Mennonite World Review

Articles : Bible and theology

Oct. 1, 2012 issue

• Holy humor in Scripture

  The people who first taught me the Bible took it seriously. I do not recall anyone speaking of humor. They were more aware of commandments and tragedy.

April 2, 2012 issue

• ‘Bloody’ hymns

  Reading Don Steelberg’s thoughts (Letters, March 12) on the hymn “There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood,” I recalled from my year at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 1960-61 that Howard Charles began his New Testament Survey class by describing the Roman cultural context into which Christianity came. One of the popular religions of the time was Mithraism. Devotees would stand in a pit with a grate overhead; a bull was slain above them, and its blood would drip down on the worshipers. With my usual impertinence, I asked if this was the origin for the hymn Steelberg cites. Charles replied, “Oh, my goodness, I hope not!”

• Jesus’ power over death and the temple

  In John’s account, Jesus’ crucifixion is not quite as wrenching as in the other three Gospels. His own agony is not emphasized as much, nor is the trauma experienced by his followers. In part, this reflects John’s way of writing the story as a whole, where the outcome (Jesus’ glorification as the resurrected and exalted Lord) is up front from the beginning.

Jan. 2, 2012 issue

• Faith in tension with culture

  On my desk is Third Way Allegiance: Christian Witness in the Shadow of Religious Empire by Tripp York, published by Cascadia Publishing House, Telford, Pa., 2011, 123 pages, $12.95.

Aug. 8, 2011 issue

• Dutch university creates chair of peace theology

  AMSTERDAM — A Congress on Just Peace at the Free University of Amsterdam marked the launch of the university’s chair of peace theology and ethics.

Aug. 1, 2011 issue

• Leading theologian, who taught at Harvard, dies

  Gordon D. Kaufman, an ordained Mennonite minister who became an influential theologian during a 32-year career at Harvard Divinity School and challenged Christians to think of God in new ways, died July 22. He was 86.

July 4, 2011 issue

• Preaching Peace organization pushes discussion on God and violence

  BALTIMORE — Brian McLaren likes to quote Austrian priest, philosopher and social critic Ivan Illich, who said, “If you want to change a society, then you have to tell an alternative story.”
  

June 13, 2011 issue

• Bible translation presents challenges

  ELKHART, Ind. — Two Mennonite Mission Network partners told a room full of American Mennonite leaders that one of the most important challenges of mission work is communicating God’s Word in people’s “heart language.”

May 23, 2011 issue

• Challenging the politics of empire

  JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — As a young Christian man involved in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, Mpho Putu knew that some of the protest songs — with themes of revenge killing — challenged his desire to live as a faithful disciple of Jesus.

May 2, 2011 issue

• Goshen artist helps develop historic Bible museum

  For the past year and a half, Joel Kauffmann of Goshen, Ind., has been scripting a traveling exhibit that tells what he calls “one of the most tumultuous stories in religious history.”

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