Sturtz Stuff

The term "secularism" was first used by the British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851. [1] Holyoake was picking up on some of the thinking that emerged out of the Enlightenment and the philosophies of thinkers like René Descartes. Enlightenment thinking, among other aspects, seeks to create a division between “religion” and “secular”. In enlightenment ways of thinking “religion” should remain private because it causes too much conflict between people (The Thirty Years War) and it has not “fixed” the world.   The enlightenment offers a new vision for how the world should operate based on reason. Reason, according to the enlightenment, is not based on any form of tradition – especially any “religious” tradition. This way of thinking is engrained into the western church and society. An outgrowth of this thinking offers people a way to divide to a person’s world into things that are considered “religious” and things that are considered “secular”. For example a person’s wee...

One of my favorite Church Father's isSaint Basil. If he were alive today I can’t help but wonder what label ourculture would attempt to slap on him. Would he be a “compassionate conservative”that fought against false teachings against more “liberal” views or a “bleedingheart liberal” that engaged politics and social reforms for the poor.   Basil was the eldest of nine otherchildren that his parents conceived. Four of Basil's siblings are known byname, and considered to be saints by various Christian traditions. Perhaps themost influential of Basil's siblings was his younger brother Gregory. Gregory wouldeventual be appointed by Bishop Basil to be the Bishop of Nyssa. The oldest ofBasil’s sisters, Marcrina, became a nun and was considered one of the mostremarkable women of the fourth century. She would become the catalytic examplefor Basil to give away his wealth and possessions and join the asceticalmovement later in life. Basil’s family background and influence wou...

Common "right" and "left" Misreadings of the Bible by NT Wright From April 10, 2012 RELEVANT It's not surprising that all kinds of misreadings of Scripture have grown up, both among those who count themselves as Bible-believers and among those who distance themselves from that label while claiming some continuity at least with the biblical tradition. Many of these misreadings are now so common they are taken for granted in large segments of the Church. At the risk of sustaining a polarization I regard as misleading, we might instance them in two blocks. What follows is a short list; many more examples could be found. (I here summarize wildly for reasons of space, and at the obvious risk of caricature. Each of the categories could of course be explained and exemplified at much greater length.) Misreadings of the Right To begin with, I offer the many positions regularly thought of as “right wing” which are based on, or involve, a serious misread...

A List of some of the Table-Fellowship Incidents in Jesus’ Ministry Category A – Jesus uses meals to reconfigure kinship relations Category B – Jesus disregards a person’s status during a meal Category C – Jesus disregards purity rituals involved in meals INCIDENT                                                  CAT.              MATTHEW          MARK          LUKE          JOHN Woman at the Well                          ...

Mike Bird Danny Zacharias, Ph.D Student at Highland Theological College and IT manager at Acadia Divinity School, has created a Greek parsing APP. It is called ParseGreek and is available for IOS, Android and through iTunes.“Covering all verbs, nouns, adjectives, and pronouns that occurs 15 times or more in the Greek New Testament, ΠαrsεGrεεk quizzes users based on various criteria, including compatability with today’s top introductory Greek grammars.”There is an iTunes Preview page. It will sell for $5.99.

Water as a symbol of life as well as a means of cleansing or purification is of particular importance in the Old Testament. Water was created on the first day of the creation poem in Genesis 1:2 as the Spirit of God hovered over the water. God also commanded that water bring forth an abundance of life in Genesis 1:20-21. In some sense the element of water is associated with God (cf. Psalms 17; 28:3; 76:17, 20; 103:3; 148:4). God is compared with the rain (Hosea 6:3). Water brings life (cf. Exodus 15:23-35; 17:2-7; Psalms 1:3; 22:2; 41:2; 64:10; 77:20; Isaiah 35:6-7; 58:11) and joy (Psalm 45:5). Water is a powerful purifying element and can destroy evil as well as enemies. This is witnessed in the stories of the Flood and the flight of Israel from Egypt (Genesis 3:1-15; Exodus 14:1-15:21). Water can also cleanse the repentant from defilement according to Old Testament Law (Leviticus 11:32; 13:58; 14:8, 9; 15-17; 22:6; cf. Isaiah 1:16). Water also seems to heal as can be seen...

Growing up in the Stone-Campbell Movement (Christian Church stream) gave me a healthy suspicion towards just about all forms of scholarship. Over the years I have had many conversations with fellow Christian church ministers and attendees that express little or no use for academics. Most seem to think that all forms of scholarship generates "liberal" thinking that should not be considered. Academic works like commentaries are viewed as just that a comment on scripture that should be taken with a gain salt. Yet, I cannot help but wonder about the pride found in this position. That one can interpret the Bible all alone and never consider the contributions of others who have often invested years in the biblical text. It would seem that often this line of thinking leads to what is often discouraged within the Christian Church – limited Bible knowledge. I happen to think that good Christian scholarship helps the Church watch its language. Christian scholarship is to be someth...

There are plenty of books, authors, speakers, church ministers who are filled with woe over the condition of the American church. Individualism (Christianity’s dangerous idea) runs amuck in the Church as well as the culture. Some would suggest that the American Church is so infected by its culture that it has lost its ability to be a “peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9). Because of this and other often sighted issues some Christians have called for an abandonment of the Church. The cliché is that people love Jesus not the Church so just follow Jesus and forgo “church”. The problem is – there do not seem to be a lot of viable suggestions. I do think that God’s Spirit is with the Church. God has not lead us out into the dessert to die. There are still Churches and Christians that embody being a “peculiar people” and if “being the Church” was about getting it all right then I am surprised that God allows us to worship given all the ways that we totally mess up and “play” at worship. Anywa...

BioLogos created a graphic, titled "America's View on Evolution and Creationism," which uses data from Gallup Research, The New York Times, and the Pew Research Center to show what Americans currently believe about the origins of humans. To get a better view of the graph click here to go to the BioLogos website.