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On this summer Sunday, Mark Andrew Alward shares about his fundamentalist Christian background, which included countless church services and immersing himself in the Christian sub-culture. He shares how, near the end of Bible College, he eventually questioned and then rejected many of the tenets of fundamentalist Christianity. He concludes my sharing a new vision of what Christianity could be today and the beliefs he holds dear.

I’ve titled this as about the Resurrection, which is just one part of a complex of beliefs… but let’s return and end there… What similarities or differences do you see in Paul’s Resurrection statements and beliefs and those of the early Jerusalem Jesus-followers?

Wisdom is often mistaken as knowledge, prudence or pragmatism; whereas foolishness is equally regarded sometimes to be the kind of fool-hearted thing Jesus would have characteristically espoused with many of his confounding ideas about God, God’s ways and how we ought to treat one another. Truth be told, there are plenty of people who consider themselves much too smart to take seriously some of the darn fool things Jesus actually said and meant. But Jesus was no ordinary fool. A Words and Ways Commentary by John Bennison.

Mark’s Gospel has often been described as a “enigma’ and this can apply both to the whole of Mark’s text, as well as to nearly all of its mysterious contents. There is not just one story-line, one discourse or one dimension to its depicted characters but Mark presents many and various aspects within his Gospel. This enigma involving multiple dimensions, levels and stages are in evidence in the following five important and multiple aspects of Mark’s Gospel.

New Testament scholars continue to probe into its origins and significance, but–with the exceptions of John Anthony McGuckin’s 1986 patristic study and the late Arthur Michael Ramsey’s 1949 theological-liturgical treatment–there have been few books on its place in the long tradition of Christian spirituality or interpretation, Eastern or Western.

Despite four central theological affirmations to the contrary—Creation, Incarnation, Resurrection, and the church as the Body of Christ—Christians got it in their heads that the body was not a locus for divinity.

First Light: Jesus and the Kingdom of God is a 12-episode DVD study of the historical Jesus and the Kingdom of God with John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, two of the world’s leading Jesus scholars, on location throughout the Galilee and Jerusalem, now available in a Home Edition for personal home viewing.

Living the Questions 2.0 Home Edition brings together over thirty highly acclaimed scholars, theologians and other experts in a video exploration of an open, inclusive, broad-minded Christianity. Already utilized by thousands of progressive Christian communities, LtQ2 Home Edition is licensed for private home viewing and includes three DVD discs with twenty-one 20-minute episodes.

Jesus taught us to allow love for neighbor and concern for human beings to trump other concerns – even if it leads to healing on the Sabbath or eating sacred bread. Even if it means to breaking other laws, laws which according to the Bible were laid down by God himself.

Surveys of biblical theology as presented by historians of Christianity soon reveal many and varied types of previous theologies (but no thealogies!), which have been explored and expressed by many thinkers in various schools of thought and practice during the past 2,000 years. In this brief article, my glimpse into the past can only include (1) Revealed Trinitarian Theology, (2) Natural Theology and (3) Deistic Theology.

In this groundbreaking work, John Hick refutes the traditional Christian understanding of Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, the divine incarnation, he explains, is best understood metaphorically.

Paul insists, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”
Yes, freedom.
Paul was the Apostle of human freedom.

I recently scanned Osteen’s book, “Your Best Life Now,” in search of any serious reflection or teaching on the life, teaching and death of Jesus and Jesus’ call to discipleship presented in the Gospels.

Since its publication by Fortress Press in 1992, Mark and Method has been an invaluable resource for the study of Mark, and of the range of methods used in interpreting the New Testament. This second edition offers a new introduction and chapters brought up to date with the latest developments in interpretation, including new chapters on Cultural Studies and Post-Colonial Criticism.

1. We embrace the urgent task of clarifying what it means to follow a “spiritual path” or a “faith” that is Christian in some manner. With this, we know we must increase dialog and exploration between two often-warring camps divided as “conservative” and “liberal.”

William Countryman points out in his book Dirt, Greed, and Sex: Sexual Ethics in the New Testament and Their Implications for Today that people in biblical times lived with an understanding of limited resources—there was only so much to go around. Thus greed was the greatest sin, because to desire something for oneself was to take it away from somebody else.