I have not often made this so explicit, but I tend to view the Bible story as a five act drama with a chiastic structure. I would illustrate it most simply as follows: A: Creation B: Covenant C: Christ B’: Church A’: Coming Soon In eachContinue reading “Exploring the Bible story as a chiasm”
Tag Archives: bible
Sola scriptura and Solo scriptura
It seems I’m not as much of a theological miscreant as I thought. I’ve been dropping in on discussions on the difference between sola scriptura and solo scriptura and, while being initially inclined to interpret the latter as a Star Wars meme, my subsequent understanding is that solo scriptura is pig latin for more modern distortions ofContinue reading “Sola scriptura and Solo scriptura”
Church fathers on the Apocrypha
While there is unanimous agreement between the Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant traditions on the canonical status of the twenty seven books of the New Testament and the Hebrew core of the Old Testament, there is nevertheless some disagreement regarding the status of other books commonly known as apocryphal or deuterocanonical. Personally I take the more criticalContinue reading “Church fathers on the Apocrypha”
A Perfect Circle lament the new beatitudes of Trump era America
A Perfect Circle are set to release a new album in 2018, their first in 14 years, and this month they’ve unveiled a teaser track entitled, “The Doomed”. It’s musically and lyrically explosive. As the song progresses, vocalist Maynard James Keenan paints a dark and disturbing picture of a society hell bent on shrugging off responsibilityContinue reading “A Perfect Circle lament the new beatitudes of Trump era America”
Literally or Literary?
When people ask me whether I read the Bible literally or figuratively, I say I prefer to read it carefully and contextually, taking the literary genre into account.
Why you’re not seeing bible citations
Some of you may have noticed I tend not to cite chapter and verse so much any more when quoting from a book of the Bible. There are a few reasons for this apparent sloppiness on my part. Firstly, I am writing for a broad and diverse audience, not all of whom care for exactContinue reading “Why you’re not seeing bible citations”
The book of Deer
This illustration of the four gospel writers comes from the Book of Deer, the earliest surviving example of Gaelic literature from Scotland. The Book of Deer is an illuminated Christian text, similar to the Book of Kells. It is named after the monastery of Deer and contains portions of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark andContinue reading “The book of Deer”
Who is the Old Testament law for?
When interpreting Old Testament law it’s important to recognise who it’s for. For while some laws were given to humans in general, other laws were given to the Israelites alone. And while some laws were given to the Israelites in general, other laws were given to the Levitical priests alone. And while some laws wereContinue reading “Who is the Old Testament law for?”
A careless reading of scipture is unfortunately the easiest
Early on in my Christian walk I was instructed that the 3 golden rules of scripture interpretation are: context, context and context. It’s clear to me though, that not everyone gets this sort of training, or learns to appreciate it’s wisdom, as over the years I have heard a lot of poor interpretations of scriptureContinue reading “A careless reading of scipture is unfortunately the easiest”
Is the Quran more like the Old Testament or New Testament?
Reading through the Quran as I was finding the author sounded a lot more like the Old Testament prophets than Jesus or the apostles. So I asked some Muslims if they had shared a similar experience, after reading both the Bible and the Quran. It prompted a very interesting discussion. My experience was echoed byContinue reading “Is the Quran more like the Old Testament or New Testament?”
Curious Christian 