Peripatetic Pastor

Tag: Story

  • READING THE BIBLE WITH JOY

    Five Proposals for Discovering the Joy of the Bible I’ve lately been puzzling over the Bible. Not the Bible itself but the joylessness of its readers. Or would be readers. In the minds of many the Bible is a forbidding and severe book, a book of thou-shalt-nots. For others, an ancient self-help book that doesn’t…

  • THE INFANTILIZATION OF THE HUMAN RACE

    How Theology Reduces Us to Children A couple of posts back (available here), I reflected on biblical views of evil—evil as the coming apart of things. I mentioned in that essay that the T of Tulip (total depravity) in Reformed theology has a way of letting us off the hook. We need not, in fact in…

  • THE SUBTLETY OF STORY: NOTES ON READING THE BIBLE

    The story of Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:10-22) is a marvel of concise storytelling. In the space of just 13 verses, it satirizes not just one ancient holy place but two. It speaks hope and purpose to the scattered people of God. It lays out in brief a theology of election. It allows Jacob to make…

  • WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SEX: PART THREE. THE JUDGES STORY

    My last post was about Leviticus—well, Leviticus and how to read the Bible—and Leviticus won. The post was much longer than I would have liked. The writing was boggy. The reading was probably no better, a slog. And worse, for all that I may have not made clear what I was trying to make clear.…

  • WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE REFORMED: THE REFORMED VIEW OF SCRIPTURE

    Traditions must sometimes be saved from those who claim them. In this series of posts, I’ve been asking the question, “What does it mean to be Reformed?” There are those who give ready answers to that question. Their answers might include the early 20th century acronym TULIP. Or penal substitutionary atonement. Or declaring that same…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • GETTING UNSTUCK: A WAY FORWARD

    For the past month, we—you, my readers and I—have gotten distracted by another synod, this 2023 version of the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), which doubled down on its opposition to most if not all expressions of LGBTQ+ sexuality. It’s important to keep in mind that the synod is not the church. And…

  • A LITTLE LESS LOST: RECENTERING OUR FAITH

    My wife and I recently returned from Europe. While there, we walked the cities, Amsterdam and Milan, in particular. We frequently were forced to bring up Google or Apple Maps (and sometimes both at the same time) to get walking directions. Truth be told, the programs don’t work well for walkers, especially not in old…