August 22, 2014
[Michael Shank, Muscle and a Shovel: A raw, gritty, true story about finding the Truth in a world drowning in religious confusion (5th edition, 2013; Kindle version). I have cited the book with chapter number first, then the Kindle location. For example, Chapter 1, location 245 is cited as 1:245.] [My first and second blogs […]
28 Comments | Books, Hermeneutics, Stone-Campbell, Theology | Tagged: Church, Churches of Christ, Eccelesiology, Hermeneutics, Michael Shanks, Muscle and a Shovel | Permalink
Posted by John Mark Hicks
August 21, 2014
[Michael Shank, Muscle and a Shovel: A raw, gritty, true story about finding the Truth in a world drowning in religious confusion (5th edition, 2013; Kindle version). I have cited the book with chapter number first, then the Kindle location. For example, Chapter 1, location 245 is cited as 1:245.] [My first blog in this […]
14 Comments | Books, Hermeneutics, Stone-Campbell, Theology | Tagged: Church, Churches of Christ, Heart, Hermeneutics, Mercy, Michael Shank | Permalink
Posted by John Mark Hicks
May 14, 2012
As Jesus teaches in the temple courts, his opponents confront him with a series of questions. Jesus had enraged the temple authorities when he cleansed the Court of the Gentiles from merchandizers. They questioned his authority, his allegiances, and his theology. These hostile questions intended to subvert his popularity and/or endanger his life. Now, however, […]
4 Comments | Biblical Texts, Hermeneutics, Theology | Tagged: Commands, Economic Justice, Ethic, Hermeneutics, Kingdom, Love, Shema, social justice, Temple | Permalink
Posted by John Mark Hicks
May 10, 2012
In this story Jesus confronts the limiting rationality of Sadducees who think it impossible that God should raise the dead. Their theology is limited by their own experience and rational argumentation. I dare say that is not too uncommon in our present moment as well. For example, it is not unusual to hear, “If God is like […]
2 Comments | Biblical Texts, Theology | Tagged: Bible-Gospel of Mark, Bible-Mark, Hermeneutics, Mark 12:18-27, New Creation, Omnipotence, Resurrection | Permalink
Posted by John Mark Hicks
March 12, 2012
It may sound rather strange to some ears, but at the turn of the 20th century there was some debate among Churches of Christ whether the Sermon on the Mount was intended for Christians. For example, Lipscomb was asked on one occasion whether he could “show that it s a Christian duty to try to […]
3 Comments | Stone-Campbell, Theology | Tagged: David Lipscomb, Ethics, Hermeneutics, James A. Harding, Matthew 5-7, Paul, Sermon the Mount, Stone-Campbell | Permalink
Posted by John Mark Hicks
December 27, 2011
Should the results of sceince ever revise our interpretations of Scripture? There was a time when, according to our Stone-Campbell forefather, people believed that “the sun moved around the earth; they interpreted the Bible to say so.” But when “the investigation of the laws of the material world proved the earth moves around the sun,” their interpretation of the […]
16 Comments | Stone-Campbell | Tagged: David Lipscomb, Evolution, Geology, Hermeneutics, Interpretation, Science, Stone-Campbell | Permalink
Posted by John Mark Hicks
May 6, 2009
A few introductory comments on the definition and function of theology…… Systematic Biblical Doctrine That’s the title of the course I will teach this Maymester at the undergraduate level for Lipscomb University. I don’t particularly like it. Here’s why. “Doctrine” rings hollow at best for most students (especially at the undergraduate level) and creates hostile […]
21 Comments | Theology | Tagged: Bible-Titus, Doctrine, Function, Hermeneutics, Narrative, Purpose, Story, System, Systematic Biblical Doctrine, Theology | Permalink
Posted by John Mark Hicks
April 8, 2009
As I continue to study and think about the Texas, Tennessee and Indiana Traditions within Churches of Christ in the first decades of the 20th century, I have been reading through the Gospel Advocate in those early years of the last century. I thought I would provide a sampling of what has interested me in […]
24 Comments | Stone-Campbell | Tagged: Acts, Churches of Christ, David Lipscomb, Epistles, Gospels, Hermeneutics, Indiana Tradition, Kingdom of God, Last Supper, Lord's Prayer, Lord's Supper, Rebaptism, Sermon on the Mount, Stone-Campbell, Tennessee Tradition, Texas Tradition | Permalink
Posted by John Mark Hicks