-
Join 47 other subscribers
RSS
Events
No upcoming events
Categories
- Bible-Theology (212)
- Culture-Economics-Society (99)
- Giffones in Lithuania (86)
- Links (72)
- Podcast (4)
- Research (115)
- Travels (34)
- Uncategorized (205)
Archives
- April 2023 (2)
- December 2022 (2)
- November 2022 (3)
- October 2022 (1)
- August 2022 (1)
- July 2022 (1)
- June 2022 (1)
- May 2022 (1)
- April 2022 (2)
- March 2022 (2)
- February 2022 (1)
- January 2022 (3)
- December 2021 (3)
- November 2021 (2)
- October 2021 (2)
- September 2021 (5)
- August 2021 (1)
- July 2021 (4)
- June 2021 (12)
- May 2021 (2)
- April 2021 (1)
- March 2021 (4)
- January 2021 (1)
- December 2020 (1)
- November 2020 (2)
- August 2020 (1)
- July 2020 (3)
- June 2020 (1)
- May 2020 (2)
- April 2020 (1)
- March 2020 (1)
- February 2020 (2)
- December 2019 (3)
- November 2019 (1)
- September 2019 (1)
- August 2019 (1)
- May 2019 (1)
- April 2019 (1)
- December 2018 (2)
- November 2018 (2)
- October 2018 (2)
- August 2018 (2)
- July 2018 (2)
- June 2018 (1)
- May 2018 (1)
- April 2018 (2)
- March 2018 (2)
- February 2018 (1)
- January 2018 (1)
- December 2017 (2)
- November 2017 (5)
- September 2017 (1)
- August 2017 (4)
- July 2017 (9)
- June 2017 (7)
- May 2017 (6)
- April 2017 (2)
- March 2017 (7)
- February 2017 (5)
- January 2017 (3)
- December 2016 (1)
- November 2016 (4)
- October 2016 (5)
- September 2016 (8)
- August 2016 (7)
- July 2016 (3)
- June 2016 (10)
- May 2016 (2)
- April 2016 (5)
- March 2016 (4)
- February 2016 (4)
- January 2016 (3)
- December 2015 (7)
- November 2015 (3)
- October 2015 (3)
- September 2015 (3)
- August 2015 (7)
- July 2015 (7)
- June 2015 (2)
- May 2015 (6)
- April 2015 (7)
- March 2015 (4)
- February 2015 (7)
- January 2015 (10)
- December 2014 (16)
- November 2014 (9)
- October 2014 (5)
- September 2014 (1)
- August 2014 (4)
- July 2014 (3)
- June 2014 (5)
- May 2014 (3)
- April 2014 (3)
- March 2014 (3)
- February 2014 (1)
- January 2014 (3)
- December 2013 (1)
- November 2013 (1)
- September 2013 (4)
- August 2013 (3)
- July 2013 (1)
- June 2013 (1)
- April 2013 (2)
- March 2013 (2)
- January 2013 (1)
- December 2012 (1)
- November 2012 (2)
- October 2012 (1)
- September 2012 (1)
- August 2012 (1)
- July 2012 (2)
- June 2012 (2)
- May 2012 (5)
- April 2012 (3)
- March 2012 (4)
- February 2012 (4)
- January 2012 (2)
- December 2011 (4)
- November 2011 (3)
- October 2011 (4)
- September 2011 (3)
- August 2011 (9)
- July 2011 (6)
- June 2011 (9)
- May 2011 (12)
- April 2011 (6)
- March 2011 (5)
- February 2011 (6)
- January 2011 (5)
- December 2010 (8)
- November 2010 (9)
- October 2010 (3)
- September 2010 (10)
- August 2010 (12)
- July 2010 (5)
- June 2010 (5)
- May 2010 (12)
- April 2010 (4)
- March 2010 (6)
- February 2010 (3)
- January 2010 (5)
- December 2009 (6)
- November 2009 (5)
- October 2009 (7)
- September 2009 (6)
- August 2009 (5)
- July 2009 (11)
- June 2009 (8)
- January 2009 (1)
- September 2008 (1)
- August 2008 (10)
- July 2008 (4)
Category Archives: Culture-Economics-Society
Kids, Teens, Worship, and Tech
I’ve been thinking and writing about technology and how it affects worship for quite a number of years. When I wrote a series about ‘online church’ and the importance of in-person worship during COVID, one of my main concerns was … Continue reading
Does the Old Testament Prescribe a ‘State’?
