Gospel Trajectories

One of the first books I read on the Ten Commandments was written by Harrelson.  It dealt with the potential connection between the Ten Commandments and human rights.  In the end, Harrelson concluded that if world governments incorporated the Ten Commandments into their respective legal systems the world would be more just.  He went on to suggest a paradigm for incorporating the Ten Commandments into legal systems.  Some of the commands, like ‘Thou shall not murder’ stayed th same.  Others, like ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me’ were transformed into something a bit less theological (or at least less biblical): ‘Do not have more than a single ultimate allegiance.’ While I can certainly appreciate much of Harrelson’s work, I think he goes too far in trying to adapt the Ten Commandments to something that might fit within a secular context.  God, after all, is the reason that the Ten Commandments make sense.  These are universal principles embed...

No reading of the biblical text or the world around us is free from influence.  We see the Scriptures and the world through a number of different lenses and multiple different perspectives.  While we are certainly capable of grasping truth or aspects of it, our understanding of the truth is limited by our own mental capacities and perspectives.  Truth is not relative.  It would be a mistake for us to make assumptions about the character of truth based on our ability to grasp it.  Truth exists.  It is knowable.  It just isn’t always easily knowable. As we consider what influences impact our reading of the Scriptures, I have found it helpful to break it down into four broad categories: (1) self, (2) society, (3) subject, and (4) Spirit.  These four influences are described below Self-  This category refers to those aspects of our personal identities that influence the manner in which we view the world.  Our experiences, relationships, ...

We don’t always think about the way that we use time as a means of demonstrating who God is.  I seldom feel that I have enough time, yet I don’t often think that I will run out of time either.  Time is, for me, something I tend to take for granted.  Time, despite my more relatively lackadaisical attitude toward it, is an important theological category.  One way in which time features in the biblical narrative is through sacred calendars incorporating events such as Sabbath, various festivals, the day of atonement and the year of Jubilee.  These events created an ongoing cadence for Israel in which the people of Israel were given the opportunity to recognize God and his continued role in the community. Sabbath, for instance, became a vehicle for Israel to remember the exodus from Egypt.  As opposed to their time in Egypt, which was characterized by unceasing layer that squeezed out worship so that Pharaoh could resource his realm, under God Israel is empow...

While it is certainly appropriate to understand space as a physical concept, the symbolic aspect of space is also significant.  Physical space does have an impact on the manner in which we view the world.  It creates and/or constrains the options we have before us by structuring the world and defining the options that we have before us.  The spaces we occupy are not neutral.  They have an impact on the way in which we see and experience the world.  They alert us of some issues while blinding us to others. Physical space is almost always interacting with symbolic space (one’s position in relation to others).  Part of the reason that physical space is so impactful is because of its connection to symbolic space, which establishes the boundaries and rules of space, what matters in that space, and what sort of skills we must develop to thrive within a given space.  Physical space and symbolic space are connected, but neither is logically prior to the othe...

As many benefits as community may bring, it would be a mistake to assume that being part of a community is all roses.  In addition to the inevitable miscommunications, frustrations, and hurts, communities have their own set of dynamics, unwritten rules that govern the behaviors of the community.  Often such dynamics are healthy and appropriate.  When we interact with one another, it is important to have some boundaries…community isn’t anarchy. At the same time, community dynamics do have their impact and influence on the way we think, what we do, and the values we adopt.  Our communities are bad (usually) or good, but they aren’t neutral either.  Communities help us and hinder us as we seek to understand God more faithfully.  They help us by challenging our individual perspectives, encouraging us, and providing social interactions.  They hinder us by creating artificial boundaries, selecting specific attributes or activies that are of value, or limit...

After completing my doctorate in Old Testament theology, one of the more frequent questions I get from people is about the relationship between the Old Testament law and Christians today.  Do we have to follow all the Old Testament laws?  If not, which ones are we required to follow?  How do we know? These questions are challenging and, in many ways complex.  I won’t be giving a full answer in this post; however, I do want to highlight an aspect of the discussion of Old Testament law that is often neglected.  Law is a form of literature.  It is not simply a set of statues, but a form of literature that reinforces the narratives and values of a particular culture.  While laws are often separate, isolated statements, they can also be imbedded within a broader written or oral narrative (as in the Old Testament). When we read Old Testament law, we do so recognizing that the Old Testament law as we have received it has been woven into a broader theologi...