Anticipation Preparation Waiting Waiting Each of the three readings for the Third Sunday of Advent speak of waiting in one form or another Isaiah 35 which hearkens the coming Messiah describes that the ldquo desert and the parched land will exult the steppe will rejoice and bloom They
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
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary
Last year I posted on the readings for The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary which caused a stir I did not expect when I argued that the biblical readings alone do not lead necessarily to the Church s teaching on the Immaculate Conception of Mary but that Tradition is essential for this u
Posted inThe Good Word
Happy Hanukkah!
We are in the midst of Hanukkah the Jewish Festival of Lights which is celebrated beginning on the 25th of the Jewish month of Chislev for eight days This year the Festival which falls in late November to late December in our calendar is celebrated from December 1-9 This festival commemorates
Posted inThe Good Word
Online Advent Calendar
For those of you with children you might want to check out this online and interactive Advent calendar that I located through a link on the Herald of Scotland website It has the 24 days of December prior to Christmas day on the calendar with information on typical Christmas symbols such as reinde
Posted inThe Good Word
Advent 2: Preparation
John the Baptist is a bracing sort of fellow eye-opening and not in the slap some Brut on the face kind of way In another blog post we will have to explore how it is that Brut has made a comeback ndash before you say anything it is related to Advent after all as those of us who grew up buyi
Posted inThe Good Word
Advent Blog Tour
One interesting thing I found poking around the Common English Bible website was an Advent Blog Tour There are 25 bloggers each writing on a particular scripture passage for each day of December until Christmas Day None of these bloggers are Catholic and the Scripture passages on which they are c
Posted inThe Good Word
A New Translation of the Bible: A Weary World Rejoices?
I noted a while back that a new English translation of the Bible was published NT or in the process of being published OT and Apocrypha called the ldquo Common English Bible rdquo Like many biblical scholars I received a copy of the newly minted NT to consider and review Their website is
Posted inThe Good Word
Interior Advent (As Shared Publicly on the Internet)
Father Joseph Johnson in his homily for the First Sunday of nbsp Advent at the Cathedral of St Paul reflected on something that is very much in the air right now at least for me and those whom I know and read the continuing exteriorizing of life He chose to contrast the life of Facebook Twitter
Posted inThe Good Word
Advent 1: Anticipation
Advent is preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ nbsp It is anticipation waiting Yet as the readings for the First Sunday in Advent demonstrate it is not simply the waiting for Christ at his first coming as a child in the manger but for his second coming at the end of time when all things
Posted inThe Good Word
Happy Thanksgiving!
In the technical breakdown of Pauline letters which are simply Hellenistic letters with a Christianizing twist they begin with a Salutation senders recipients and grace and then move on to the Thanksgiving with the notable exception of Galatians The Thanksgiving sets the tone for the letter