martens1000

John W. Martens

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.
Posted inThe Word

A Light for All

martens1000 by John W. Martens

The Presentation of the Lord places us in the midst of the Law of Moses that governed the sacrifices due for the purification of a mother following the birth of a male child Lv 12 1 ndash 8 and the regulations concerning the consecration of a firstborn male child Ex 13 1 ndash 2 13 15 There a

Posted inThe Word

Leaving Home

martens1000 by John W. Martens

The Gospel of Matthew sets the beginning of Jesus rsquo ministry in a particular historical context Jesus began his mission only after the arrest of John the Baptist It was time But in moving from his home in Nazareth to Capernaum in the ancient territory of Naphtali Matthew also sets Jesus rs

Posted inThe Word

‘Baptized by You’

martens1000 by John W. Martens

Why did Jesus need to be baptized It was a delicate issue for the earliest Christians as one can see in Matthew rsquo s baptism account in which ldquo John would have prevented him saying lsquo I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me rsquo rdquo One of the sensitivities was tha

Posted inThe Word

The ‘Lamb’ of God

martens1000 by John W. Martens

John the Baptist has not just one of the greatest roles in salvation history but one of the great lines in the Bible The day after John baptized Jesus ldquo he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared lsquo Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world rsquo rdquo The sacrifi

Posted inThe Word

A Woman Beloved by God

martens1000 by John W. Martens

Jesus rsquo love for the weak and marginalized is made manifest in a powerful account in Luke rsquo s Gospel as is the human willingness to label and disenfranchise people we consider less worthy In today rsquo s narrative Jesus suggests that we start to identify who we truly are in relationship

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