Buyer Beware!

There’s all kinds of crazy crap out there on the internet these days. Egads! In one recent blog post, Bob Cargill suggested that people should disagree agreeably and possibly even share a beer afterwards! More than that, he claims it’s happening! I’m not sure how trustworthy such a fellow could possibly be. In another blog, [...]

Posted in: Academia, Church, Culture, Humor, blogging by J. R. Daniel Kirk No Comments

Pragmatics of Love

In something of a follow-up to yesterday’s post on homosexuality and justice, I had a few thoughts on the pragmatic nature of my argument about endorsing civil liberties as an expression of love. To be sure, there was a bit of a theological component as well, an appeal to Jesus’ commands to love our neighbor, [...]

Posted in: Bible Thoughts, Culture by J. R. Daniel Kirk 6 Comments , , ,

Encore Presentation: Structure of the Universe (part 2: ethics)

Note: The following is part 2 of an encore presentation of a series of posts that ran on my erstwhile blog, Sibboleth. The Structure of the Universe (Part 2: Ethics) This post is a bit lengthy, so let me summarize: “Should the death and resurrection of Jesus transform how we see ourselves acting as faithful [...]

Being What You’ve Received

What does it mean to act Christianly and how do we know when we’re doing it? Ruminations on that question sparked thoughts on James earlier this week. When I read that letter I get the overwhelming sense that it is telling us to do all the right things, but I still find myself discontent with [...]

Posted in: Bible Thoughts by J. R. Daniel Kirk 3 Comments

Why Not Rather Be Wronged?

I heard another one of the stories yesterday. A church in a property dispute. Yes, the resolution was one in which there was some reconciliation at the end, it was story of the surprising power of God showing up in an unexpected place. But the story was still there. A congregation shut down from above. [...]

Posted in: Church by J. R. Daniel Kirk 11 Comments , ,

Book Notes: Samuel Wells, Improvisation (Part 3)

In the final chapter of Part 1 of Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics, Sam Wells moves from “narrative as drama” to “drama as improvisation.” The idea that Christian theology and ethics is dramatic leads to the notion that these are to be performed. And there is a great deal in such a view that [...]

Book Notes: Samuel Wells, Improvisation (Part 2)

Part 1 of Samuel Wells‘ Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics traces a movement from Ethics as Theology (ch. 1) through Theology as Narrative (ch. 2) and thence from Narrative as Drama (ch. 3)  to Drama as Improvisation (ch. 4). Having covered the intro and thoughts on theology and narrative last time, we move now [...]

Book Notes: Samuel Wells, Improvisation (Part 1)

With deep gratitude to my friend David Vinson for putting me on to it, I am now reading through Samuel Wells, Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics. (Two asides: (1) everyone needs a friend or two who read everything we should have read and lets us know about it; and (2) since getting a conservative [...]

Violence, Sports, & Gospel Redux (pt. 2)

Before I digressed, I was talking about “Sports Fanatics: How Christians have succumbed to the sports culture–and what might be done about it” from the latest Christianity Today. The article makes some very good points about the dilemmas posed by professional sports. Of course, none of the data or incidents pointed up in the article [...]

Violence, Sports, & Gospel Redux

Last week’s conversation about Ultimate Fighting and the gospel came as an interesting prelude to a few other things that went down this weekend: (1) I got to Christianity Today’s February cover story, “Sports Fanatics: How Christians have succumbed to the sports culture–and what might be done about it“; (2) this was, of course, Super [...]