evolving in monkey town by rachel held evans

3 August 2010 — art

rachel held evans has given us all a gift in her book evolving in monkey town: how a girl who knew all the answers learned to ask the questions. the reason that the book is a gift is not just because it is intelligently written or because it is well written (or because it literally was a ‘gift’ to me…thanks rachel!), but because it represents a journey of faith with which many people in our generation can identify.

doubt, which is something usually frowned upon within the evangelical community, can actually be a healthy experience for believers. in some cases, as in rachel’s case (and my case and, i imagine, many other people’s cases), doubt can actually save one’s faith. throughout rachel’s journey, which started in an evangelical home Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Book Review. Tags: , , , , , , , . 2 Comments »

buy this man a beer

2 August 2010 — art

chaplain mike nails it once again.

i haven’t read the comments because, much like books published by crossway, i promised myself i wouldn’t waste my time with comment threads anymore. i’m nearly positive, however, that mike will get some push back and people will, quite strangely (if predictably), start a fight about mike not wanting to fight anymore.

i find posts like mike’s encouraging for me. it shows me that there is new, and vocal, generation of people who love jesus, want to serve the church and the world, and who also don’t want to get caught up in these petty fights over issues that people claim lay at the center of our faith.

perhaps it’s a bit reductionistic, but i don’t remember isaiah, jesus, paul, or any of the biblical authors stressing faith in a 144 hour creation.

what i do remember, however, is these biblical authors stressing how to live by faith in god and, by the spirit, living as a new creation.

i’d much rather spend my time worrying, thinking, writing, talking, and doing the latter. i’m glad that people like chaplain mike and rachael held evans (whose book he references and whose book i will be reviewing tomorrow) feel the same way. if i ever meet either of them, drinks are on me.

Posted in Christian Life, Hebrew Bible, Old Testament, Science. Tags: , , , , , , , . 4 Comments »

fight!!!

19 July 2010 — art

chaplain mike has an interesting rant over on internet monk that was emailed to me this morning. i think mike is onto something in this post and it’s something that i’ve been thinking about for a while.

one of the reasons that this blog has fallen silent over the past few months has been because i have been working 40 hours a week as coordinator of the princeton dead sea scrolls project. but there is another reason:

i’m completely sick of fighting.

i just don’t care anymore. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Pipes Cigars and Alcohol (PCA), Reflections, WTS, You Down With the OPC. 34 Comments »

ron hendel and sbl

9 July 2010 — art

unless you’ve been ignoring the biblioblogosphere for the past few weeks, you probably didn’t miss ron hendel’s piece on sbl. for more back and forth and other blogger’s take on the issue, see john hobbins’ blog.

i don’t really know where i stand on the issue. it’s a good job nobody asked me to take a stand, so i’m in no hurry to hold a firm conviction on the issue. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in SBL. Leave a Comment »

national tv, amazon best seller, & silence?

9 July 2010 — art

darryl hart as written an interesting piece on westminster theological seminary’s current president’s appearance on glenn beck and some of the surrounding issues.

the utter silence coming from westminster philadelphia about this whole situation is telling. like darryl points out in his post, it seems odd that an institution would not highlight (or shout from the mountaintops) the fact that their president was a guest on a popular, nationally televised tv show and that his book was also the number one selling book on amazon.com.

the silence can mean many things, as silence often can, but one has to wonder if the seminary is embarrassed by the appearance of their president on a program hosted by a mormon with far-right political leanings. why else would they not highlight this situation or send out an email alert to students, alumni, and friends of the seminary?

it all seems very odd, yet no one is really talking about this situation openly. is there a gag order in effect?

Posted in No Politics at the Dinner Table, Pipes Cigars and Alcohol (PCA), WTS. 1 Comment »

glenn beck: defended

1 June 2010 — art

i cannot argue with this in depth defense of glenn beck’s understanding of the dead sea scrolls. well done, sir.

Posted in dead sea scrolls. Tags: , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments »

glenn beck is an idiot: dead sea scroll edition

27 May 2010 — art

today on his radio show, glenn beck came up with this hilarious recap of history (you can listen to the particular clip here). and, no, i don’t listen to glenn beck. i found out that he said something about the dead sea scrolls via twitter and checked it out.

he brought up the dead sea scrolls and said that not many people know why the dead sea scrolls exist. he then goes onto explain the dead sea scrolls (my own transcript follows): Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in dead sea scrolls. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . 36 Comments »

bird on phillips

15 April 2010 — art

michael bird says it better than i can. in my mind, phillips represents the very worst of conservative presbyterianism and does so as a pastor. if my pastor wrote nonsense like this i would be running from my church faster than wts or rts let go of professors, which is quite fast these days.

Posted in Bruce Waltke, Hebrew Bible, NT's Use of the OT, Peter Enns, Pipes Cigars and Alcohol (PCA). Tags: , , , , . 4 Comments »

ipad review

13 April 2010 — art

after nearly two weeks of living with my ipad, i thought it was enough time to write a review. i didn’t want to write it too soon and suffer from being overly positive and being blind to the shortcomings. i also didn’t want to wait too long so that a review would no longer be interesting. so, with that prelude, here we go. i’m going to start with an overview, move onto the shortcomings, and end with some of my thoughts.

i’m sure a majority (if not all) of you have probably read some overviews of the ipad, so i don’t want to beat a dead horse. bottom line: it’s beautiful. the display is really sharp, the form feels great in your hands or lap, Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in MacGeek. Tags: , , , . 15 Comments »

waltke resigns from rts

6 April 2010 — art

reformed theological seminary just made the announcement:

Dr. Bruce Waltke from the RTS Orlando campus has resigned from his position as Professor of Old Testament and will no longer be making his annual trek from the West Coast to teach his winter and early spring classes in Orlando.

Posted in Bruce Waltke, Pipes Cigars and Alcohol (PCA). Tags: , , , , . 9 Comments »
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