I’ve meant for several days to get around to writing this post, but things have been remarkably busy lately. I can only apologize for the lateness and hope that interest remains in the question. But by way of invitation, let me at least say this: the idea of “complaint as praise” seems to be one of the most interesting, and yet most profoundly ignored, subjects in scripture. Read the rest of this entry »

In a brief conversation with Jim and Robert on another post, we suddenly discovered that Brevard Childs passed away earlier this week. You can read about his death here: http://www.yale.edu/divinity/news/070625_news_childs.shtml

Childs is well known for the development of what he calls “canonical criticism,” a field of Old Testament research that undertakes to study the scriptures as canon. It thus pays a great deal of attention to traditional interpretation, to Church dogmas, and to the final form of scripture (rather than the bits and pieces left after most exegetical treatments). His programmatic Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture is a marvelous introduction to this kind of study. As Walter Brueggemann has noted in several places, Childs was most successful in his work on Isaiah, will culminated just a few years ago in a marvelous commentary (simply called Isaiah) that I’ve been using pretty constantly for the past couple of months.

His scholarship will certainly be missed, and I hope to see other scholars doing the kind of careful canonical work he has been doing. There are a lot of ways, it seems to me, in which his canonical approach opens marvelous possibilities for scriptural interpretation that does not need to pay a lot of attention to what are usually termed historical difficulties. That is, a canonical approach to Isaiah is certainly a helpful approach for a Latter-day Saint, who finds much of Second Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, etc. As Jim pointed out during our discussion, it may be that Brevard Childs exemplifies the kind of scholarship that has to this point prevailed among LDS scholars.

At any rate, it is certainly clear that I’m not a eulogist, but I would like to offer my own thanks to Professor Childs for his life’s work and for his undeniable faith in the scriptures. May he rejoice before God eternally.

Peter Tosh, the Stepping Razor, grew up in Kingston, Jamaica. As one of the original “Wailing Wailers,” along with the more famous member Bob Marley, and also in his own solo career, Tosh was one of the pioneers of reggae music. While many of his contemporaries, however, were preaching a “peace and love” message, Tosh released “Equal Rights,” an album whose title track contains the refrain:

Everyone is crying out for peace, yes; None is crying out for justice;
I don’t want no peace; I need equal rights and justice.

In 1987, a former friend shot and killed Tosh in his home. Read the rest of this entry »

Lesson 24: John 16-17 Read the rest of this entry »

On last year’s calendar, in the little box representing Mother’s Day, I made a note to myself:  Leave town next year!   Read the rest of this entry »

Cheryl has agreed to help us work through Rene Girard’s The Scapegoat. I just got through ordering my copy, so I figure we could start a sort of book-group discussion of this book in a couple of weeks. I expect the posts will be written in such a way that you can follow along even if you don’t have the book, but of course you’ll surely get much more out of these posts if you order the book and read along with us.

If you missed this comment by Cheryl sketching a Girardian reading of Matthew 24 (JST), it’s not to be missed. I think Cheryl’s comment also provides a good introduction to Girard’s ideas, and how they can be used to help us think about scripture. Feel free to use this post to discuss either Cheryl’s comment on Matthew 24, or the proposed project, or Girardian ideas (incl. violence in scripture quite broadly).

I’m sort of counting on Cheryl and Joe Spencer to help me take turns writing posts discussing the book—if anyone else would like to help, I think a couple more “discussion leaders” would be nice. It looks like there are 15 chapters at about 10-20 pages per chapter, so I’m thinking a chapter a week sounds about right, what do you think?

“Inherit the Kingdom Prepared for You,” Gospel Doctrine Lesson #22 notes HERE. Read the rest of this entry »

Lesson 23: Luke 22:1-38; John 13-15 Read the rest of this entry »

In case you are hungry for more “food for thought” in regard to this lesson, you’re invited to visit my post of lesson notes here.  Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not ready to post any notes yet . . . will do that later, but I did want to post this side-by-side comparison of Matthew 24 and Matthew 1 as found in the Pearl of Great Price. Interestingly, this comparison differs somewhat from that posted by Jim F here.

See my note to him here.

Here’s my side-by-side:
Matthew 24/JS1 side-by-side