I really benefitted from reading Amos Yong’s Theology and Down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability in Late Modernity (Baylor University Press, 2007, 425 pp.). Amos Yong is a very fine scholar who draws upon a wide range of theological traditions in this text. Much of the book is about disability theory and disability theology in a broad…

This comes as quite a surprise, at least to me. N. T. Wright has decided to step down from one of the most influential posts in the Anglican Church. You can read the article here.

Ever since the WTS meeting, the theme of which was “The Future of Scripture,” I’ve been ruminating…. Is there a particularly Wesleyan take on the Bible? Wesley was, for the most part, what we would consider today a “biblical literalist.” He called himself a “man of one book.” Of course, there’s nothing especially unique about…

Glenn Beck has recently advised Christians that, if their churches preach “social justice,” they should simply leave them, since “social justice” is a code word for Communism or Nazism. (scratching my head….) Apart from the obvious problems with his reading of the gospels, how can the same word refer to both Communism and Nazism? I…

Last weekend Jason Vickers and I traveled to the annual meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society at Azusa Pacific University. The theme was “The Future of Scripture,” and the keynote speakers were William J. Abraham and Richard Hays. Abraham and Hays had a very fine dialogue about the nature and function of scripture. The conference…

I had a good meeting with folks from the East Ohio Conference on the Bible and disability. There were a few people from the East Ohio Conference task force on disability in attendance. The discussion was rich and edifying, and it also impressed upon me the need for ongoing education and research on this topic.…

I’m delivering a paper at the annual meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society in three weeks, and a good part of my paper involves the doctrine of sola scriptura. I am expanding on the idea developed in the book Canonical Theism that sola scriptura is an unreasonable conception of scripture. The problem that I’m runnign…

Ever wonder what the differences are between various translations of the Bible? The Society of Biblical Literature has a web page that offers some info on these, along with articles about the topic of Bible translation. Click here to get to the site.

Press Release from United Theological Seminary,Dayton, Ohio, North AmericaJanuary 27, 2010 Dr. Wendy Deichmann Edwards, a United Methodist elder currently serving as President of United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, stated that she was shocked to learn that an agency of The United Methodist Church knowingly plans to release a seriously misleading, damaging statement regarding…

The Society of Biblical Literature is planning to start a new website about the Bible, one intended not primarily for Bible scholars, but for the general public. They are seeking input about the kinds of things that would make such a website helpful and effective in accomplishing its goals. If you’d like to chime in,…