Phillip Cary

It all did start with the ninety-five theses, in a sense. Luther probably did not actually nail them to the church door—at least no one at the time tells us so. And if he did, it was not in anger or protest against the church. He was trying to arrange an academic discussion, and evidently . . . . Continue Reading »

Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violenceby jonathan sacksschocken, 320 pages, $28.95 Love can be a problem. To love is to have a beloved, a favorite, someone treasured above others. So love means not treating everyone the same. It is not justice. In politics, it means favoritism, . . . . Continue Reading »

If American evangelicals are to succeed at Christian formation under the new cultural regime that the Supreme Court has just instituted in law, they must re-learn the Gospel of Christ as the word of an external authority worth loving, not the inner voice of their experience.  Continue Reading »

Reading Barth with Charity: 
A Hermeneutical Proposal 
by george hunsinger 
baker, 208 pages, $24.99 Rumors of war persist in Princeton. The seminary faculty there boasts two eminent Barth scholars, George Hunsinger and Bruce McCormack, who don’t see eye to eye. Recently the battle has . . . . Continue Reading »

Today’s proliferation of choices about gender identity should be understood as a product of consumerism. Continue Reading »

The proliferation of gender identities serves to deconstruct gender identity. Continue Reading »

A new semester dawns with new responsibilities, and I need to wrap up this series of meditations on Genesis for the time being. Yesterday’s post can serve as a good summary of where I’ve been. What I want to do today is look back to the beginning of the series and then ahead to where I’m . . . . Continue Reading »

God’s word to the woman in Genesis 3:16 continues to fascinate me. Yesterday I argued that in contrast to rationalist projects like Plato’s, it aims to deepen the difference between male and female rather than minimize it. For in Scripture difference and otherness are not things to be regretted . . . . Continue Reading »

I’m still trying to understand God’s word to the woman in Genesis 3:16, connecting the difficulties of childbirth, the woman’s desire for her man, and her man ruling over her. In the narrative context of Genesis, this connection clearly looks forward to the patriarchal households of Genesis, . . . . Continue Reading »

I’m trying to understand why God’s word to the woman in Genesis 3:16 connects “your desire shall be for your husband” with “he shall rule over you.” The meaning of the connection becomes clearer as we look ahead to the narrative continuation of Genesis and its patriarchal households. . . . . Continue Reading »