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The Gospel in “American Born Chinese”: An Introduction to Contextualization
Today I’m happy to introduce you to my former student “Crystal,” a guest blogger, for a series on contextualizing the gospel. You can read her bio at the end. A Disney+ subscriber and a theologian walk into a coffee shop.The theologian asks: what does a nerd, a monkey, and a mythical scroll have to do with the gospel? The Disney+ subscriber answers: I watched that show. What Does the Gospel Have to Do with American Born Chinese? In May 2023, the American Born Chinese television series released on Disney+ to critical acclaim. In the series, Jin Wang, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, conceals his nerdy interests in an attempt to…
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Lent for Beginners
Today is Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday. Today we eat the chocolate we may be giving up starting tomorrow. Lent, the forty-day season preceding Easter, begins on Ash Wednesday, tomorrow. On Ash Wednesday, participants receive ashes on their foreheads as a reminder that from dust we came, and to dust we shall return—not in some morbid zombie sense, but because remembering the brevity of life and our mortality can help us live more holy lives. Long before the Eastern and Western Church split, and long, long before the Protestant Reformation, Christian believers observed this special season of penance. “Lenctentid” literally means both “springtide” and “March,” the month in which most of…
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Writing for Ministry: Ten Tips
Also, part of loving others and reaching the widest-possible audience is using gender-inclusive language. The following statement, with which I heartily agree, is adapted from the syllabus of one of my colleagues: “All written submissions should strive to use male/female-inclusive language. As a gospel-shaped, gospel-centered community of learning, we have compelling reasons to think, write, and speak in such a way as to ensure that none are either intentionally or inadvertently excluded by our use of language. Consider using ‘humans,’ ‘persons,’ ‘humanity,’ or ‘humankind”’ rather than ‘man’ or ‘men’ when referring to humans in general. Consider alternating between the use of ‘he’ and ‘she’ as generic pronouns or substituting…
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About Bathsheba…
Today I’m happy to feature Lindsay Ann Nickens, a budding Old Testament scholar at Dallas Theological Seminary, in this guest post about Bathsheba. Lust, betrayal, shame. These words often come to mind when we hear David and Bathsheba’s story. But 2 Samuel 11–12, where we find their story, is primarily—surprisingly—a war text. The story begins with a spring setting, at a time when kings customarily go to war to enlarge national boundaries and defend territories from invading kings (11:1). The Old Testament describes Yahweh as invested in defending Israel as a place solely devoted to his worship. Yet David chose to stay home during the war season instead of investing…
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Guess What Paul Has in Mind for Marriage?
Today I’m happy to have as my guest Dallas Theological Seminary student Shena Ashcraft, who has spent the past semester doing an independent study focused on the Roman household codes and what they have to do with Paul’s instruction about marriage in Ephesians 5. For a video version of this content, go here. Rewind with me to the 1980s, when kids in classrooms and at kitchen tables were playing the classic board game, Guess Who? Both players chose a secret character card that the opposite player would try to guess by asking only yes or no questions. Their opponent had hinged pictures of all the characters in front of them…
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Savor Christ
Today I’m happy to bring you a guest post from Dallas Theological Seminary students Makay Bergthold and Kristen Powell: If you could uncork a glass bottle of “Christmas,” what delightful scent would greet you? Gingerbread? A fresh-cut Christmas tree? The spices of cinnamon and cloves in hot apple cider simmering on the stovetop? Whatever your Christmas treat of choice, the opportunity to savor smells and tastes that bring pleasure may spark a happy memory that connects you to loved ones or a time in your life when Christmas was simpler or more joyful. For many adults Christmas no longer brings simple delights, but instead anxieties over expectations, potential family conflict,…
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What’s Amazing about the Annunciation!
Trigger warning: sexual assault How we experience life embodied as sexed beings affects how we read the biblical text. So how do many women do so? We do so as those who have (a) been violated ourselves or (b) as those who live in close proximity with someone who is a survivor of such violation. According to RAINN, one out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. Contrast this with the one in 33 American men who have been victims of attempted or completed rape. Women are raped more than five times as often as men. And neither of these statistics…
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You Are Free: A Lesson from the Greco-Roman World
Most of us know that the world of the earliest Christians included slavery. The book of Philemon details the return of the slave Onesimus. And elsewhere, Paul flips the usual household codes, addresses slaves directly (scandalous!), and tells masters they, too, have a master. But even more personally, Paul refers to all believers as manumitted from sin and free to serve our new master: righteousness. Here are three examples from Paul’s letters. Notice what he says about who owns the believer. Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting…
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Meaning-full Holidays Benefit from Advance Planning
My shopping list includes “Halloween candy,” and my neighbors’ yards feature cobwebs, ghosts, and the Grim Reaper. Yet I just received a gift catalog from an aid organization, an invitation to a holiday brunch, and ads for Advent products in my social media feeds. It feels too early to think about whether to include marshmallows on the sweet-potato casserole. But we also know planning ahead will help make the holidays more meaning-full, right? Here on the Engage blog, I have annual tradition of offering suggestions for doing so. Here’s my 2023 Top Ten list: Prefer a book? I love Fleming Rutledge’s Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ. I get…
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What We Can Learn about Jesus from a Goddess
I love Wonder Woman. But I’m less of a fan of Diana, that is, Artemis, on whom the Wonder Woman character is based. But one thing I do love about Artemis is this: knowledge about her helps me understand parts of the New Testament (NT). The NT writers, while seeing Greek gods as false, certainly didn’t shy away from referencing them. The author of Acts, presumably Luke, mentions a ship with the Dioscuri (the sons of Zeus, namely the twin brothers Castor and Pollux) for its figurehead (Acts 28:11). And he recounts how the people in Lystra thought Paul was Hermes, “because he was the chief speaker” (Acts 14:12)—Hermes being…