Israel’s Scripture: Narrative and Liturgy

December 22, 2022

Texts: 1 Chronicles 29:29-30; Psalm 19:14 Days 20-22 in Around the Bible in Eighty Days. Every people-group has a history; they tell stories about their journey. And every people-group has a liturgy; they worship someone or something.  Israel is no different. The Torah and subsequent histories (running from Judges through Kings and Chronicles to Ezra-Nehemiah) narrates […]


Theological Reflections on “The Shack” I: Literary Genre

October 8, 2008

[My book on the Shack is now available on Kindle.] If you are interested in a pastoral review of The Shack, that five part series begins here. While some have perhaps read The Shack as an actual account, the title page clearly identifies the piece as a “novel.” This is a fictional story. Young himself […]


Theological Hermeneutics II – Scripture and Human Language

June 12, 2008

Scripture comes to us as human literature. It is written by humans for humans in human language. Whatever it communicates, then, it communicates through the medium of finite, limiting, bounded human language. In this context, I raise only three points in this post. Much more, of course, could be said, but these points are significant […]


Additional Resources for Psalm Study

April 28, 2008

I tend to think of the Psalms in the broad category of “calling upon God”–they are situated responses to God’s own call toward us in creation and redemption. In dialogue believers call upon the creator and redeemer God in profession, prayer and praise; they respond to God’s divine acts in the world in confession, lament and thanksgiving […]