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.
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ETS and the Evangelical Doctrine of Scripture
At the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), members gather to discuss and debate papers that are presented by its various and sundry members. Oftentimes, the papers that are presented are rather unremarkable (like this one), but sometimes they are quite provocative (like this one). For those of us who like theological polemics, this is an exciting forum.
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The End of Conservatism?
Paul Krugman of the New York Times is at least a little bit “giddy” about the results of last Tuesday’s elections. Krugman feels this way not just because the results marked the end of a Republican “reign of error,” but also because he believes “that this election marks the beginning of the end for the conservative movement that has taken over the Republican Party” (see Krugman’s Op-Ed, “The Great Revulsion“). I’m not convinced, however, that Krugman’s analysis of the election results is on target.
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The Politics of Jesus and the New Majority
Two thousand years ago, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, reproached Jesus’ silence with the following words, “You do not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify you?” Jesus’ response to Pilate’s challenge was clear and direct, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:10-11).
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Unholy Euphemism: “Induce Fetal Demise”
A euphemism is a figure of speech that substitutes a cultured or less offensive term for an offensive one. Everybody uses this figure of speech. It is so common that we hardly think about it. Every time you say “I am going to the bathroom,” you are using a euphemism that substitutes the report of what you actually intend to do with the room that you intend to do it in. There’s nothing wrong with euphemisms per se as they enable us to suffuse our speech with a certain decorum and respect.
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George W. Bush: God’s Whipping Boy?
I am fast becoming a big fan of S. M. Hutchens of Touchstone Magazine. Mr. Hutchens’ writes with an uncommon wit and insight that you just don’t see very often. In a recent post on Touchstone’s “Mere Comments” blog, Mr. Hutchens argues that liberals hate George W. Bush because they view him as a proxy for God. The essay is titled “God’s Whipping Boy,” and it says,