James F. McGrath
Patheos
Indianapolis, IN, United States
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Past articles by James:
What Jesus Learned from the Woman Who Washed His Feet/Anointed Him
As someone who is always on the lookout for neologisms that combine two words in punny fashion, it took me a moment to register that the word “anointment” is just an already-existing everyday word, and one that I already knew somewhere in the back of my mind, although I don’t use it often and so it took me a moment. → Read More
Paul’s Story of Jesus
Mike Bird recently undertook the exercise of assembling Paul's scattered references to the story of Jesus into a narrative whole, using the wording as found in his letters. The result is interesting, to say the least. Mike offers two versions of Paul's "story of Jesus" created from a pastiche of specific excerpts → Read More
What Jesus Learned from…Childbirth?
Given that I am working on a book about things Jesus learned from women, I was delighted that someone in my Sunday school class noticed the imagery of a woman giving birth used in John 16:21-24, when Jesus speaks of the experience of childbirth. How does the analogy Jesus makes there relate to the book I am working → Read More
Science Fiction and Prophecy
Having written about science fiction as prophecy here not long ago, I was struck by a recent article in the New York Times by Namwali Serpell. Here is one briefer and one longer excerpt: Maybe because we’re living in a dystopia, it feels as if we’ve become obsessed with prophecy of late. Protest signs at the 2017 → Read More
Inspirational Science Fiction Quotes
I recently resumed my "reading" of Frank Herbert's Dune series through audiobooks, after a longer hiatus than I care to admit. Over the course of Heretics of Dune, I kept finding quotations that are worth sharing. Two were conveniently already to be found online as memes, and so I will embed them below - and then → Read More
Reading the Gospel of Mark (and its Christology) in Context
This is another blog post that existed as a draft for a long time. The earlier links that I placed in the draft were mostly about the Gospel of Mark, with several of them focusing on recent books about reading that text in context. The Zondervan blog had a post about one such book, and the Hendrickson blog had a post → Read More
What Jesus Learned from His Mother
I'm delighted to report that a publisher has accepted my proposal for a book with the working title, What Jesus Learned From Women. And so I'm returning to blogging about the topic, with a view to making quick progress on the manuscript, garnering feedback, and hopefully generating interest. Not all posts related to → Read More
Bohemian Rhapsody
I finally got to see the movie Bohemian Rhapsody this week, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, from even before the movie proper began, when the standard instrumentation on the 20th Century Fox fanfare was replaced with Queen style guitars playing the melody. The film teases where it will end - Live Aid - before rewinding → Read More
Disarming Student Suspicions of Evolution
Rev. Dr. Charles Allen leads the wonderful progressive Christian campus ministry at Butler University known as Grace Unlimited. He has shared some of his own experience of being persuaded to adopt young-earth creationism, and then again to abandon it, in a manner that mirrors my own experience to a large extent. Here → Read More
Come and See: Why I Am (Still) A Christian
In a sermon towards the end of 2015, the (now former) pastor of my church encouraged us to do what the disciples are depicted as doing in the early part of the Gospel of John: tell our story. It had been a long while since I've done so here, and so I thought I'd seize the opportunity. But for some reason it didn't → Read More
Bible, It’s Cold Outside
I've followed the recent discussions about the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with interest. But it took me a while to realize that they provide a close analogy to discussions about the Bible and its interpretation. Here are some of the key claims that various people have been making in relation to the song: The → Read More
Inerrancy: The Hermeneutics of Defending Slavery
I have such a great appreciation for Neil Carter. Although he is no longer a Christian, he is regularly concerned that neither Christianity in general, nor Jesus, be maligned as a whole for things that are the responsibility of a subset of Christians who can be shown to have departed wholesale from Jesus' teachings. → Read More
Do God’s Ends Justify God’s Means?
As my Sunday school class moved into John 11 a while back, the fact that Jesus seems to delay healing Lazarus so as to highlight his own abilities and glory to a greater extent seemed disturbing. We say that "the ends don't justify the means" but most theists would exempt God from that principle. That raises the → Read More
A Nativity for Our Time
Via Hemant Mehta. I've shared in the past a nativity scene with the migrants removed. This new one explains how that one came about. Fred Clark blogged about parallels between ICE and those who caught slaves in an earlier period in American history. In a post at the start of the “Christmas shopping season” (that → Read More
What Christians Must Learn From Yoda
Pete Enns writes: Belligerence in theological discussions is a reaction to a deep fear—typically unperceived as such—that one’s narrative is under threat. Before someone goes off in the wrong direction, I am not saying Christians can’t disagree or even get angry. I’m talking about a life of faith marked by a theme of → Read More
The Cross as Victory
I was going to write the words below when sharing a link to Bob Cornwall's post about forgiveness as a theological construct. But as I developed my thoughts, I decided it might be better as a post on my own blog. Here is what I was (and of course still am) inclined to share: The meaning of the cross is not that Jesus → Read More
Patheos Bloggers Live! (Followed by Live Music!)
Yesterday evening I had the chance to meet two Patheos bloggers in person for the first time - on the Butler University campus, no less! I have found that meeting people in person that one feels connected with via social media often feels like it is renewing rather than beginning an acquaintance, which is (I think) a → Read More
Making Meaning with(in) the Bible
Peter Leithart's post about the story of David and Goliath provides a helpful illustration of just how much the reader can contribute not merely to "finding meaning" in a text, but making meaning creatively in the act of reading. In a post called "The Bible and Information" he writes: What Esther Meeks calls the → Read More
What Jesus Learned From Women (A New Book Project)
Let's be honest. If I keep having ideas for books that I should write, I'll either be one of those people who finally well into retirement writes books that they've been promising/hoping to for decades, or I'll never write many of them. Either way, maybe it is OK. But serving as supervisor for a student's research on → Read More
Museum of the Bible
I had a walk through the Museum of the Bible for a few hours this past Friday, and went in with the intention of sharing my impressions here on the blog - with lots of photos for you to see a little of what I saw, as well as to contextualize and illustrate the things that I say here. I received a voucher for a free → Read More