The theme of renewal of new life runs throughout the readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent More precisely resurrection from the dead runs through all of these readings This is the case even though the first reading Ezekiel 37 12-14 as does all of chapter 37 speaks literally of the whole house
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
Evangelicals, Scripture and Tradition
Access to an article by Gerald McDermott from the April 2011 edition of First Things has been posted at the site for the past few weeks It is titled Evangelicals Divided and concerns recent theological fissures breaks or tensions – I cannot decide amongst these terms – concerning the role of Scr
Posted inThe Good Word
‘Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’
One of the most fascinating and startling things regarding the teaching on the Church in Matthew 18 the Ecclesial Discourse is how much of it focuses on the nature of Christian leadership as modeled on the child and the treatment of children by the apostles called disciples by Matthew Chapter
Posted inThe Good Word
Catholic Moral Theology
I had taken note a few days ago of a Commonweal Blog post on a new site dedicated to and simply called Catholic Moral Theology I was poking around at the site and find it both congenial and inviting Let me excerpt their own statement of mission We are a group of North American Catholic moral t
Posted inThe Good Word
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
The late Pope John Paul II meditated on the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Redemptoris Mater On nbsp the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church This excerpt is taken from paragraph 14 Mary s faith can also be compared to that of Abraham whom St Paul calls our fathe
Posted inThe Good Word
The End of the World
The End of the World It rsquo s always on people rsquo s minds About every year and a half in our Theology dept rsquo s informal evening discussions for undergraduates called Theology Night Live the topic is the apocalypse I gave it again about two weeks ago The students come in droves admit
Posted inThe Good Word
St. Patrick’s Day and Sin
I think I might meander in a couple of directions today This is a busy time of year as we are coming to Spring Break at UST and I thought I might go back through our blog archives and re-post my last St Patrick s day blog post to save myself some time nbsp There was a minor problem I discovered
Posted inFaith, The Good Word
Ash Wednesday, Private Acts of Piety and Public Ashes
My New Testament students have asked me on a number of occasions over the years about the ashes placed upon the forehead on Ash Wednesday They have not asked about the origin of the tradition or even its meaning as such what they have asked about is quite interesting and perfectly relevant for the
Posted inThe Good Word
Brant Pitre’s “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist”
It rsquo s not a bad way to sell a book put ldquo secret rdquo in the title somewhere And in light of Dan Brown rsquo s success in selling books which are historical and theological nonsense but which claim to unlock age-old secrets why not use it in the title of a book that makes mostly hist
Posted inThe Good Word
Brant Pitre’s
It rsquo s not a bad way to sell a book put ldquo secret rdquo in the title somewhere And in light of Dan Brown rsquo s success in selling books which are historical and theological nonsense but which claim to unlock age-old secrets why not use it in the title of a book that makes mostly hist