Hermeneutics

Exuberant over an experience, an oh-so-sweet manifestation of divine providence, you delightedly seek to give God praise in telling your story. “It was such a ‘God thing’,” you proclaim. As you see it, God wove together an otherwise inexplicable combination of events to deliver a wonderful—even...
J. Todd Billings
What is the fruit of biblical interpretation? For example, in interpreting anceint texts such as the Psalms, should our primary goal be to reconstruct the ancient Psalmist's meaning? Or, for Christians, should it be to receive the Psalms as prayers , to be prayed by the Spirit, in Christ? There are...
J. Todd Billings
What is the fruit of biblical interpretation? For example, in interpreting anceint texts such as the Psalms, should our primary goal be to reconstruct the ancient Psalmist's meaning? Or, for Christians, should it be to receive the Psalms as prayers , to be prayed by the Spirit, in Christ? There are...
The second-century Church Father Irenaeus's most famous work, Against Heresies , was principally directed at the contemporary heresy of Gnosticism, especially as that movement found expression in the thought of a teacher named Valentinus in Rome. One can discern in Valentinus's doctrine the two...
David B. Garner
The grocery store cereal aisle has become a common metaphor for distinguishing the West from the rest of the world, and rightly so. Just after we moved to Eastern Europe years ago, my family and I began the hunt for cereal in our city. In due course, we found three cereal options. Yes, three ...
David B. Garner
The grocery store cereal aisle has become a common metaphor for distinguishing the West from the rest of the world, and rightly so. Just after we moved to Eastern Europe years ago, my family and I began the hunt for cereal in our city. In due course, we found three cereal options. Yes, three ...
Noel Weeks
Editors' Note: This is the second part of a two part series on this topic. You can read the first part here. Developing a Critical Sense Since there are such problems and yet some background information is valid and helpful, how can the average reader sort the useful from the spurious? I think...
Noel Weeks
Editors' Note: This is the second part of a two part series on this topic. You can read the first part here. Developing a Critical Sense Since there are such problems and yet some background information is valid and helpful, how can the average reader sort the useful from the spurious? I think...
Noel Weeks
Editors' Note: This is the first of a two-part series on this subject. Part two will be posted next week. I am sure all Bible readers are confronted at some stage with those enigmatic passages which either seem incomprehensible or so contradictory, either to other parts of Scripture or to common...
Noel Weeks
Editors' Note: This is the first of a two-part series on this subject. Part two will be posted next week. I am sure all Bible readers are confronted at some stage with those enigmatic passages which either seem incomprehensible or so contradictory, either to other parts of Scripture or to common...