Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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SHIFT 2019-2020 Starts Tonight @ UCF
Tonight, we kick off another year of SHIFT at UCF. Since last semester, we have been able to meet in the Student Union on Monday nights. Typically, Monday is one of the more high traffic days on campus, and the Student Union is obviously a great centralized location to have a college Bible study on…
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Reading Genesis Theologically
Before getting into more books, I thought it might be helpful to step back and consider some conclusions I’ve drawn. At this point, we’ve talked about how to read Genesis well, how ancient cosmology affects interpretation, how the church fathers read Genesis 1, and how Genesis 1-2 have been read through the ages. Next week,…
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Since The Beginning: Interpreting Genesis 1 and 2 through the Ages
This collection of essays, edited by Kyle Greenwood offers readers historical perspective on how the early chapters of Genesis have been understood. This is no small task, and almost certainly needed to be a group effort. Very few individuals would be qualified to discuss in detail the history of interpretation of a given passage, much…
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Early Christian Readings of Genesis One: Patristic Exegesis and Literal Interpretation
In Early Christian Readings of Genesis One, which I was able to read thanks to IVP Academic, Craig Allert explores whether or not one can use the early church fathers to support a certain literal interpretation of Genesis 1. That certain literal interpretation is the one that supports at young earth creationist reading of Genesis…
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Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible Between the Ancient World and Modern Science
One of the more paradigm shifting experiences I had in seminary was finding out about other ancient Near Eastern literature. The Bible, particularly the Old Testament, was written in a very different place and time than our own. By studying other writings from that place and time we may be better equipped to understand what…
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Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science, and Truth in Genesis 1-11
While I was taking Hebrew classes, I stumbled upon an unusual commentary. It was only over 4 chapters, but it happened to be 4 chapters I was intently interested in understanding better. The book, by C. John Collins, was Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary. You can read the fruits of that paradigm…
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Scripture as Music and Genesis 1 as Overture
In their book, Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption Through Scripture, Alastair Roberts and Andrew Wilson employ a musical metaphor to organize the material. “Scripture is music,” they say, and the variety of genres in Scripture call to mind the variety among musical genres as well. The authors go beyond this though, and highlight…
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Understanding Genesis: A Review Series
Since October, I’ve been organizing my thoughts on Genesis. At this point, I’ve read enough books on understanding Genesis that I thought a review series was in order. In my first post back in October, I laid out some the issues related to reading and understanding Genesis well. This is a kind of re-up on…
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Some of My Best Reads from 2018
I read 125 books in 2018, which is below my average of 150. Part of that is because I actually spent more time doing other things. The other part is that I spent more time in my morning routine reading the Bible. Over the course of the year, I read the entire Bible once, and…
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Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ
Last year, one of the best books I read was The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. So, when I saw that the author, Fleming Rutledge had an advent book come out back in the fall, I decided it would be a good read for mid-December. The book, Advent: The Once and Future Coming…
Got any book recommendations?