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 »
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 »
November 30th, 2009 by JEL
You think it’s hard to read the Bible? Try writing it…by hand! Actually, not all by yourself. Find around 31,000 others and have them each write and submit a verse. Put it all together and voilà, in 9 months you’ll have a finished Bible.
Bible Across America, a special project commemorating the 30th anniversary of the New International Version, created the project and just sold one of the 2 copies on eBay for $15,000. Proceeds from the sale are going to Biblica. Read the full story here.
Tags: Bible, Bible Across America
Posted in In The News, The Bible | No Comments »
November 25th, 2009 by JEL
The most recent American Religious Identification Survey (March 2009) showed 15% of adults in America do not belong to any religion—and that percentage is on the rise.
Rather than wring his hands in woe and grief, however, House church leader Ken Eastburn thinks the decline is good news. Here’s his insightful perspective:
“American Christianity has long been characterized by all the wrong things: partisan politics, tips for better living, the so-called ‘prosperity gospel,’ hypocrisy, and condemnation—to name a few. When that kind of Christianity begins to decline, we have much to be thankful for. It means true Christianity—the kind characterized by loving one’s enemies, radical giving, integrity and compassion—has room to grow.”
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Tags: ARI survey, Christianity, Jesus, Words of Christ
Posted in In The News, Words of Christ | No Comments »
November 23rd, 2009 by JEL
The Biblical Botanical Gardens Society in Florida is in the process of creating The Oasis, a 21-acre parcel populated with plants like hibiscus, bamboo, cacti, and a Jerusalem thorn. All the plants featured are species that Jesus lived among 2,000 years ago.
Tours and events will attempt to re-create first-century life, and donkeys, sheep, and camels will be sprinkled about to add further context and color. The cherry on top? “Sandals will even be provided to enhance the experience.”
Tags: Bible, Biblical gardens, Jesus, the oasis
Posted in In The News, The Bible | No Comments »
November 20th, 2009 by PJM
I had reason recently to search NYTimes.com for the word “gospels.” 5,420 hits were returned. What struck me the most was how many NYT reader comments refer to them. You can try it yourself and see.
Frequently, the story that the readers are commenting on are quite secular in nature. One in particular, caught my attention in the Freakonomics Blog. A tenet of Freakonomics is that human behavior is guided by selfish incentives. A reader asked what Jesus’ incentive was in getting crucified. The blog author, Stephen Dubner, doesn’t answer the question, but we will let you know when he does. In the meantime, maybe we could sell him a book.
Tags: Freakonomics, Jesus, New York Times
Posted in In The News, Irreverant, Words of Christ | No Comments »
November 19th, 2009 by JEL
Please note that this post is filed under the “Irreverant” category. Also note that the source of article being discussed is Weekly World News.
Now that that’s out of the way, Dr. Wayne Stanton, “a mathematician and leading expert on the four gospels,” has discovered some new meaning in Jesus’ words. According to the good doctor, Jesus was speaking on two levels. One, about the Kingdom of Heaven and two, about future events.
Taking the twelfth, seventh and third letters in Jesus’ words and then using them to create new words, Jesus was apparently sending us coded messages about some startling prophesies. Read the article to find out about a very exciting year in 2010.
Tags: Bible, Four Gospels, Jesus, prophesies
Posted in Irreverant | No Comments »
November 18th, 2009 by JEL
Editor and Christian writer Phyllis Tickle talks about 5 “hinge times” in Christianity:
- Great Transformation (dominance of the Roman empire)
- Great Fall (the Roman Senate dissolves; beginning of the Dark Ages)
- Great Schism (the Catholic Church splits between Rome and Constantinople)
- Great Reformation (14th and 15th century)
- Great Emergence (present day)
At each major phase, over-regulation of religion robbed faith of much of its meaning. The resulting reaction was a search for a new direction. This interesting article contains this quote:
“You’re here to serve the kingdom of God, not to save the church.”
Tags: Christianity, hinge times, Phyllis Tickle
Posted in In The News | No Comments »
November 17th, 2009 by JEL
A book club at Kirk in the Hills church in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan is setting out to read the Bible in 90 days. The story has some good quotes from participants that touch on our motivations for creating What He Said. For instance:
“As a Christian, I thought [reading the Bible] was a good thing to do. But it’s a little intimidating to just crack it open and go cover to cover on your own.”
— Amy Maple
The founder of the Bible in 90 days program, Ted Cooper, added this:
But even though “so many people start reading the Bible, hardly anyone finishes.”
We would love to start having some Bible study groups and book clubs make What He Said their next selection.
Tags: Bible, Bible study, book club, What He Said
Posted in In The News, The Bible | No Comments »
November 13th, 2009 by JEL
Seems as if we were not the only ones crafting a book the last couple of years centered around the Four Gospels. I recently came across Mary Gordon’s Reading Jesus: A Writer’s Encounter with the Gospels. Her take is fascinating:
“In the introduction to this remarkable book, Mary Gordon is riding in a taxi as the driver listens to a religious broadcast, and she reflects that, though a lifelong Christian, she is at odds with many others who identify themselves as Christians. In an effort to understand whether or not she had ‘invented a Jesus to fulfill my own wishes,’ she determined to read the Gospels as literature and to study Jesus as a character.”
You can read Newsweek’s review of the book here.
Tags: Four Gospels, Jesus, Mary Gordon
Posted in Four Gospels | No Comments »
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