On Turkey Playing Politics With Andrew Brunson
The politicization of the Christian faith in the U.S. has nothing on what is happening in Turkey: In September, Mr. Erdogan held out the possibility of releasing an American pastor, Andrew Brunson, who was detained almost a year ago in the wake…
On Biblical Counseling and Psychology
Warren Throckmorten, Professor of Psychology at Grove City College, has had a great series of posts and dialogues on the differences between Biblical Counseling, Christian Psychology, and secular psychology. The impetus of the series are 95 theses on counseling that the Executive Director of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors Heath Lambert has issued. Throckmortern is continuing to evaluate the theses in a helpful way.
This interaction has done more to convince me that counseling (Biblical or otherwise) and (applied?) psychology are different fields altogether that overlap in some areas. Counseling can and should be done with people who are not experiencing mental disorders or undergoing trauma, but who simply need guidance…
On the Civil Religion and Kneeling
If you think that when Neo-Nazis and the KKK protested in Charlottesville, with a white supremacist murdering and injuring counter-protestors, that there were “some very fine people on both sides,” that this represents an insignificant fringe of American culture, and that media blew it out of proportion,
But also believe that black men kneeling during the national anthem to protest racism directed at their community is hugely disrespectful, and that they should be fired, you are probably racist.
If you think efforts to remove flags and monuments to the Confederate rebellion to preserve slavery, most of which were erected during the Civil Rights era, is a liberal assault upon American heritage, and that they should be left up…
Kurt Jackson’s ‘Nanven’s silence and beauty’
Paintings and sculptures on Cornwall. Full catalogue can be found here.
On Εὐαγγελίζω and Bible Translation
I am not a Greek scholar, nor am I a son of a Greek scholar. So, with great caution, but with confidence nonetheless, I disagree with BDAG on its definition of εὐαγγελίζω (yooangghelizo) in Luke 8:1. εὐαγγελίζω semantically possesses the basic idea that a person is announcing or bringing good news.
Luke 8:1 says that Jesus was κηρύσσων καὶ εὐαγγελιζόμενος: “he [Jesus] was proclaiming and announcing/bringing the good news.” BDAG notes that εὐαγγελίζω can either be used in a general sense to mean “bring good news” or in a narrower, specific way to mean “proclaim the gospel.” While slight, the differences are important enough to impact the meaning of passage. Bringing the good news conveys a different idea from, though related to, announcing the good news. BDAG uses Luke 8:1 as an example of this latter meaning, though without explanation for why this meaning and not the former. I believe it errs in placing Luke 8:1’s use of εὐαγγελίζω in what it calls the specific range of meaning…
