February 2 is the celebration of the purification of Mary after the birth of Jesus and his presentation at the Temple Luke 2:22-39. The passage also presents two prophetic statements, one from a man, Simeon, and one from a woman, Anna (although Anna’s specific words are not given, we are […]
My wife’s novel The Unlikely Missionary is now available as an ebook! It is only $1.99 and available now in the following formats: epub, mobi, pdf, rtf, lrf, pdb, txt. It will soon be available on Apple iBooks and Sony stores too, but you can read the epub version in iBooks […]
The selection below was written “on background” one might say. I wanted to articulate what I thought was a close and “simple” reading of how the Book of Ruth presents the character of Boaz. I then went on to critique a few key modern interpreters, but that will have to wait […]
Unforgiveness is like fire that smolders in the belly, like smoke that smothers the soul. Sittser, Jerry. “A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows through Loss.” Zondervan.
UPDATED – Excursus below. That is overstating the case and an example of really bibliogeeky link baiting. (Can we have a competition to see who has the geekiest or the worst?) But it does convey the sense of what I think is going on. As I posted earlier, I have […]
When do we forgive? Is it only after the one who has sinned against us (offended us) has asked for forgiveness? Or should we forgive them whether they ask for forgiveness or not? This is a discussion I had not long ago with a friend and something I had thought a LOT about […]
As almost anyone with a connection to the internet or any other possible source of media including the telegraph and carrier pigeons knows, today, January 24, 2014, is the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Macintosh computer. ReutersMoney did a story on how much people have invested in their […]
You all know that Dan Piraro is one of my favorite cartoonists. He is not a fan of religion, but he often has poignant gags. This week he had a dog in the pulpit to match his earlier cat clergy.
Announcement Lapidus Summer Fellowship Program The Center for Jewish History and the American Jewish Historical Society offer six-week Fellowships to recent Ph.D.s and doctoral candidates conducting original research using the collections of the Center’s five partners: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum […]
Time is such an odd thing. It is, in a very real sense, relative and yet it is clearly measurable. I remember how long December 1-25 seemed to last when I was a child and yet today years go by so quickly I can hardly separate one Christmas or birthday […]