Back to the Garden

The wild ass is a recurring theme throughout the Old Testament. It is impossible to know for sure, but it is likely that this refers to the now-extinct Wild Syrian Ass. This specimen was once ubiquitous across the Arabian peninsula and, while being the smallest member of the equidae family, was compared to the thoroughbred in strength and beauty - though it was impossible to domesticate. In Genesis 16, the angel of the Lord proclaims in an oracle that Ishmael will be a 'wild ass of a man' after Sarah had forced Hagar and the child into the wilderness. Job frequently cites the wild ass in his lamentations and is pointed to the wild ass by God as an example of one of the many creatures that God has established and sustained even in the harsh conditions of the wilderness (cf. Job 39). The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Hosea also reference the wild ass - predominately in the context of other judgment, wilderness, and desolation oracles and metaphors. (cf. Hosea 8:9, Dani...

( Readers may be aware that I began this blog to help me think through my graduate thesis on the work of Stanley Hauerwas. I handed it in tonight, here is the conclusion which may serve as a brief overview for anybody who is interested in what I've been writing about these past months. ) Stanley Hauerwas always claims that he neither has a position to defend nor is he intelligent enough to come up with a position to defend. [1] Yet, there are characteristic ways in which Hauerwas does theology and it is my hope that I have at least been able to describe the particular imagination that Hauerwas displays in trying to show the difference that Jesus makes to how the church is to live and think. That Jesus matters for Christian theology and ethics should be part of the definition of these practices, yet so often this has failed to be the case. In attempts to be ‘relevant’ or ‘rational’ in modernity, theology, especially in North America, has often abandoned the particular claims of ...

"But this  is how it is - " I say to myself over and over again. I feel as though, if only I could fix my gaze absolutely sharply on this fact, get it in focus, I must grasp the essence of the matter. ( Philosophical Investigations, I, 113)  This is truly the madness of writing. Deadlines loom, "w ords strain, crack and sometimes break, under the burden, under the tension, slip, slide, perish, decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, will not stay still," and I am unmade.

I cannot believe in God, that is why I study theology. Ben Myers once wrote: Theologians are people for whom the Christian faith is especially difficult, incomprehensible, infuriating. As a rule they are not especially talented or spiritually adept individuals. They are people whose minds have been hurt by God, and they are restlessly searching for – what? Healing perhaps, or catharsis? To expect so much from the study of theology would be futile or even dangerous. At any rate there is no lack of opportunities for theological catharsis: often our worship services seem calculated to remove the difficulty of believing, to make God easy and accessible, more a cure than a wasting sickness. Perhaps then we should define theologians like this: They are people for whom even the Christian worship service does not provide adequate catharsis of the hurtfulness of God.  That is why, as a general rule, you should try to show kindness to theologians. Not because they are necessarily exemp...

This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you; in them I am trying to arouse your sincere intention by reminding you that you should remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken through your apostles. First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!” They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world of that time was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless. (2 Peter 3:1-7) Remembering, this is the practice that produces a people tha...

On November 24, Providence will host its annual Provf Talks which are a series of short lectures put on by the faculty of Providence UC modeled after the popular TED talks. One of the lectures, delivered by a member of the Business Faculty is entitled "The Christian Case for Capitalism." This appears as nothing less than a theological exegesis and rationale for the current "strategic moves" Providence has recently made with the launch of their Buller Business School and Impact 2020. If the literature is to believed, this new addition to the academic offerings of Providence UC will amount to nothing less than the securing of the future success of the school as it moves to a position of pre-eminence on the Canadian academic landscape. But Providence is a Christ-centered institution. Having attended there for the better part of a decade now, it would seem that  there is indeed something to the claim that Jesus is central to the life and work of this institution. So ...

Evangelical Christians ( by "Evangelical Christians" I am using the term in the sense that modern demographers use it, not in its more theo-historical usage that describes the evangelical activity of the church catholic ) are well known for their strict sexual ethic. In fact, this might be the main thing known about them in the popular imagination. Evangelicals don't have sex before marriage, don't believe in abortion, insist on abstinence only sex-ed, are against gay marriage, and have the highest teen pregnancy rates in America. It is easy to caricature evangelical sexual ethics and too often evangelical institutions get themselves into trouble with the media over their positions on sexual ethical issues ( IVP , TWU , ETS , etc.). While it is easy to poke holes in the logic (or lack thereof) of much that passes for evangelical sexuality, I think this is getting the real issue exactly wrong. The real problem evangelicals have created for themselves is a latent form...