Christianity Commons^™

Truth U, Justice U, Jesus U, Joseph Clair

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "College and university professors in the liberal arts (humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences) are almost entirely left-leaning, liberal, or progressive, and this is especially true among faculty in the humanities and social sciences. Insofar as political party affiliation is representative, the statistics are stunning- roughly 12: I Democrat to Republican in the humanities and social sciences nationally, and this ratio is even more pronounced in certain selective schools (Brown University takes the cake with 60:1).1 Students who attend liberal arts colleges or universities (that is, non-trade, nonvocational schools that require core curricula and keep an array of majors …

Misreading C. S. Lewis On Friendship: The Charges Of Sexism, Secrecy, And Snobbery, Jason Lepojärvi

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

C. S. Lewis’s published writings comprise some forty-odd books in multiple genres, hundreds of essays, and thousands of letters. The theme that arguably rises above other themes is love, and within the family of different kinds of love, the love of friendship holds prominence. Although Lewis is often credited for accessible writing, there exists a number of popular misunderstandings about his ideas of friendship in particular. Several writers—theologians, philosophers, and literary scholars—have leveled serious charges against Lewis’s understanding of friendship. This article will evaluate three of these charges in more detail, those of sexism, secrecy, and snobbery. The article shows …

Nativity Of The Lord, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Can you imagine the feelings of Mary and Joseph, forced by a foreign government to travel a hundred miles for a census in the midst of winter, when Mary is about to give birth?

First Sunday After Christmas Day, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Luke's Christmas story not only features babies and parents, it also focuses on the elderly. When I was a student at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, one of my fellow students asked me to help with his preaching on the encounter with Simeon and Anna in the temple. We sang "Old Friends," by Simon and Garfunkel, and then he preached on this passage from Luke.

D. Elton Trueblood: Dean Of American Religious Writing, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

It is with great delight that HarperCollins has given the Trueblood family permission to republish any of Elton Trueblood's books that they should choose. Harpers had published thirty of his books between 1936 and 197 4, and Elton's momentous volumes earned him the title of "Dean of American Religious Writing" in the middle-to-late 20th century. I had already edited and published his book on Lincoln under a new title, with a new foreword by award-winning journalist Gustav Niebuhr, timed to coincide with the Lincoln movie that came out in 2012. 1 Elton's most important book, A Place to Stand, then …

"Foreword" To A Place To Stand, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Known as "the Dean of American Religious Writing," D. Elton Trueblood did for American audiences something similar to what C.S. Lewis achieved in Britain. He helped believers em­ brace their faith and to give an account for the hope that is with­ in them (I Peter 3: 15). Author of thirty-one books, followed by a half-dozen collections of his essays, Trueblood also encouraged generations of other emerging writers so that his influence was multiplied many times over. Addressing such issues as the vitali­zation of the church and the equipping of the laity for ministry, he did more to inspire "thinking …

Bonhoeffer: Pacifism And Resistance Revisited With Help From Karl Barth, Roger Newell

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

This essay will look at some details of Bonhoeffer’s reflections on pacifism and resistance, with special attention to the influence of Karl Barth on his path. I will also look at the implications for our own troubled times as the Church again responds to war in Europe.

Love And The Winter: C.S. Lewis, Nigel Biggar, And Marc Livecche On Enemy Love, Jason Lepojärvi

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Abstract: In this paper I tackle two difficult questions about enemy love, with C. S. Lewis as my guide. First, how do we forgive a person who has deeply injured us? Second, can the Christian command to “love thy enemy” be reconciled with the military task of killing one’s opponent in war? After defining “love”, “enemy”, and “enemy love”, I discuss these two questions in light of the things that most endanger enemy love: resentment and violence. According to Lewis, the virtue of forgiveness and the religious habit of prayer play a crucial role in overcoming resentment. As for violence, …

