The (Lieben)GOOD LIFE

One of the reasons I enjoy researching and teaching in the latter part of the New Testament (e.g., 1-2 Peter, Hebrews, and Revelation) is because these often unfamiliar texts say things in ways that we are not accustomed to hearing them said, especially as it relates to how we conceive of life in Christ. And sometimes this different way of saying things runs up against what we "know" to be true.  In my most recent go-around at teaching Revelation, I have been struck by this simple, pervasive, and yet often-overlooked fact: John's Apocalypse is about works!  To be even more precise,  John's Apocalypse is about being saved by works! In the midst of the fantastic and perplexing imagery of Revelation, especially in chapters 6-20, it is easy to loose the forest for the trees. But, as I will try to show (in the next three posts), the majestic extravagance of Revelation 4-5 and the shocking horror of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls are in the service of this most fun...

Does the Book of Revelation contradict the claim that God is love?  This is one of the questions we will be wrestling with in my course on the Book of Revelation as we patiently read through what is a complex and perplexing text. Throughout the history of its interpretation, on occasion students of the book have come to the conclusion that the notion that God is fundamentally loving is irreconcilable with message and imagery of John's Apocalypse (this is another name for the Book of Revelation), especially in Revelation 6-20.  Interestingly, their are two bookends, or framing devices (more technically known as  inclusios ) in Revelation that seem to suggest that the book is ultimately about God's love. The first inclusio can be found in Revelation 1:4-8 / 22:12-21; the second framing device is located in the message to the first of the seven churches and the last of the seven churches in Revelation 2-3.  Inclusio 1: Revelation 1:4-8 / 22:12-21 In the opening greeti...

What is salvation for? It is not hard to lose the forest for the trees in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. The letter opens with some very complex themes that, because they meet us first, tend to occupy most of our attention and interest as we come to the letter for guidance and edification: election (1.4), predestination (1.5), adoption (1.5),  redemption (1.5), inheritance (1.11), salvation (1.13), the role of the Spirit, to name a few.  As important as all of those themes are (and they are indeed foundational), its seems to me that part of what Paul is doing in his letter to the Ephesians is trying to get his readers to ask the question, What is this (election, adoption, redemption, salvation)  all for?  What are we chosen for ? What are we predestined for ? What are we adopted for ? Why have we been redeemed? And how does this all reveal God's glory and grace? Those who have been shaped by the Reformed tradition will likely respond that all of this--election, pred...

 

According to the apostle Paul, God is committed to conforming us to the image of His Son (Rom 8.29). Paul does not explicitly develop what he means by this in the rest of his letter, though one could argue that he has Romans 12-16 in mind. And so it raises a question in my mind: what does it look like to be conformed to the image of the Son? I suppose there are a number of ways to explore this question, but I have been challenged by drawing this claim by Paul into conversation with Jesus in his 'high priestly prayer" in John 17. The prayer is astonishingly revealing because it tells us what Jesus was doing before creation: He was delighting in the Father's love. In fact, he states that His glory is the fact that he has been loved before the foundation of the world (John 17.24). What is more, we learn from this prayer in John 17 that Jesus came into the world so that the love with which he has been loved by the Father might be in us (John 17.26). According to Jesus, t...

Class Project: What are the thousand questions that are included in the one question, Who am I? This semester (Spring 2019), I taught a one-hour Honors College seminar entitled "The Future of Humanity". In the course we looked at the way in which emerging technologies are shaping, and in many cases, reshaping the way we think about human nature, human identity, and our vision of the good life. Since it was only a one-hour course, we had to narrow our examination to genetic editing and engineering, and the movement known as transhumanism, which includes but is not limited to radical life extension and radical life enhancement. Of the many fruitful discussions we had in our class, I want to highlight three observations: 1. Narrative and Human Identity . The transhumanist movement is founded on a pre-scientific narrative about what it means to be human, and where the human project is going. As communications professor James Harrick puts it, " mythos precedes logos ...

I've just finished teaching a class on Paul's Letter to the Romans. One of the challenges of reading Romans is not losing the forest for the trees; that is, not losing the aim of Paul's message as we try to pay attention to all the important details of the letter, and the questions that emerge as we do so. At the end of the semester I asked the students to step back for a minute, and look at the letter as whole--to take in the big picture. Then I asked them to think about this question: a ccording to Paul in Romans, What is spiritual formation? Here is a brief outline of what we came up with: 1. Spiritual Formation is narratival formation.  For Paul, you cannot understand who you are and what you are to do in this world without understanding who you are in light of God's story, God's mission in this world. The word Paul uses to summarize this story or mission of God is "gospel". He bookends his letter to the Romans with a call to align your life to t...