Archive for December, 2009
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 by PJM
Now that we are in the Christmas season, I have been spending some time in the margins of What He Said. The Gospels of Mark and John begin when Jesus is an adult, but Matthew and Luke both give accounts of Christ’s birth. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting about some aspects of the two birth stories that interest me.
The New Testament begins with the genealogy of Jesus, as told by Matthew. Jesus is the son of Joseph who was the son of Jacob who was the son of Matthan who was the son of Eleazar… But, Luke (in Chapter 3) tells us that Jesus is the son of Joseph who was the son of Heli who was the son of Matthat who was the son of Levi… What’s going on? Was Joseph the son of Jacob or Heli?
I’ve read that Jesus’ ancestry in Matthew is through Joseph and His ancestry in Luke is actually though Mary. When Luke says that Joseph was the son of Heli, he really means “son-in-law.”
This seems to be consistent with another difference in the two accounts of Christ’s birth story. Matthew has an angel of the Lord appearing to Joseph (whose ancestors he has just listed). The angel explains to Joseph the circumstances of Mary’s motherhood and tells Joseph to name the child Jesus. But, Luke tells us that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to reveal the mystery of her being with child and tells her to name the child Jesus. So, it makes sense to me that Luke would trace the genealogy of Christ through Mary.
I would love it if a more astute Biblical scholar would step in to let us know if my thinking is off-base.
Tags: Bible, Christmas, Four Gospels, Genealogy, Jesus, Joseph, Mary
Posted in Christmas, Four Gospels, The Bible | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 by JEL
As part of our marketing efforts, we are listing our What He Said blog with some directories. Technorati is one of the biggest, so we’re starting there. Hopefully, doing so will expand our reach and let users access updates in their feed readers of choice.
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Tags: blog, blog directories, Technorati, What He Said
Posted in What He Said - The Book | No Comments »
Monday, December 7th, 2009 by JEL
No, we’re not building an ark, but we are waiting for the phone to ring. In an attempt to get spread the word about What He Said, last week we worked with a book publicity firm to send out a press release to almost 3,000 relevant media people. We envisioned our voicemail system filling up and overflowing email inboxes. So far, that has not been the case.
Now the publicity firm tells us that the best response will come from our following up with all these contacts. Truly, the world will not beat a path to your door.
Tags: book publicity, marketing, press release, What He Said
Posted in What He Said - The Book | No Comments »
Friday, December 4th, 2009 by JEL
The title of this post is taken from the title of Hanna Rosin’s fascinating article in this month’s issue of The Atlantic. It covers the ever-growing “prosperity gospel”: the belief that God will provide material wealth for those of great faith. Rosin describes the movement and documents cases of believers (like many non-believers) buying houses they could never afford in the first place because they felt God would provide for them.
The prosperity gospel is much larger than you might think:
- 50 of the largest 260 churches in the US preach the prosperity gospel.
- A Pew Research study found that 66% of Pentecostals and 43% of “other Christians” (half of the total respondents) believe that “wealth will be granted to the faithful.”
- The same survey shows that 73% of religious Latinos agreed with the statement, “God will grant financial success to all believers who have enough faith.”
It’s weird. When I read what Jesus said (made much easier by What He Said), all I see are commands to give until it hurts. And then give some more.
Tags: Christianity, financial crisis, Jesus, prosperity gospel
Posted in In The News, Words of Christ | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 by JEL
While What He Said has received some great early attention over at Amazon, we’ve been waiting for our first “official” feedback. Yesterday, it came from Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, environmentalist, author, educator, and active participant in the Methodist Church. Here’s what he had to say about the book:
“What He Said is very well done and very useful. The Gospels are so deeply radical that we tend to encrust them in all kinds of tradition to avoid having to deal with those very deep commands to love your God and your neighbor. This reminds us powerfully of the centrality of that countercultural message.”
Tags: Bill McKibben, book reviews, What He Said
Posted in What He Said - The Book | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 by JEL
I realize this is a little off-topic, but Charlie Weis, ex-Patriots Offensive Coordinator, can now add another “ex-” to his resume. As in, ex-Notre Dame head coach. I thought this article had an interesting take on Weis’s tenure and the problems of ND football.
Apparently, the decline of Catholic secondary schools has played a major role in ND’s nose-dive as they no longer act as “prime recruiting centers.” One out of five Catholic schools in the U.S. has closed over the past 10 years.
Tags: Catholic faith, Charlie Weis, Notre Dame, parochial schools
Posted in In The News | No Comments »
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