrong among us.
Roman imperial theology is the oppositional context for much of early Christian language about Jesus. The gospels, Paul’s letters, and the other New Testament writings use the language of imperial the...
Rather, the language of divine agency here emphasizes the theme of God’s grace: God provided the sacrifice.
He was not, then, in any shape or form, anti-Jewish. Jesus clearly knew that there was a wide spectrum of belief and practice among his contemporaries; nevertheless, like the biblical prophets before...
He points beyond himself to God—to God’s character and passion. This is the meaning of our christological language and our credal affirmations about Jesus: in this person we see the revelation of God,...
God has always been in relationship to us, journeying with us, and yearning to be known by us.
Do we think that peace on earth comes from Caesar or Christ? Do we think it comes through violent victory or nonviolent justice? Advent, like Lent, is about a choice of how to live personally and indi...
But having dominion over meant something very different from what it has often been understood to mean. It refers to the relationship between shepherd and sheep.
But believing something to be true has nothing to do with whether it is true.
And here I return to Christianity. Why be a Christian in the twenty-first century? Because it gives us a vision. And a hope. And a way. The language of the New Testament talks about the kingdom of God...
American Christians need especially to see the political meanings of these stories, for we live in a time of the American empire.
A perception of empire is found in an early Christian acrostic. An acrostic is a word made up of the first letters of each word in a phrase or sentence. In this case, the phrase is an early Christian...
When somebody says to me, I don’t believe in God, my first response is, Tell me about the God you don’t believe in. Almost always, it’s the God of supernatural theism.
What’s it all about, Alfie? Its lyrics are not particularly profound, but the question has stayed with me. What’s it all about? What’s life all about? What’s Christianity all about? What’s salvation a...
What was going on at the time? What were the circumstances that the author addressed? What did the author’s words and allusions mean in their ancient historical and literary setting? Without context,...
We face a similar choice each Christmas, and so each Advent is a time of repentance for the past and change for the future. Do we think that peace on earth comes from Caesar or Christ? Do we think it...
We do not think that Jesus thought that the purpose of his life, his vocation, was his death. His purpose was what he was doing as a healer, wisdom teacher, social prophet, and movement initiator. His...
Two statements about the nature of the gospels are crucial for grasping the historical task: (1) They are a developing tradition. (2) They are a mixture of history remembered and history metaphorized.
Thus, a fifth stroke in the sketch. Jesus was a first-century Jewish prophet announcing the kingdom of God, believing that this kingdom was inaugurated with his own work, summoning others to join him...
This relationship with God, and all that flows from it, are the purpose of the Christian life. The invitation of the Christian gospel is to enter into that relationship in which our healing and wholen...