Theology That Bites Back
This category contains the resources that I have found useful in my personal and professional life. Admittedly, it is an eclectic list. It contains everything from quotes and books that I like to podcasts, videos, and slideshows.
Introduction: According to a tradition among the Jews, if a psalm is not attributed to anyone, then the credit should go to the author of the previous psalm. There is no basis for being dogmatic about it, but this would mean that Psalm 91 was composed by Moses. The reason this is suggestive is that …
So let me explain it to you once again, one more time. If a white girl wears a Chinese dress to the prom, she is guilty of “appropriation.” If another girl wears hoop earrings, she is also guilty of “appropriation,” but now in a different direction. If a fraternity hosts a Mexican dinner and the …
I don’t have a great deal to say about this next chapter—on Christ as our Elder Brother—because most of it is very good. The mistake that Aimee Byrd is making is the same one again. She says a number of valuable things about the biblical relationship of brothers and sisters, some of them even glorious …
Introduction: A few weeks ago, I wrote something that caused some consternation in some predictable quarters. I said: “But here are some different examples. This one is taken from the world, not from Scripture, but we can learn something about the world from it. Why, if a woman sleeps with a hundred men, is she …
Introduction: Aimee Byrd is very aware of a mistake that would, in this kind of cultural analysis, be a very easy one to make. I am glad she is aware of it because it shows she is actively trying to avoid making it, and that is all to the good. Unfortunately, this awareness has not …
In her fifth chapter, Aimee Byrd helpfully offers some qualifications (and/or exceptions) to what she has been generally arguing for. She makes the important general point that temptation and sin in this area is devastating and really bad. And she also says some really good things in this chapter about how the law does not …
It has been a few days, but I was asked to respond to a piece here from a friendly critic of my fictional letter to a wife who was preparing to leave her husband. The central thing that I would like to contest is this: “In fact, this piece straightforwardly reverses what God actually says. …
“Grape juice and flat crackers for communion are a fitting description of the gospel we are [unfortunately] presenting to the world” (Confessions of a Food Catholic, pp. 189-190).
Introduction So I want to begin my review of this chapter of Aimee Byrd’s book with some agreement. Although I differ strongly with her overarching thesis, I also want to make it clear that I believe she is reacting to some genuine problems in the “purity world.” I have seen some of those problems myself, …
“How many Christians torture themselves with self-rebuke because they aren’t ‘eating healthy enough?’ They didn’t have a whole lot of time for lunch yesterday, so they didn’t walk the three blocks necessary to get that bean sprout sandwich, and instead just stopped at the street vendor on the first corner. Instead of feeling guilty, though, …
