Category: Theology

This group of thirteen suppliants shows us a slice of life in the first-century world: A man with an unclean spirit (1:21-28) A woman with a fever (1:29-31) A leper in his uncleanness (1:40-45) A paralytic (2:1-10) A man with a withered hand (3:1-6) A man with a legion of demons who lives among the…

Amazon’s got some pretty great options on sale for $5 this month: The Postal Service’s Give Up Ben Fold’s Rockin the Suburbs Coldplay’s Parachutes Radiohead’s OK Computer Cold War Kids’ Mine is Yours 30 Seconds to Mars’ A Beautiful Lie Mastodon’s Crack the Skye Panic! At the Disco’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out NeedToBreathe’s…

By quoting Isaiah 6:9-10 in his explanation why he teaches in parables (Mark 4:10-12), Jesus indicates that nothing has really changed about Israel since Isaiah’s day. They see but do not perceive, they hear but do not understand; that is, they are still afflicted with unbelief. Jesus’ ministry through parables has the same role as…

The trouble with questions is that, once heard, they do not leave the hearers alone. They are asked of anyone who hears them, whether their subject is properly their business or not. Questions in a narrative are therefore extremely important for the reader of the narrative as well as for the original hearers. As we…

The religion of the Old Testament was an elaborate system that effectively taught that God kept his distance from sinners. Even though Israel rejoiced at the presenc of God among them, that presence was paradoxically, at one and the same time, a reminder of God’s distance. The coming of Jesus abolishes this distance, and so,…

It is not an explicit part of Mark’s story to show Jesus’ attitude to Greco-Roman religion, but if he was so clearly disturbed at the abuses within the religion of Israel, it does not require much imagination to guess at his attitude towards the abuses associated with the idolatrous practices that existed outside Israel (cf.…

From a theo-dramatic perspective, however, the sending of the Son has more to do with enacting than encoding. For the Son’s mission is not simply to convey information (though revealing the Father is an aspect of his work) but to convey the personal promise, presence, and power of God. Similarly, the words of the Bible are…

Because God is saying/doing several things in the cross, the cross is a complex of related illocutions: As an assertive, the cross is a statement that God has made provision for sin As a commissive, the cross makes a promise that “if you believe, you shall be saved” As an expressive, the cross demonstrates God’s…

The drama of redemption is thus a great twofold odyssey, in which humanity, along with the rest of creation, loses its way and finds its way home only because God leaves home in order to bring everyone back. The Scriptures depict a covenantal drama moved forward by the love of God. It is a drama…

The doctrine of the Trinity, far from being a peice of abstract speculation, is actually the inevitable conclusion to which the church was driven by the logic of theo-drama. The church fathers soon came to realize that the integrity of the gospel is fatally compromised if either the Son of the Spirit is not fully…