But, then I noticed another book, Misquoting Jesus by Bard Ehrman - listed as nonfiction because it will tell you how "mistakes and changes by ancient scribes shaped the Bible we use today." And there, on the same list was Gary Wills's new book, What Jesus Meant - about the radicalism of Jesus, a fresh reading of the Gospels. It was there for the second week. The Last Templar also made the list for the 10th.
Read moreOn the other hand, the overwhelming third ballot election of Alabama's Suffragan (assistant) Bishop Mark Andrus, while relieving in that he has a wife and two daughters rather than a live-in lover (like all of the Big Three), has some distinct drawbacks.
Read moreThis is the same for me today as an archbishop as it was when, as a raw young theological graduate, I was appointed to my first curacy in a university-based parish.
Since becoming Archbishop of Sydney I have found that I am expected to be an instant expert on all sorts of topics, delivering pithy statements couched in attention- grabbing and accessible language, and preferably packaged in usable sound bites.
Read moreFor generations we Anglicans have understood ourselves to offer a middle way, a via media. In a very similar vein, we have often spoken of our calling as that of a "bridge" church.
Read morePaul affirms that he spoke clearly and forthrightly to the Corinthians, just as Jesus spoke to the disciples. And he spoke decisively, just as Jesus spoke decisively, for he was simply passing on the word of truth that Jesus had committed to the Church. Indeed, Paul was passing on the truth of Jesus himself, in whom God has spoken decisively to all men for all time. In Jesus, God says Yes to his creation.
Read moreHis own parish suffered considerably when it lost high rollers in the midst of a multi-million dollar building project. He went to Dromantine where he offered a lame explanation to the Primates about ECUSA's decision to consecrate a gay bishop.
My most recent contact with him was when I sat beside him at the funeral of one of his former parishioners who left Good Shepherd to help start St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Versailles (Diocese of Uganda).
Read moreBut why is the present argument more intense and more shrill than the fashionable protests of preceding decades? Is this really the pinnacle of moral discourse in the churches and in democratic societies, or is time running out on moral discourse, whether fashionable or not?
Read moreThe experience of these ancient generations as recorded in scripture is not necessarily normative for any living, contemporary person or Anglican on this view of the Bible.
Read moreRegarding the Creedal Faith I learned that the Virgin Birth and the Ascension were myths, (They're not all that important anyway!), that the Resurrection was a "spiritual" or "mystical" event, (Some nonsense about it being "true" but not necessarily "factual" as I recall.), and that while Hell might exist, we were not required to believe that anyone was there, or would ever be there (Not full blown Universalism perhaps, but pretty close!).
Read moreWe know all of this because the Episcopal Church is "prophetic".
What exactly do people mean when they say that something or someone is prophetic? We are familiar with the Old Testament prophets all the way up to John the Baptist and the New Testament prophets as well, like Agabus and Philip's daughters, but what does it mean to be "prophetic" now?
Biblically speaking, prophecy generally falls into two categories: foretelling and forth-telling.
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