Times As Task, Not Timing: Reconsidering Qoheleth's Catalogue Of The Times, Jesse M. Peterson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

This essay examines Qoheleth’s Catalogue of the Times poem in Eccl 3:2–8. I argue that the two most common scholarly interpretations of the poem’s overall meaning fail to sufficiently account for its literary context and that an underdeveloped alternative reading is to be preferred. When we read the poem in light of two other closely related passages, 1:4–11 and 3:9–15, it becomes clear that a poem ostensibly about “time” is much less concerned with “timing” than is typically thought, but instead signifies Qoheleth’s frustration with the inevitable equilibrating tendency embedded into every human task.

Suspending Belief In Credal Accounts, Andrew Del Rio

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Traditionally epistemologists have taken doxastic states to come in three varieties—belief, disbelief, and suspension. Recently many epistemologists have taken our doxastic condition to be usefully represented by credences—quantified degrees of belief. Moreover, some have thought that this new credal picture is sufficient to account for everything we want to explain with the old traditional picture. Therefore, belief, disbelief, and suspension must map onto the new picture somehow. In this paper I challenge that possibility. Approaching the question from the angle of suspension, I argue that all possible credal accounts face serious challenges. They either (i) falsify central claims that uphold …

"Crossing Borders" The Life And Work Of Peder Borgen In Context, Torrey Seland, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Crossing Borders: The Life and Work of Peder Borgen in Context documents his personal sojourn and contributions to church and society, in addition to covering the scholarly contribution of a world-class biblical scholar and theologian. Too rarely is a scholar’s personal story considered as the back-drop, or even the foreground, of one’s academic work. In that sense, Torrey Seland’s detailed biography is inextricably linked to Borgen’s bibliography: a multitude of connections that contextualize the intrigue and significance of an exemplary scholar’s work.

We Walk By Faith, Not By Sight: A Year Of Wilderness Wondering, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

As the earth completes yet one more lap around the sun, we might reflect on the year as a season of turmoil—unprecedented in recent memory—and yet it has also not been without its blessings. Some of these have been granted despite the chaos and setbacks, but others have come precisely because of them.

Introduction And Appendix A: Arts And Preaching, Sunggu A. Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

Why Undermining Evolutionary Debunkers Is Not Enough, Andrew Del Rio

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Denying the conclusion of a valid argument is not generally permissible if one suspends on one premise of the argument and believes the other premise(s). This can happen when one’s only critique of an argument is to undermine one premise. There is incoherence there. Here I examine how this is relevant to the debate on evolutionary debunking of our moral knowledge. I argue that one significant line of response to the debunker is unsuccessful: merely undermining the debunker’s empirical claim. It is not rational to respond this way and believe one has moral knowledge. First I present evidence that prominent …

Between Text And Sermon: Exodus 20:1-17, Sunggu Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The Ten Commandments might be understood as a moralistic list of “do’s” and “don’ts.” That is, many people see the Decalogue as a reminder of ancient religious legalism. Thus, the usual impression of the commandments is unfavorable, and no true “good news” of the gospel or joy of Christian faith seems to be found in these verses.

However, when we carefully consider the historical context, we may find the very opposite. We may instead recognize the real joy of discipleship embedded in the commandments. With the historical context in view, the commandments may be considered an anti-imperialist (or post- colonial), …

Balderdash! A Dozen Critically Flawed Biblical Scholarship Views Destined Deservedly For The Dust Bin—Part I, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

It goes without sayings that biblical studies, and especially New Testament studies, comprise a field that isan inch wide and a mile deep. This is no accident. Indeed, the Bible is the most significant and widely readbook in human history, and it has served historically as the primary basis for much of western politics,philosophy, literature, art, and ideology over the last two millennia, let alone Christian theology and religion.This does not mean, though, that all readings of Scripture pass muster in terms of sound exegetical analysis.While an ancient text may indeed “speak” to a later reader or community in ways …

The Lord's Leadership - Psalm 146, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

As I was praying for our divided nation and our God-beloved world, my eyes were drawn to Psalm 146, which begins with an invitation to praise the Lord. In the Hebrew, the combining of two words —one for praise and the other for Yahweh—exhorts people to lift up the name of the Lord. And that happens through what we do and say, as well as who we are. That is what the word, Hallelujah, means: “Praise the Lord.”

