Letting the Bible be what it is, not what we would like it to be
(June 9, 2018)Believing the Bible is what it appears to be rather than what we may want it to be solves a lot of problems.
Tag: history
How a deep and growing divide is killing Protestant christianity – or maybe renewing it!
(May 30, 2018)Right from the earliest days, there have always been disagreements within the christian community. Some are resolved, but some lead to major splits, new denominations or new doctrinal positions. I have the feeling that a major, and probably irreversible, divergence is brewing in the western Protestant church, between those we may label “evangelical” and those […]
Jesus the social and religious radical – 5 lessons from a dishonourable encounter
(February 25, 2018)The facts about Jesus are clearly stated in the gospels, and they don’t change, but people have so many different understandings of him. The Catholic Jesus or Orthodox Jesus is not the same as the evangelical Protestant Jesus, or the Jesus of liberal Protestant theologians. I think there is probably some truth in all portraits, […]
Book review: Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes
(January 18, 2018)Book review: “Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes” by Kenneth Bailey. Quite simply one of the most enlightening books I have read about Jesus.
Book review: Disarming Scripture
(December 14, 2017)Disarming Scripture by Derek Flood The Old Testament world was a violent place. For a christian, the most troubling violence is surely that said to be commanded by God, whether it be Abraham being commanded to sacrifice his son and heir Isaac, Joshua commanded to exterminate Canaanites who are unfortunate enough to be living in […]
Did the exodus really happen?
(September 12, 2017)The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and their travel to the Promised Land is one of the key events in Jewish religious history, and, therefore, in christian belief as well. But did it actually happen? Did something like 2 million people cross the Red Sea and through the Sinai, aided and guided by miraculous […]
Colonialism, war and selective memory
(August 21, 2017)Photo: Slaves Waiting to be sold in Richmond, Virginia, painted in 1861 from an 1853 sketch. Wikipedia. The world has changed enormously in my lifetime. One thing that I never knew as a child but which seems to characterise the present age, is international terrorism. Terrorism, via car bomb, motor vehicle driven into crowds, gun […]
Joshua & the conquest of Canaan: what's history, what's legend, what's unknown?
(March 31, 2017)I don’t know about you, but when I read the Old Testament accounts of Joshua and the Israelites invading Canaan, I don’t have any picture of the geography or where the cities were located. The matter is complicated by the fact that many people feel a lot is at stake. Believers generally want to find […]
Does archaeology show the Bible is true? Seven facts
(March 16, 2017)I’m sure you will have read, and heard it said, that archaeology confirms the accuracy of the Bible. But you may also have heard from sceptics that the Bible isn’t historically accurate. So which is true? This is a complex matter with a wide variety of conclusions among the experts. I have tried to investigate […]
Book review: The Jesus Legend
(February 5, 2017)Some books on Jesus and the New Testament are clearly apologetic in nature, seeking to argue or defend a certain viewpoint, whether it be sceptical or believing. Other books clearly aim at being academic, impartial, seeking to advance academic opinion. This book, which is almost a decade old, is kind of both. I have only […]