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In his Pensées, Blaise Pascal says starkly that “Jesus will be agony until the end of the world.” This arcane yet profound statement reaches toward the ongoing meaning of the pro nobis mystery of Christ, gesturing toward a union between the particularity of historical redemption and the ongoing travail of the church and cosmos. This … Read more
Comparisons between Paul and Greco-Roman boasting is fairly well ploughed ground in both classical and NT studies. Similarly, the literary role of the “I AM” statements in the Gospel of John is well studied. Customarily, modern exegetes immediately jump from an “I AM” statement to its theological import, including perhaps how Jesus’ original listeners would … Read more
While many Christians show interest in studying and understanding Islam, some approach it from a sociopolitical and cultural lens, and others employ historical and theological approaches to comprehend the religion brought forth by Muhammad. One of the earliest and major Christian examples in engaging Islam was John of Damascus (c. 675–754). He identified Muslims as … Read more
In recognition of the growth of global Christianity, many biblical scholars and theologians have advocated opening the theological conversation to scholars outside the West. Publishers have begun to answer this call by increasingly publishing works on global exegesis and global theology (GT). This call has resulted in a variety of approaches toward the generally accepted … Read more
When John Stoughton (1807–1897) wrote about the English Baptist life in the first decades of the nineteenth century, the Norwich-born Congregationalist historian pointed out how “the hypercalvinistic controversy, the communion controversy, and the Serampore controversy” had impacted members of the Baptist sect. As an outgrowth of the first controversy, the life of the Baptist Missionary … Read more
In 2014 aerial photography revealed a submerged structure in Lake Iznik. The following year Mustafa Şahin, head of the Archaeology Department at Uludaǧ University in Bursa, began work at the site. It was immediately clear that the structure was a Christian Basilica and excavations suggested that the basilica was constructed in the fourth century. Of … Read more
In the generation or so since the foundational work of Robert Alter, Adele Berlin, and others, narrative and artistic literary analysis has come into its own as a profitable and popular field of study alongside more formal and genre approaches to reading psalms. In this paper, I integrate and synthesize the linguistic, discourse, formal, and … Read more
The Christian tradition has historically affirmed the priority and foundational nature of the literal sense for interpretation. However, the literal sense is one of the most slippery phrases in the history of interpretation. To say that one interprets literally doesn’t say much about how one interprets. This paper will overview what modern people mean by … Read more
This is a co-authored proposal with Chad Parker. If this project doesn’t fit within Global Evangelicalism, please consider it for Open Sessions – Christianity and Culture. This project proposes a dialogue with the concepts of hybrid identities (as developed in postcolonial theory) and technological social formation (i.e., media as an influence upon human behavior, institutions, … Read more
Christian theology has traditionally spoken of creation as a book, a means of revelation that can be metaphorically read by human creatures for a variety of purposes. The thirteenth century theologian Bonaventure takes up this tradition, giving the book of creation a significant place in his theology. He understands revelation to be the purpose of … Read more