Christianity Commons^™

“Jesus Freaks” Youth-Group Bands And The Power Of Christian Rock (1992–2000), Leah Payne

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

“What will people think,” Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait, and Kevin Smith asked thousands of young evangelical fans in 1996, “when they hear that I’m a Jesus Freak?” This trio of young men “on fire for God,” who performed as DC Talk, were the biggest thing in CCM in the 1990s. Their 1995 album Jesus Freak portrayed conservative evangelical youths as rock-and- roll rebels. “Welcome to the Freak Show,” the Jesus Freak tour, filled stadiums, and their high-energy, slickly produced concerts were teaming with screaming devotees. Fans pointed up to the sky as the band sang, “Jesus is the way,” in …

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 …

Many Healings Of The Woman With The Flow Of Blood, Ekaterina Lomperis

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

With the emergence of the modern quest for the historical Jesus, theologians began increasingly questioning traditional views of Jesus as a healer of human bodies. While a growing suspicion of Jesus’s role as a literal healer of the body is commonly traced to the influence of the Enlightenment, in this essay, I will suggest that the roots of this theological marginalization run deeper, in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformations, when supernatural did not yet equal superstitious. The essay will examine two representative exegeses of the healing of the woman with the flow of blood in Mark 5:25–34, offered by Martin Luther …

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.

Why On Earth Does “Tongue(S)” Become Ecstatic Speech?, Ekaputra Tupamahu

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

This chapter deals with the history of interpretation. Why is the phenomenon of “tongue(s)” in the New Testament understood today as ecstatic speech? In the history of interpretation, there are two major modes of reading the phenomenon of speaking in tongue(s) in the New Testament: the “missionary-expansionist” and the “romantic-nationalist” modes of reading. The earliest readers of the New Testament up until those of the mid-nineteenth century commonly understood the phenomenon of tongue(s) as a miraculous ability to speak in foreign languages—often called xenolalia—for the purpose of expanding Christianity and preaching the gospel. The shift in understanding began to …

Between Text And Sermon: Ephesians 6:10-20, Ekaputra Tupamahu

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Gun violence is a serious problem in the United States. Mass shootings are now almost daily occurrences, and no one, not even Christians, seems to know how to stop them. Last year, the Pew Research Center found that although almost half (48%) of Americans consider gun violence as “a very big problem in the country today,” and about “40% of Americans live in a household with a gun.”1 People are divided on this issue along geographical and rural/urban lines, political ideologies, religious convictions, gender, and so on.

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 …

Seeing God’S Presence In Others And Ourselves: Telling Our Stories, David M. Johnstone

Publications from Student Life & Spiritual Life

One of the central (and delightful) pieces of what I do as a practitioner developing student leaders is listening to the myriad of stories that our students represent. I intentionally ask them to tell their stories because I think it provides a glimpse into how the spirit of God is working in their lives. Understanding their own background gives them insight into their identity and character as followers of Christ and leaders.

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 …

Justice And Grace: Investigating Sexual Misconduct On College Campuses, David M. Johnstone

Publications from Student Life & Spiritual Life

In the early eighties I was a junior at a large research university in British Columbia. One quiet Friday evening, in the century old residence hall, a friend and I were sitting in the empty hallway while she tried to teach me how to play poker. About an hour into her unsuccessful attempts, she leaned back onto the wall and sighed. She looked straight at my inquisitive face and spoke slowly. “Last weekend I was at a diving competition out of town.” “Yes, I remember.” “After the competition I was changing, when I was raped.”

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.”

Crisis, Community, And Lament: Living During Chaotic Times, David M. Johnstone

Publications from Student Life & Spiritual Life

The day I am writing this post is September 11. In 2001, I was still a rookie administrator living with 200 freshmen on a Christian college campus in Southern California. The horror of that morning rippled into shock, confusion, and perplexity as the day continued. The community gathered together with care, empathy, and resolve. As stories permeated through campus and living areas, students stood together in solidarity. The anecdotes were full of emotion, challenge, and poignancy: An uncle was having breakfast on the first floor of the North Tower. A neighbor was caught in the collapse of the South Tower. …

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 …

Evangelicals And Roman Catholic Spirituality, Daniel L. Brunner

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

After almost twenty-five years of teaching at an evangelical seminary in the Pacific Northwest I am seeing an emerging interest in and hunger for Catholic spirituality and mysticism among many of our students, both at the master’s and doctor of ministry levels. It is exciting to see spirituality as a conduit for Roman Catholic – Evangelical ecumenism and dialogue.