Genesis 47 is the part of the Joseph story that most people don’t remember, in which Joseph becomes a tyrant… Continue reading
New Article in Journal of Media and Religion
I’m pleased to announce the publication of an essay, coauthored with Jon Radwan of Seton Hall University, in the Journal of Media and Religion: “YouTubing Eudaimoniae? Pachamama, Inspiration, and Manipulation in Platonic and Biblical Rhetorics.” Here is the abstract: Rhetorical … Continue reading
Guest Post: Is COVID Bringing the Church to a Screeching Halt?
Our governments are against in-person Church attendance because congregating undermines their attempts to contain and subdue the pandemic that has thrown our world into such chaos. The Church needs not to be brave enough to defy the authorities merely for the sake of rebelling against human authorities. Neither should the Church be asleep when battles of cosmic nature are raging. Each congregation and believer need to seek out God’s will. When we know God’s will, we should be willing to lose our lives for the realization of that will; if we must heed the command to honor authorities and obey them, fine. However, we can still meet in our homes. In these small group settings, every member is indeed known, discipled, and held accountable to walk according to the calling they have received from God. Relationships flourish in small groups. Each person gets ample opportunity to exercise their gifts to build up the body in small groups. If we cannot meet in our thousands like we are used to, maybe God is drawing us back to what has worked in the past: house churches. The Bible warns that persecution will break out. Continue reading
COVID, Tech, and Church: Some Links
I’ve accumulated quite a few readings that relate to the church’s response to the pandemic, which is something I’ve been writing about in the last year. I’m trying to stay away from scientific topics per se, because I’m not a scientist–I’m a biblical scholar, a pastor, and (dare I say it) a theologian. Nevertheless, the limits and proper place of science in society is an issue that I feel needs to be addressed by the church exercising its prophetic witness in society. Continue reading
Performativity, Privacy, Scrutiny: More Concerns about “Online Church”
The concerns about performativity, privacy, and scrutiny are linked by this idea of maintaining proper boundaries between the church body and the rest of society. Just as the skin barrier that (imperfectly) protects a physical body is sometimes breached in a sterile, surgical theatre for the good of the body–so also the local church should reserve its space to be a hospital for human souls. Continue reading
Posted in Bible-Theology, Culture-Economics-Society
Tagged Church, covidchurch, Technology, Worship
Leave a comment
Write As Children of the Light
Our work as Christians within the academic system should be redemptive. For those of us at early stages of our career, perhaps this means that we should seek—never at the sacrifice of integrity, always resisting corruption and mediocrity—to obtain the credibility within the system that would allow us to make reforms. Those in middle or later stages of their careers may take more active steps to restructure systems of publishing, to lift up and reward others for talent and virtue, and perhaps even to create alternate structures where God’s truth can be drawn out into the light, where all can benefit. Continue reading
Posted in Bible-Theology, Culture-Economics-Society, Research
Tagged Old Testament, ResearchChristianly
2 Comments
“Ancient” Re-Post: Screens, Fatherhood and Distractions
Screens let me be “present” in some limited way with my sister and her husband across the country or across the world. But they also make me absent from those actually in my presence. Screens connect and disconnect. Continue reading
Guest Post: Why Go Back to Church?
Jesus wants His people to love one another. To love others, you sometimes have to be in the same room. Sometimes you have to hold their babies, wash their dishes, or look them straight in their unmediated eyes as you listen to them share their story. You have to stay in the room when the stories get rambly. You might have to get up and get a box of tissues. You may have to lay hands on them and pray for them. Yes, sometimes you have to touch them. Continue reading
Pandemic Sermon: Job 42:10-17 and Isaiah 49:14-23, “Receiving Double from YHWH’s Hand”
COVID-19 and the reaction to it has caused deep divisions in our societies, and right down the middle of Christian communities as well….When we come back to meeting together, as a full church, or as an LCC family, or as societies reckoning with the effectiveness of policies (as I hope there will be investigations and evaluations, based in actual scientific understandings of how these viruses work that we had at the time), there will be anger and resentment that has to be dealt with….If we don’t, we could have a permanent division in our communities, which would be tragic.
…As we build back our lives, and build back our church community, can we think of our process as parallel to this—and also see it as an opportunity? Can we articulate our losses, express our anger and our sorrow, hear the anger and sorrow of others, and pray that God would help us to direct it and deal with it appropriately? Can we accept that nothing happens outside of God’s knowledge or control? Continue reading