I was interviewed about my current research project for the most recent edition of Eye Witness: The Magazine of Providence. You can read the interview below.
Tag: theology
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Still Time to Register
There is still time to register for next week’s Symposium presented by the Biblical and Theological studies department of Providence Theological Seminary featuring my presentation “Imagining a Better Way: Towards a Theology of Transformative Preaching.” I’ve been told that there has been a great response so far and that we are quickly approaching the room capacity. (It’s amazing what a free lunch can do!) However, there is no limit to the number of people who can join on Zoom. To register, visit:
Seminary Symposium – Providence University College and Theological Seminary -
Atonement and the Ordinary
Last year, I read Julie Canlis’ wonderful, little book A Theology of the Ordinary (2d, ed.;Godspeed Press, 2018). The book emerged from the author’s “extended meditation on this cultural obsession with greatness and being ‘impactful’” (2). Canlis ponders whether “our culture’s emphasis on supercharged emotions and measurable success blinded us to Romans 12 and the fact that our ordinary lives are our ‘spiritual act of worship’” (3)? In the rest of the book she precedes to sketch out a brief “theology of the ordinary” organized around the themes of creation, redemption, and new creation.
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The Theological Task Today
In preparation for an upcoming paper I will be delivering at the annual conference of the Canadian American Theological Association entitled, “Reimagining Ethical Preaching,” I have had the opportunity to immerse myself in Garrett Green’s insightful work on imagination. Here is a particularly rich passage from his recent book Imagining Theology: (more…)
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Upcoming Bonhoeffer Course
As part of its ongoing commitment to support the life and ministry of the church, Providence Theological Seminary is allowing pastors and other ministry leaders to audit most of its courses for the reduced fee of $250 CDN. Include among those offerings is my upcoming modular course to be held during the week of February 20-24 on the life and witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Here is the course description: (more…)
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Powerful Preaching: Fleming Rutledge’s Parchman Lectures
Fleming Rutledge recently delivered the Parchman Lectures at Truett Divinity School located at Baylor University on the theme “By the Word Worked: The Unique Power of Biblical Preaching.” I recently had the opportunity to watch the first two lectures which are available for public viewing through the Parchman Lectures Media Library.
In the second half of the first lecture, Rutledge incisively identified four trends that weaken the power of contemporary preaching, before positing five counter-affirmations about the power of the preached word. In what follows, I’ll attempt to summarize her important observations, in the hope of encouraging interested readers to watch the lecture itself. (more…)
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The Pulpit is a Prow
“Yet the preacher of the gospel of grace cannot be a mere minstrel, grinning good cheer in an age of despair. The preacher’s struggle against the darkness of this present world must be furnished with a full kit: the Bible, the sword of the Spirit, understandable now as it was not understood prior to modernity;[1. While not denying the gains of modern biblical scholarship, I would be inclined to see the legacy of the historical critical method of interpreting the Bible in more ambiguous terms than McClendon seems to at this point.] the history of God’s peaceable Israel old and ongoing (called in Scripture the preparation of the gospel of peace); and supremely (though like the Trinity never so named in Scripture) the primary theology that gives our sermon its center, its raison d’être, its point. (more…)
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Announcing the Publication of “Minding the Web”
It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce the publication of Minding the Web: Making Theological Connections by Stanley Hauerwas with Robert J. Dean by Cascade Books. The book is currently available for purchase through Wipf and Stock and in the days ahead will be available through many of your favorite book-sellers. (more…)
