Years ago the band U2 recorded ldquo I Still Haven rsquo t Found What I rsquo m Looking For rdquo Could Jesus rsquo first disciples have said that To know what you are looking for you have to know what you need When you know what you need you need to know where to look for it in order to ide
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
Rise Up!
The prophet Elijah ldquo went to Zarephath of Sidon to the house of a widow rdquo While Elijah was at the widow rsquo s home her son died Already bereft of a husband which itself often led women into poverty in the ancient world she has now lost her son the remaining source of her emotional
Posted inThe Word
The Food of Life
Body and blood bread and wine mdash these are basic components of the human being and the stuff that sustains human life These basic and foundational realities speak to the ordinary humanity of Jesus and one of the deepest mysteries of the church Without the Incarnation we could not speak of Jes
Posted inThe Word
God in Relationship
The mystery at the heart of human life is discovered in our relationships whose outlines might be simply explained but that are ineffable at the core How we love and live for one another defies description We struggle for words to make real what we know through experience When one of my sons as
Posted inThe Word
Reborn in the Spirit
The Jewish feast of Pentecost also known as the Feast of Weeks originally celebrated the spring harvest It was a pilgrimage festival that took place 50 days after the end of Passover By the time of Jesus Pentecost was also celebrated as a joyous remembrance of the giving of the law at Sinai See
Posted inThe Word
Family in Flight
Family life in antiquity was a life of insecurity though families in many parts of the world still know this insecurity well even today The warm pictures we might concoct of ancient families mdash though certainly the ancients loved their children and spouses loved each other just as families do
Posted inThe Word
Manifest Divinity
The Magi knew how to treat the king After seeking him far beyond the bounds of their country these astrologers ldquo when they saw that the star had stopped they were overwhelmed with joy On entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother and they knelt down and paid him homage T
Posted inThe Word
Heaven-Sent
Paul says of Jesus in 1 Cor 15 45 ldquo Thus it is written lsquo the first man Adam became a living being rsquo the last Adam became a life-giving spirit rdquo Luke Timothy Johnson draws on this verse when he describes the ascension of Jesus saying that ldquo the lsquo withdrawal rsquo
Posted inThe Word
An Annoying Faith
lsquo Hey want to hear the most annoying sound in the world rdquo That is Jim Carrey rsquo s character Lloyd speaking in the 1994 comedy ldquo Dumb and Dumber rdquo He goes on to demonstrate the world rsquo s most annoying sound Some people might find a lowbrow comedy like this as a whole
Posted inThe Word
Who’s Missing?
When you rsquo re lost it rsquo s good to be missed it rsquo s even better to be found At the heart of spiritual lostness though is our collusion in our own absence People are not inanimate objects like coins things that can fall unwittingly into corners nor are they like sheep animals with