By: Mary Pandiani on February 5, 2015
Pastor Ron was a Lutheran pastor in the Salishan/Eastside area of Tacoma, known for its gang affiliation, poverty, and high crime rate. He saw himself more of a parish priest who emphasized the strengths and assets of a community when they rallied together over yet another gang shooting. He ministered all over the city from…
By: Jon Spellman on February 5, 2015
Public Theology So, what did the disciples hear Jesus say? While we have a written record of many things spoken by him,what they heard him say was undoubtedly different than what was recorded and preserved in the biblical texts. Without being present with them, smelling the air, tasting the tastes, feeling the textures of the…
By: Nick Martineau on February 5, 2015
Stephen Bevans, Models of Contextual Theology, David Neville’s, The Bible, Justice and Public Theology, and Kathryn Tanner’s, Spirit in the Cities have given me plenty to think about and in a good uncomfortable way they have reminded me that thinking/talking about these things just aren’t enough. I first read Bevans and was drawn in by…
By: Dave Young on February 4, 2015
The list of terms seems endless—contextual theology, public theology, practical theology, pastoral theology—how can we make sense of it all? The three books under discussion (Models of Contextual Theology; The Bible, Justice and Public Theology; and Spirit in the Cities) clearly claimed that theology isn’t just for the Academy or for dusty libraries. It must…
By: Miriam Mendez on February 3, 2015
As I read “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind” I could not stop thinking of the following sentence: “If we want critical societies we must create them.”[1] Do you remember this sentence? It is the last sentence found in our first reading assignment, “The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools.” This short but…
By: Clint Baldwin on February 2, 2015
Noll’s 1994 Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and his subsequent 2011 Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind are a bit akin to a longitudinal qualitative study or two peas in a pod. Personally, I prefer folksier image (that’s the second one, in case you weren’t sure). Noll, now famously, starts off his earlier…
By: Julie Dodge on February 1, 2015
That little quote has always driven me nuts. It’s not that it isn’t necessarily true. It is the false attribution by far too many Christ followers about what God really said. All too often, we attribute our interpretation of what God said to be the actual fact without leaving any room for debate. Evangelical Christian…
By: Travis Biglow on February 1, 2015
The Economic Evolution January 31st 2015 While at time the details in The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of our Time got a little cumbersome it was interesting to read how economical institutions flourished and survived. Looking at the way power and countries came together and how society internationally bonded was interesting. While…
By: Bill Dobrenen on January 31, 2015
I will never forget a talk I heard while at a summer camp when I was in junior high. The speaker’s name was Ron; I don’t remember his last name. He was teaching about who Jesus Christ was. “Jesus was God in a Bod.” Although I had heard that before in different terms, being raised…
By: Richard Volzke on January 31, 2015
Noll in his book, Jesus Christ And The Life Of The Mind, states that, “For Christian believers who pursue an academic vocation, Paul’s letter to the Colossians should be a central text, especially for how it expands upon the Christ-centered creation of the world.” [1] From this Scripture, we can model Paul’s example as one…
By: Dawnel Volzke on January 30, 2015
The economic historian, Karl Polanyi, in his book The Great Transformation, looked at the world’s economy from the days of agriculture to the market based system that we have today. His book provides great insight into the impact that the market based economy has had and could have on nations. “It is indispensable for understanding…
By: Mitch Arbelaez on January 30, 2015
Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. Though Noll wrote the book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind regarding the neglect of Evangelicals to intellectual discipline, I have lived it. Sitting around the table hearing statements that I knew were not logically, historically, or possibly not even scripturally sound. I…
By: John Woodward on January 30, 2015
The Church has always struggled with what question of how to be in the world but not of the world. The question might better be asked: How engaged should a Christian be in the things of this world? Throughout history, numerous responses have been given to this question, from one of extreme of total withdraw…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on January 30, 2015
From its start, Ethiopian Evangelical Christianity has exhibited strong emphases on key characteristics of evangelicalism such as “the need for a supernatural new birth, profess faith in the Bible as a revelation from God, encourage spreading the gospel through missions and personal evangelism, and emphasize the saving character of Jesus’ death and resurrection”(p.9). Denominations who…
By: Jon Spellman on January 30, 2015
Not Sure If I’m OK With This. Adam Smith suggested that the division of labor in society was dependent upon the existence of markets, or, as he put it, upon man’s “propensity to barter, truck and exchange one thing for another.” This phrase was later to yield the concept of the Economic Man. In retrospect…
By: Michael Badriaki on January 30, 2015
In the opening of Noll book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, the author writes, “the scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.”[1] This can seem offensive, if a person decides to be fixated on that sentence, the book would appear to be a negative critique of evangelicalism.…
By: Carol McLaughlin on January 30, 2015
Some years ago the dynamic duo of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler returned to Saturday Night Live,[1] their skit replicated an interview that Katie Couric had done w/ then Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. I could not stop laughing; it was (and remains) a classic comedy sketch. Tina Fey as Sarah Palin bounced from topic to…
By: Brian Yost on January 30, 2015
In his book The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, Karl Polanyi paints a fascinating picture of the history and inherent pitfalls of our capitalist systems. One area that Polanyi stresses is the concept of a self-regulating market. He is quick to point out that “market economy if left to evolve…
By: Liz Linssen on January 29, 2015
I remember clearly the afternoon our son, Ben, came home after one science class enthusiastically telling us what he had learned that afternoon in high school: the wonder of the Bacterium Flagellum Motor, a motor that has to be magnified 50,000 times to become visible to the eye, complete with drive shaft, propeller, hook region…
By: Ashley Goad on January 29, 2015
When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began…
