I’m in a course planning and preparation phase lately, so I am doing some reading. I read a chapter of Jacques Ellul in preparation for a meeting about a course on culture, media, and theological formation that I am co-teaching. Just now I was skimming through Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn was […]
I think the problem is that familiarity really does breed contempt. What do I mean? When I joined the Mennonite Brethren, I was attracted by what I knew about the denomination, but I realized that there was much I did not yet know. Happy to learn that the MBs had a long tradition of theological […]
I didn’t grow up among the Mennonite Brethren. I was a pastor’s son in a number of Baptist denominations. I went to a Baptist seminary, and did my graduate studies at an Anglican college, while a member of an Alliance church. So how did I end up teaching theology among the MBs? Well, first, I […]
My last post about the problems of seeing Scripture as a repository of propositional truth about God evoked questions that asked for examples, and one area of interest seems to be faithful sexual practice. My comments and opinions are my own, and they relate only to sexual practice among people who profess to be followers […]
I don’t think that propositional truth has the power that some Christians think it does. In fact, despite the fact the propositions have their place in theology, I don’t think that truth is very effectively communicated in propositions. It is certainly not contextualized in propositions in Scripture. Modern conceptions of propositional truth are based on […]
Christians who have spent any amount of time in church have heard exhortations to the effect that members of Christian communities are supposed to love one another, encourage one another, bear one another’s burdens, and, as needed, rebuke/exhort one another, among other things. The call we experience is to be disciples, people who live out […]
A while back, I read an article by my friend Paul Cumin in the MB Herald, and I find much in it that resonates with me as an MB pastor and theologian. It intrigues and saddens me that I see the reputation that many evangelicals have (in the US, but also in Canada) as judgmental, […]
Some time ago, I read and re-read the first article that Paul Carter wrote about his interaction with Bruxy Cavey, engaging about scripture, the atonement, and other theological matters. It was enlightening for me to look back into my upbringing in Carter’s theological reflections, both in terms of his discourse about theology and his ignorance […]
Paul’s about the church as the Great Collective thought continues in verse 2: “Do not be conformed to this world . . .” J.B. Phillips paraphrased this verse in his translation of the NT as “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould . . .” Note that this is a […]
Over the past few years, I worked on a pamphlet sponsored by the Board of Faith and Life of the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches about a theology of creation. It came out in print recently (you can find it here). But there was a lot more material that ended up on the cutting […]
What Are You Thinking? 