Peripatetic Pastor

Category: Biblical Reflections

  • ONCE, ONLY

    ONCE ONLY War was in the air. It was the leadup to the First Gulf War. Armies were poised to invade Kuwait, and the news was alarming for many of us. What would happen? Would it spread? Would war come to us? At that point in 1991, we were blessedly innocent of the prospects of…

  • QUESTIONS AND CONVERSATION: READING THE AKEDAH

    One task in literature is to formulate questions and construct counter-statements to the reigning pieties. And even when art is not oppositional, the arts gravitate toward contrariness. Literature is dialogue; responsiveness.  –Susan Sontag, quoted from The Best American Essays 2023, edited and with an introduction by Vivian Gornick; Robert Atwan, series editor, p. ix. The Bible…

  • I CAN’T GET NO SATISFACTION: TOWARD UNDERSTANDING THE CHRIST STORY

    Louise Erdrich’s novel LaRose is a Christ story. Erdrich does not say so, but she hints at it. And such a strange story it is. The story begins with a killing. Dusty, the young son of Peter and Nola Ravich jumps down from a tree just as Landreaux, Dusty’s uncle, pulls the trigger to take down a…

  • Anselm Kiefer and Hope: A Christmas Meditation

    To plunge into the art of Anselm Kiefer is to plunge into controversy. Is his art a profound meditation on the human condition or sophisticated kitsch? Is it monumental or bombastic? Is it liberating and brave or dour and depressing? (For a recent evaluation of Kiefer’s art, see Daniel A. Seidell, “Where Do You Stand?…

  • WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS AND WHAT THE BIBLE DOES

    Usually the question is what the Bible says. In my denomination, for example, we have carried on a long and often acrimonious debate about what the Bible says about women and a shorter but no less acrimonious debate about sexuality.  The standard procedure in my denomination for these kinds of questions is to appoint a…

  • THE BIBLE AND MIKE JOHNSON

    Can the Bible survive its friends? That question occurred to me again after Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elevated to Speaker of the US House of Representatives. Asked about his approach to governing by Sean Hannity of Fox News, he said, “Someone asked me today in the media, they said, ‘It’s curious, people are curious:…

  • Barbie and Hieronymus Bosch: The Garden of Earthly Delights

    I’ve been away. Hence, the silence from this quarter. Among other things, while away, I had the opportunity to ponder again Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights at the marvelous Prado in Madrid. I was delighted to discover that it includes a Barbie house and predation in the Garden of Eden, both of which I’ve…

  • BREATH

    I have been meaning to write this piece for some time, but other topics keep coming in the way. And cultural events like the Barbenheimer movies, movies which frame a mood in America, a taking stock of the ebbing era of American power. In their own way, both Barbie and Oppenheimer deal with the loss of innocence, happily so…

  • THE PERVERSITY OF PERFECTION

    The Nicodemus Problem The church has a Nicodemus problem. Perhaps you remember the fraught dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3:1-21. Nicodemus, introduced in the story as a Pharisee and one of the “rulers of the Jews,” politely approaches Jesus as a miracle worker, presumably leading up to some theological question or challenge, but…

  • THINKING THE FAITH: “WITHOUT RESERVATION”

    “Without reservation” The church order of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in a supplement to Article 5 includes some instructions about what one should consider when signing the Covenant for Officebearers. The Covenant, for those of you who are not familiar with the CRC, is a document that office holders in the denomination are required…