J. Aaron Simmons

On Conversation without Conversion: Reflections on Church Practice and Participation

Though I think a lot about church practice, I don’t write much on it. My writing, for better or worse, tends to be very intentionally philosophical and offered in the aim of inviting a broader readership into the technical debates of philosophy of religion. The one main exception to this general trajectory, though, is a […]

Chad Lakies

RESOURCE: Richard Kearney on Narrative Imagination and Catharsis

We haven’t done a RESOURCE post in quite some time. And since things have been dormant here for a bit now, it seems a good time to point readers to some worthy material for further pondering and perusal. The work of Richard Kearney does not get as much attention as it deserves (at least I […]

James K. A. Smith

Response to Bowald: Sins of Omission

I’m profoundly grateful to these scholars for taking time to carefully, critically, and charitably engage the second edition of The Fall of Interpretation—and in the summer, of all things!  This kind of constructive engagement is a real gift to an author, and I’m glad to have the opportunity to continue the conversation by replying to […]

Joshua Busman

Interpreting Sea Change

  This has been a rough six weeks for all us progressives living in North Carolina. Back on May 8th, we became the 31st state in the union to restrict the rights of same-sex couples through a constitutional “marriage” amendment (NC Amendment One), and this week the state legislature voted to allow “fracking,” a largely untested […]

Tripp York

Where Are All the Good Biblical Literalists When You Need Them? (I’m so confused.)

There seem to be some terribly strange and inconsistent themes at work in terms of biblical interpretation these days. While the early church spent much of its time interpreting the sayings of Jesus (as well as the prophets on issues regarding the poor and the stranger) literally with the more “incredulous” stories as allegorical, there appears to be an odd reversal of this strategy in the contemporary […]

Brian J. Walsh

Screwing with Idols: A Targum (Romans 1:16-32)

In this targum of Romans 1:16-32, Brian J. Walsh offers a creative and contemporary interpretation of a portion of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Christian community in Rome.