Summer Heat
This summer has provided an intense introduction to hot and humid tornado weather. A city-wide power outage, followed by intermittent electricity and internet service, kicked off the season. In other news, I adopted an adorable puppy, which has distracted me from updating my website. As summer vacation season comes to an end, I am preparing an eight-week Sunday School class featuring the ancient Israelite Matriarchs and researching for a presentation on Justice in the Psalter at Society for Biblical Literature this Autumn.
Feel free to browse my blogs on various topics and consider the discussion whenever you are inspired. Please consider submitting your email address to receive occasional updates. Meanwhile, I wish you the best on your journey. Find a place of peace in this world.
Read my most recent blogs below:
Imago Barbie
While I didn’t intend to write a blog post reflecting on a lighthearted film about the American doll so many people love to hate, I am stirred by the polarizing responses of friends and their significant others. Spoiler Alert: I’m not holding back. Read ahead at your own risk. This blog post will reveal a…
Read More
Genesis 1, Bereshit, and the Big Bang
Genesis 1 is perhaps one of the Bible’s most well-known and quotable opening lines. Many can recite the King James Version, “In the beginning …”. Theologians like to point out the priestly nature of the first chapter of Genesis, how it describes God’s supreme power in the universe and reflects temple imagery elsewhere in Scripture.…
Read More
The O’s Have It Part I: God’s Omniscience in the Bible
One of the first things I learned in Seminary was that the gap between biblical and theological studies grew wider as scholars specialized. Even the vocabulary and basic assumptions about belief, faith, and the nature of God differed between the two camps. I was raised in a Christian tradition considered “full Gospel,” meaning any belief…
Read More
The Bible as an Instructive Text
Read or listen to the Blogcast Many modern-day readers of the Bible tend to look for a system of rules. I suppose this is because we are raised to look for guideposts and follow the rules to stay in line. It starts in the home with chore charts and rules about bedtime and brushing our…
Read More
Why is Psalm 82 Considered a Difficult Text?
I started working on Psalm 82 more than a decade ago to unpack the relationship between the Divine Council and Earthly justice-seeking councils, like the Council of Elders in the Bible. I quickly discovered that Psalm 82 was a difficult text to unpack, and many scholars disagreed about its origin, its place in the Psalter,…
Read More
Star Trek and Religion
It’s just scratching the surface, but I’ve brought together a few of my favorite Star Trek episodes that deal with religion and portrayals of God. Sci-fi is a fantastic venue for exploring how people interact with religious ideas and concepts. Gene Roddenberry masterfully encouraged exploring the human condition in Star Trek. Star Trek: The Next…
Read More
The Poetic Nature of the Psalter Teaches Us
Genre influences how we read and seek to understand a written word. We respond to something written with implicit bias that helps us make informed judgments about what we read and how we should think about the message of a thing. For example, a general news article presents serious content by describing facts or details…
Read More
In the Blink of an Eye
Science fiction has a tendency to confront human nature by dropping familiar views of politics, civil understanding, and religion into a futuristic or otherworldly paradigm. Guess what? No matter what technology is at their disposal, people tend toward the same mistakes and problems. I am particularly interested in how science fiction portrays and wrestles with…
Read More
Epiphany in the New Year
I sit in my kitchen, drinking a double espresso, and thinking about the challenges of transition last year. It’s dark outside as I write this in the week of Epiphany. The wise men have made it to the manger, and people worldwide are taking down holiday decorations. It seems like we are always in a…
Read More
A Guided Tour of Ethics in the Old Testament
This blog post is condensed and reworked from a presentation I made at Society for Biblical Literature, 2022, in Denver, CO (#SBLAAR22) for the Biblical Ethics Section: Panel Review of John Goldingay’s “Old Testament Ethics: A Guided Tour.” John Goldingay is one of the most prolific and influential Old Testament scholars. He has written an…
Read More