Does anyone else need a pick-me-up after at the end of November? After viewing the annual spectacle known as “black Friday,” I know I do. I typically feel like Charlie Brown at this time of year. I need something more than crass commercialism to get me into the real spirit of Christmas. I’ve found that there’s nothing quite like a rousing rendition of “O Holy Night” to renew one’s yuletide cheer.
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Daker Is No Faker
If you don’t know who John Daker is, you are about to find out. Before I introduce you to him, however, you should know that I am one of his biggest fans. As a matter of fact, I like his singing so much that I play his video performance for my students about once a semester. That is why I want to share it with you also.
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Should College Administrators Blog?
The New York Times has an interesting story about college and university presidents who blog. The story is titled “Erasing Divide, College Leaders Take to Blogging.” The story explores the risks that a leader takes whenever he/she decides to keep a blog:
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McCain’s Baggage Going in to 2008
Senator John McCain has always been sort of a gadfly within the Republican party, and I think this fact will create some difficulties for him as he runs for President in 2008. Many conservatives have had persistent questions about his conservative bona fides, and Hugh Hewitt writes about what may very well be the heaviest baggage that McCain carries into 2008:
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Back from Washington, D.C.
I have been out of pocket for the last week or so as I was attending the 58th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) in Washington, D.C. I just returned Sunday night and am getting back in the saddle on this blog. I have already posted a brief response to all of you who have commented on the paper that I presented at the conference. In this post, I thought I would like to share just a few overall reflections concerning my trip to D.C.
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Epilogue on the Apostle Paul and Anti-Americanism
Thanks to all of you who have responded to the paper that I presented last week at the 58th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) in Washington, D.C. I have received helpful feedback/critiques from both those who attended my presentation and from those who read this blog. I already knew that my paper would be controversial, and this hunch was confirmed during my presentation in one telling moment.
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Is the Apostle Paul Anti-American? (Part 4)
Today is the last day of the 58th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, and I will be presenting my paper on the “Fresh Perspective” on Paul. For a limited time, I am going to make that paper available here. If you would like to download and read the entire presentation, you can do so at the following link: “The ‘Fresh Perspective’ on Paul: A Theology of Anti-Americanism” – by Denny Burk
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Is the Apostle Paul Anti-American? (Part 3)
In two of my previous posts I have been discussing what N. T. Wright has dubbed a “Fresh Perspective” on the apostle Paul. What we have seen is that the Fresh Perspective (FP) reads Paul’s gospel as a confrontation with the Roman Empire. This confrontation implies a confrontation with all empires, including the so-called American empire of the current day. Today I want to consider whether this reading of Paul’s letters finds any resonance in evangelicalism and whether it will provide Evangelicals with a more faithful way to interpret the Bible.
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Is the Apostle Paul Anti-American? (Part 2)
In yesterday’s post I introduced the so-called “Fresh Perspective” (FP) on Paul and some of the antagonistic things that these scholars are saying about America. Today, I want to explain why it is that these biblical scholars say what they say in opposition to the United States. The FP holds as axiomatic at least two assumptions, with a third assumption being increasingly advocated in the literature. First, it is assumed that emperor worship was pervasive in Paul’s missionary context. FP interpreters note that the emperor cult of Paul’s day was the ideological glue that held the Roman empire together.
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Is the Apostle Paul Anti-American? (Part 1)
Is the Apostle Paul anti-American? This is the question that I will be addressing in a paper that I am presenting this week at the 58th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) in Washington, D. C., the theme of which is “Christians in the Public Square.” Theologues who are familiar with the latest fads in biblical interpretation are familiar with what is known as the “New Perspective” on Paul. There has been so much ink spilled over this way of reading Paul’s letters, that I hardly need to rehearse that discussion here.