Category: Blog
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Black Lives Matter at Biola, 1957
I recently learned that the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, through its monthly magazine The King’s Business, took a stand against racial segregation in 1957. This 1957 broadcasting of Biola’s institutional position was neither so early as to be cutting-edge, nor so late as to be irrelevant. Here’s the story. Biola’s magazine stated its view publicly…
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Sanctify Christ in Your Hearts (Sermon)
Here is video of a sermon I preached a few days ago at my home church, Grace Evangelical Free Church in La Mirada. It’s got all the usual stuff in it: medieval images, cartoon word balloons, Conan the Barbarian quotes, WWII stories, a Star Wars reference, quotes from 17th c. bishop Robert Leighton, tips on…
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“Against You Only”
Why does David say to God, “against you only have I sinned,” when the occasion of his saying so (Psalm 51) is the time “when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba”? Perhaps David’s awareness of his sin against God was so great that sins against others dwindled to insignificance…
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Theology Conferences Part II of II: The Vices
See Part 1 here. In my first post, I sought to paint a constructive vision of academic conferences, but that is far from all there is to say—for a conference is a vice-saturated affair, and it’s worth knowing that ahead of time. One of the most superficial and natural ways vice rears its head has…
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It Should Go Without Saying
Theologian Karl Barth was teaching Christian doctrine in the University of Bonn in 1934 when the word went out that all civil servants had to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler. That is, not a pledge of allegiance to the flag; not a promise to support the constitution or to obey the laws; but…
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Theology Conferences Part I of II: A Brief How-To Guide
See Part 2 here. If you are interested in an academic career, welcome to the world of conferences. For all their weaknesses, these are one of the main heartbeats of the academy. Over two posts, I will do my best to pass along what I have learned, thus speeding up the learning curve. The Cost…
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The Flowering Crown
This post was featured on Biola’s Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts’ Lent Project on Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016. The crown of the thorns is a symbol of cruelty and oppression—but a poetic one. The rightful king of creation enters his realm, only to find himself crowned with the very thorns that choke…
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Nate Butler: Lecture on the Biola Christian Comics Collection
The Biola University Library is the home of the largest and most comprehensive archive of Christian comic books gathered anywhere. It is a deep, diverse, and unusual collection, which was established in 2015 when two major caches passed from private collections into the safekeeping of this permanent archive at an academic research library. One was the…
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The Chamber of Victory: Harry Potter and the Atonement, Part II
The Chamber of Secrets picks up where The Sorcerer’s Stone left off, continuing its provocative and creative exploration of salvation. There are angry demands for punishment (144; and the dismissal thereof (330)), an “heir” which will purge the school of unclean Mudblood filth (151, 224), freedom for “the lowly, the enslaved” Dobby (177, 337-8), the…
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Why Read? By Eva Brann
This speech was originally given on March 3, 2016, by Professor Eva Brann of St. John’s College (Annapolis), as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series at the Torrey Honors Institute. The following is an excerpt. A link to her full speech is available on Open Biola. There’s reading and then there’s reading. There’s the kind…
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Online Education: Relation-less Education
Online classes and online universities are all the rage. They boast an impressive set of virtues and opportunities. Among them: Take classes in your pajamas (or less)! Why relocate? Learn at your own pace. Keep your day job. Pay less. A lot less (but read the fine print!). These, and a number of other “benefits”,…
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“Learning, by Means of Important Texts, to Read” (Barth ’48)
A note here on how Karl Barth viewed his teaching in the late 1940s in Basle. Barth was deep into writing Church Dogmatics III, and as usual he was developing the voluminous text of the Dogmatics out of the four hours of lectures he was giving on the subject weekly. But four hours of lectures…