May 2013
57 posts
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Why "materialism"? →
I am finding myself increasingly puzzled by the use of the term “materialism” in contemporary continental philosophy. On the one hand, there seems to be a significant drive to claim the name “mater…
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Robert Alter and the Translation of the Bible →
Most people who work with the Hebrew Bible are familiar with Robert Alter. Alter is a literary scholar who has written many influential books, one of which, The Art of Biblical Narrative, has been …
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Ignoring Worker Injustice Won't Make It Go Away →
Taking the source of our shopping seriously.
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A review of "To the Wonder" →
It is an unassuming Catholic priest, Father Quintana (Javier Bardem), that ultimately makes To the Wonder radiate…The priest makes his rounds in the impoverished neighborhoods of the little exurban Texas town, where he listens with the humility of a Zosima. But all the while we hear his troubling meditations. He does not feel the presence of the God he serves. He feels only God’s absence. He...
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You Can Be The Most Innovative Person →
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Does Child Abuse Rise During a Recession? →
When men are laid off, yes; when women are laid off, no.
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Mysterious Hebrew stone displayed in Jerusalem →
JERUSALEM (AP) An ancient limestone tablet covered with a mysterious Hebrew text that features the archangel Gabriel is at the center of a new exhibit in Jerusalem, even as scholars continue to argue about what it means.
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What Does That Have to Do With the Price of... →
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Organize all your cloud services with Jolidrive →
If you’re like me and you subscribe to a large number of cloud services, consider jolidrive. It keeps everything organized into a single, great-looking website.
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Paul Krugman’s Economic Theory: Five Basics →
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A wild thought about scripture →
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A Brief History of Latin American Liberation... →
This post is my transcription of a recent lecture by Ted Jennings, with some minor additions, posted with his permission. Latin America has a unique situation that distinguishes the theology that i…
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The Good Heart of the Adoption Movement →
Kathryn Joyce’s book, ‘The Child Catchers,’ misses out on how adoption benefits women.
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Why I believe in Jesus' Resurrection →
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A look at modern gerrymandering →
Michigan’s 14th congressional district looks like a jagged letter ’S’ lying on its side.
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Out of Ur: Do We Still Need Seminaries? →
Conversations for Ministry Leaders
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The Ethics of Not Hiring Smokers →
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Defiance by Existence →
The Color Purple traces the life of the protagonist Celie through her own words via her correspondence first with God and then with her sister Nettie. Alice Walker narrates Celie’s journey towards …
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How Breastfeeding Brought Me Closer to God →
Nursing became the spiritual discipline that taught me to slow down and rest.
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The Outside View of a Former Church Insider →
(This post has not been edited for errors. These are my raw, honest thoughts. In a hurry? Scroll down for my 10 observations.) I didn’t grow up in church. It wasn’t until I was assaulted in high …
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Why I Now Like George W. Bush →
I’ve always had mixed feelings about George W. I voted for him once (his second term) and coming from Texas had something of an emotional tie to the former President. Not only that, but I like him. I naively believe, of all the former Presidents, he and I would get along the best. I’d rather sit in a duck blind with a dog and George W. than with anybody else. I think we’d get along. If only he...
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Being Gay at Jerry Falwell's University →
A former student’s account of coming out at Liberty University
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The Reality of the Resurrection →
One of the biggest hurdles to orthodox Christian belief in our world today is affirmation of the bodily resurrection of Jesus as historical reality. After all we know better than this. Isn’t it a m…
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A review of "Adam: God's Beloved" →
The topic of senior seminar in the Bible and Religion department this spring has been disability theology. Together we engage relevant biblical material and consider important contemporary figures….
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A review of "Sexuality and the Christian Body" →
Within about four minutes of announcing our yearlong series on Sexuality & the Church , I realized I was in over my head. You just don’t realize how many books there are to read, angles to take, and people to interview until you’ve gone and committed to yourself to exploring a multi-faceted, hot-button issue like this one. So I emailed Richard Beck (and some others writers I...
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On the U.S. Labor Market →
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A 7-Step Path to Enjoying Work →
Enjoying work has less to do with your actual job and more to do with your attitude towards it. And changing our attitude towards work is often far easier than changing jobs.
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The Missional Position: Myths and Musings on Being... →
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Our broken market in parenting →
Meritocracy has long been one of America’s most cherished principles. It informs the structure of our educational system, which at its best tries to ensure that the most talented students get acces…
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Does the Pro-Life Movement Need a New Strategy? →
I am pro-life. I believe abortion is a painful and dark reality in the world. But I’m often reluctant to associate with the pro-life movement. And I don’t think I’m alone. I remember, years ago, when I was in high school, sitting at a picnic table at a park near my home reading Martin Luther King’s Letters From a Birmingham Jail and being moved by the love Dr. King had for his oppressors. He was...
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The Five Professional Types That Can Derail Your... →
You don’t wan to mess with these guys, much less have them on your staff. Here are the 5 types you need to off your staff.
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The Subtle Horror of Mad Men →
Mad Men is a horror series. There… I said it. I didn’t believe this until recently. My impression was that it was a dark and brooding drama about the desperate and horny realities of life. This was…
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Amazon's Comical Kindle Pricing Catch-22 →
Today, this popped up on my Twitter feed. Bill Amend, the author of Foxtrot, was trying to use the Kindle Comic Creator tool to publish his successful collections on the Kindle. He took a close loo…
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How Churches Can Communicate About Gay Marriage →
Gay marriage is a lightning rod issue these days. We talk with bridge-builder Andrew Marin about how the church can respond to this issue without getting burned.
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The Church: Are We Accidentally Racist? →
Sunday morning church services are still a very segregated hour. Is that okay? Is it okay for white American Christians to go celebrate God at one church and black American Christians to go celebrate God in another church? Should changing that reality be on our radar, an idea on our to-do list? I honestly don’t know the answer to that question.
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Why Your Creative Meeting Won’t Work →
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"God is pissed off and so am I": Pastor Phil... →
I ached as I stood over the casket preaching Marcus’s eulogy. I had known and worked with Marcus for 15 years before he was killed when four bullets found his body while stopping to buy diapers for his child. Sometimes in life, you are in the right place at the right time and other times you find yourself in the middle of gun fight. I told the family and friends who had gathered,...
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Under the Medical Tent at the Boston Marathon →
Bright sunlight filtered through the awnings of the medical tent pitched in Copley Square, where I joined the many medical professionals caring for people who’d fallen ill from their 26.2-mile run. Some volunteers had been staffing the medical tent for years — one nurse had worked at the Boston Marathon more than 25 times.
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In a World of High Pressure Religion, Does God... →
I was riding on a crowded train during rush hour in 2010 when a little Somali girl, who couldn’t find a seat on the train, climbed into my lap and fell asleep. While I was holding her, I started talking to her mom, who told me in broken English that they were refugees from Somalia. Her husband had left the family shortly after they arrived in the U.S., and now she was stranded here, raising five...