The Pilgrim's Voice: A Prelude To Korean American Prophetic Preaching, Sunggu Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

“Where are you from?” Korean North Americans are asked this question often when they first meet people from the dominant culture in the United States. The question carries political, sociological, and cultural implications. But on hearing it, what it seems to imply or what the speaker seems to insinuate is, “You are not an American. You don’t belong here. When do you think you will go back to your original country?” Thus, the question both reflects and sustains the highly racialized idea of Korean Americans as “perpetual strangers.” This racialized view of Korean Americans also reveals the dominant culture’s hegemony, …

Chapter Two: Quaker Spirituality Of Protestant Spiritual Traditions, Volume 2, Cherice Bock

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The debate over whether or not Quakers should be categorized as Protestant rages among scholars in Quaker studies as well, although the question is generally posed in the form of original influences on early Quaker leaders. Scholars differ about whether Quakerism grew out of Puritanism, or whether it appeared as a mystical tradition, springing up through spiritual inspiration rather than as a logical evolution of thinking from one group to the next. A third viewpoint sees Quakerism as prophetic, combining mystical personal experience of Jesus Christ and connection to the biblical call for justice through love. This third understanding combines …

First Person: George Fox University’S 125th Anniversary Illuminated, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Professor Paul Anderson reflects on university's biblical and Christ-centered mission.

On Vias Negativa And Positiva In John’S Dialectical Theology—Apophatic And Kataphatic Thrusts In Philo And Within The Johannine Tradition, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The Vias Negativa and Positiva are evident in Jewish Scripture and Philo, but they also come across dialectically in the Fourth Gospel.1 Indeed, connections between these writings and the Fourth Gospel abound, as Peder Borgen and others have shown over the years, but this particular subject of overlap is an intriguing one. 2 Of special interest here are the apophatic and kataphatic thrusts of John’s historical, theological, and compositional interests with relation to the 9LD 1HJDWLYD and the 9LD 3RVLWLYD , as played out within histories of John’s situation and composition. Put simply, John’s presentation of Jesus and his ministry …

Picasso For Preaching: The Demand And Possibility Of A Cubist Homiletic, Sunggu Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The purpose of this article is to propose a cubist homiletic based on the Picasso-originated art movement known as cubism. To that end, I explore the twofold question: What is cubist preaching, and why do we need it today? It is a critical inquiry into a theology and methodology of cubist preaching and its contextual rationale. In particular, I adopt cubism’s artistic-philosophical routine of transcendental deconstruction and multi-perspectival reconstruction as the key hermeneutical and literary methodology for cubist preaching. This cubist way of preaching ultimately aims for the listener to encounter the Sacred in what I call an ubi-ductive way—a …

On Biblical Forgeries And Imagined Communities—A Critical Analysis Of Recent Criticism, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Several weeks ago, I was contacted by several biblical scholars, asking what I thought of the article by Hugo Méndez in the Journal of New Testament Studies, as well as its treatment in the Daily Beast by the leading religion commentator, Candida Moss. I like and respect Professors Moss and Méndez, so I was of course interested in the issues they were engaging. I also had lunch with Bart Ehrman in Marburg last August, at the international Society of New Testament Studies meetings, so I was curious to see what Hugo might have done with Bart’s work on early Christian …

Review Of A History Of Death In The Hebrew Bible, Jesse M. Peterson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Review of A History of Death in the Hebrew Bible. By MATTHEW SURIANO. Pp. xii þ 296. Illustrated. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. ISBN 978 0 19 084473 8.

