John Mark Hicks

Imbibing the theodrama by reading Scripture is critical to the development of our theological sensitivities. One of the more important dimensions of this maturing understanding of the theodrama is the concept of redemptive-historical movement within the drama itself. The theodrama is progressive; it is telos-oriented or goal-oriented. Watching the movement of the drama toward the […]

Assuming the existence of a metanarrative story embedded within the unfolding story of God with his people in Scripture (I will not take the time to defend that assumption at this point), it seems to me that we might identify the function of Scripture within the story itself in three ways. Three Functions 1. Scripture […]

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 […]

This post begins a new series which will attempt to offer some of the bare outlines of a theological approach to the hermeneutical task. My first series “Created for Hermeneutics” laid some of the theological and philosophical foundations for thinking about hermeneutics. My second series “Stone-Campbell Hermeneutics” provided a historical/theological context for the appreciation and […]

I begin this series on Stone-Campbell hermeneutics with Alexander Campbell (1788-1866).  While I recognize that Barton W. Stone (1772-1844) and Thomas Campbell (1763-1855) also had a significant impact on how the Stone-Campbell Movement read the Bible, there seems little question that Alexander Campbell was the more dominant figure for Stone-Campbell hermeneutics. Consequently, I will stress Alexander […]

One of the more interesting postmodern philosophers, in my opinion, is Merold Westphal. Below I have reproduced a selection from his article “Appropriating Postmodernism” in his Overcoming Onto-theology: Toward a Postmodern Christian Faith (NY: Fordham, 2001), pp. 78-80. Originally a lecture to an evangelical college board, he attempts to illustrate how postmodernism, hermeneutics, theology and the […]

Originally prepared for a discussion among faculty, I have used this handout as a point of discussion in several of my graduate classes.  It is a “bare bones” introduction to how Christian theology and postmodern perspectives might intersect or complement each other. It is intended as a discussion starter for my classes; it is not […]

During July 2007 I presented three lessons in the summer series at Brentwood Hills Church of Christ near Nashville, Tennessee. They asked me to present some material from Kingdom Come: Embracing the Spiritual Legacy of David Lipscomb and James Harding which I co-authored with my good friend Bobby Valentine. Bobby and I presented the material […]

Kingdom Come: Embracing the Spiritual Legacy of David Lipscomb and James A. Harding is the title of a new release by Leafwood Press, a division of ACU Press. It is due out in May 2006. Bobby Valentine and John Mark Hicks are the authors. “Many assume that Churches of Christ views 1930-1960 were those of […]