The Great I AM

After a long sabbatical, the evangelical art critic is back!  Plans are brewing for a full-scale analysis of evangelical kitsch.  But for now, I’ve been thinking about the scene in Exodus 3, where YHWH tells Moses that he must go to Pharaoh and demand to him that he let the Israelites go from bondage to [...]

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A City Built Upon a Hill? Political Rhetoric, Imperialism, and American Exceptionalism

On our Election Day last month, I woke up, put on my sandals and a jacket, and walked across the street to cast my vote in the presidential election. My expression of democratic freedom marked the end of a three month stretch, in which I along with many others have been saturated with blather [...]

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Least Favorite Book of the New Testament?

I’m interested to see what people think about the New Testament.
Feel free to share reasons in the comments!

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The New Testament and Culture

This semester, the students in my New Testament as Literature class are going to be completing a group project in which they develop a literary critical reading of the New Testament and apply it to some cultural situation, text, or artifact.  I plan on writing this essay alongside them.  I thought it would be interesting [...]

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The Word of God in the Age of the Toyota Prius

*Special thanks to Stephen Greenblatt, whose clever palimpsest of Walter Benjamin may be the best title formula ever.
It’s time to discard your old Bible and purchase the new HarperCollins Green Bible.  That’s right, the Bible, much like just about everything else in our culture these days, is going green.  It has gone green.  No wait, that’s [...]

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Mark: A Contest of Understanding

I love the Gospel of Mark because it suggests that we are incapable of understanding Jesus. Even if we were capable, we aren’t allowed access to this privileged understanding. The entire Gospel poses the existence and message of Jesus as a mystery that one should not grasp, as Robert Frost understands:
I have kept hidden at [...]

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Central Christian Church in the Wake of Brad Fletcher, Revisited

I had no idea that people actually read this blog.  Those who have in the past might have encountered my diatribe on a recent homily in Central Christian church, which I’ve deleted because those associated with Central Christian have found it to be a voilation of the community our church seeks to maintain.  I apologize [...]

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The End…Is Near: Don Thompson’s Apocalyptic Nightmare

If it seems like this blog is plowing along, that’s because it is. It’s the end of the semester, and I’m in an apocalyptic mood, not because I have a bunch of term papers due, but because I’m teaching my least favorite book of the New Testament, the Revelation. One member of my Sunday School [...]

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Open Forum: What Was Paul’s ‘Thorn in his Flesh?’

In II Corinthians, Paul speaks of a mysterious ‘thorn’ in his flesh:
“Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, taht it would leave [...]

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Happy Trails, Nickel Creek

Has anyone else noticed that Nickel Creek is breaking up (at least for now)?  I probably wouldn’t have noticed if Nickel Creek’s “Farewell (For Now)” Tour weren’t making a stop at the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center, which I bike past every morning on the way to work.  According to the band members, Nickel Creek [...]

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