When early Church documents are unearthed it is usually a cause for celebration and excitement but this partially restored document which contains only the words of one known as the Consultant Early Church Public Relations Feast Division has remained remarkably unknown The ancient language in
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 Good Word
Breaking News: Jesus Issues Statement on Financial Markets!
ldquo This just in Jesus has just responded to a man who asked him to act as an arbitrator in a financial dispute an inheritance issue if I understand correctly issuing in response some sort of general statement regarding possessions and wealth Rachel are you there Rachel hellip We go to Ra
Posted inThe Good Word
Two, Two Commandments in One
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees they gathered together and one of them a scholar of the law tested him by asking Teacher which commandment in the law is the greatest He said to him You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with
Posted inThe Good Word
Conference on Family and Children in the Patristic Tradition
For those of you in the Boston area or with a strong desire to come to Boston quickly a conference on Family and Children in the Patristic nbsp Tradition begins tomorrow October 13-15 at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline Massachusetts There are scholars from all ove
Posted inThe Good Word
Feasts I Have Eaten (And Hope To Eat)
Let me speak of feasts I have eaten I can recall most of my life through the prism of food made served and shared I have an early memory of sitting in the kitchen of our Vancouver home after trick or treating as a little boy and eating a hot dog and drinking hot chocolate on a cool Halloween even
Posted inThe Good Word
Teach Us To Pray or, Will This Be On The Test?
Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he had finished one of his disciples said to him Lord teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples He said to them When you pray say Father hallowed be your name your Kingdom come Give us each day our daily breadand forgive us our sinsfor
Posted inThe Good Word
Respect Life Sunday
Today the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time is also known as Respect Life Sunday nbsp There is a wonderful story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on September 9 2011 that is worth revisiting in this regard It is the story of a courageous young girl Bayza Weeks and the compassionate suppo
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Hedging Your Bets?
Are you hedging your bets Paul in Philippians imprisoned perhaps awaiting death by judicial decree is all in Throughout the letter joyous in tone and content Paul is clear that the life he has chosen as a follower of Jesus is not a life that that he lives with reservations or qualms Paul wi
Posted inThe Good Word
Feast Day of Saint Jerome
Today is the Feast Day of Saint Jerome probably the greatest biblical scholar of the Patristic period and a Doctor of the Church Jerome was skilled in translation and is responsible for much of the translation of the Latin Bible that came to be known as the Vulgate He was conversant with the tran
Posted inThe Good Word
The Same Mind
As an introduction to the hymn in which Paul describes Christ rsquo s self- emptying he pleads with the Philippians to change their minds that is not to shift positions on a particular issue but to alter transform and recondition the way in which they relate to one another If then there is an