With Jørn Utzon: Approaching And Preaching Architectural Texts, Sunggu Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Architecture is communication. It conveys human stories, feelings, philosophies, and cultural histories and interacts through them with viewers, occupants, artists, and surrounding communities. Architecture, whether explicitly religious or not, is spiritual, too. Embodying and manifesting spatial spirituality, it invokes in the mind of the appreciator awe, wonder, and contact with the transcendent. All this is possible because architecture is, to borrow Paul Tillich’s language, an art form carrying the ultimate concerns of human life. Recognizing the communicative, spiritual, and existential nature of architecture exemplified in Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House, this article meets a need and demonstrates the potential for …

Book Review: Craig G. Bartholomew, Contours Of The Kuyperian Tradition: A Systematic Introduction, Bob Goudzwaard And Craig G. Bartholomew, Beyond The Modern Age: An Archaeology Of Contemporary Culture. Reviewed By Travis Pickell, Travis Ryan Pickell

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Review of Craig G. Bartholomew, Contours of the Kuyperian Tradition: A Systematic Introduction (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017). xiv + 363 pp. ISBN 978-0-8308- 5158-4

Bob Goudzwaard and Craig G. Bartholomew, Beyond the Modern Age: An Archaeology of Contemporary Culture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017). xii + 313 pp. ISBN 978-0-8308-5151- 5

Abraham Kuyper stands as a giant of politics, theology, and social philosophy in the Dutch Reformed context. Serving as a pastor, journalist, educator and university founder, political activist, theologian, author, and prime minister in his time, his legacy continues through the neo-Calvinist tradition (sometimes called ‘Kuyperianism’), …

Jesus: His Life From The Perspectives Of Mary Magdalene And The Apostle Peter (Pt.4), Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The final two episodes of the History Channel’s “Jesus: His Life” focus on Jesus as viewed by Mary Magdalene and the Apostle Peter. As with the previous six episodes, this hybrid documentary focuses on the life of Jesus from the perspectives of particular individuals within the gospel narratives. Over and against more historical-critical and skepticismprivileging series a couple of decades ago,[1] this series largely follows the presentations of Jesus within the four canonical gospels, while still setting them within the contexts of first century Palestine under the Roman Empire. In so doing, the softer view of New Testament historiography pioneered …

Elizabeth Fry—A Note-Worthy Friend, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Her picture is on the five-pound British note. She brought about prison reform in Britain. Her school of nursing inspired Florence Nightingale. She was the first woman to address Parliament. She was visited in her prison-reform work by the King of Prussia. She was a recorded Friends minister who provided Bibles for people, established organizations for social reform, pioneered women’s suffrage, and who was sponsored by Queen Victoria. Her name was Elizabeth Fry—a note-worthy Friend, indeed!.

Transparency And Ontology Of Love (Chapter 14 Of To Know As I Am Known: The Communion Of The Saints And The Ontology Of Love), Mark S. Mcleod-Harrison

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "In his book The Path of Perfect Love, Diogenes Allen suggests that it is because of our inability to perceive the reality of other people and things that we don’t grasp what brings out the fundamental feature of love, viz. the recognition or perception of things beside one’s self. The reader may recall that both Badhwar and Royce made reference, the latter extensively, to the importance of recognizing the reality of the other person if one is to love. Allen focuses deeply on this theme. I will briefly present Allen’s position in section I and turn to a sermon …

Knowing We Don't Know (Chapter One Of When Faith Fails), Dominic Done

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "The first step into something new often looks like trust, not clarity. I began to discover the meaning of those words when I packed up everything I owned and moved from Oregon to the jungles of Vanuatu. Never heard of it? Neither had I when my pastor invited me to go. "It will be great," he said. "You'll be teaching a group of college-aged students who come from all over the country to learn." Impulsive, in my early twenties, and evidently ready for adventure, I said yes, then hurried to the store to pick up a map. I spent …