In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his reverence Son though he was he learned obedience from what he suffered and when he was made perfect he bec
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.
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Grace, Faith, and Works
The second reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent is from Ephesians 2 4-10 This passage is often used by both evangelicals and Catholics in apologetic contexts Ephesians 2 8-9 is cited by evangelical Christians to fortify a position that salvation is by faith alone and not by works Aha say Catho
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Canadian Lenten Reflections 3
In turning to the teachings of the Church Fathers on Matthew 15 22-28 I am drawing on the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas for Matthew who gathered portions of the Patristic writings on particular passages for each Gospel and which are now available online albeit in a rather old and stilted tra
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Canadian Lenten Reflections 2
I wanted to continue the post on Canadian Lenten Reflections by pointing out a few things which we gain from attention to source and redaction criticism in a study of this passage First the passage also appears in Mark 7 24-30 but not in the Gospel of Luke In the parallel passage in Mark the w
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Canadian Lenten Reflections
The biblical passage which appears below and the subsequent paragraph are taken from the 2009 lenten meditations of the Anglican Church of Canada for March 27 hellip a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting lsquo Have mercy on me Lord Son of David my daughter is tor
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(Still) No Country for Biblical Scholars
R R Reno has judged me in a new post today http www firstthings com onthesquare p 1324 to be an example of the wagon-circling guild mentality of so many contemporary biblical scholars More than a circler of wagons though my earlier response to him is the equivalent of a clarion call Ti
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1 Peter 3:18-22
nbsp Beloved Christ suffered for sins once the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous that he might lead you to God Put to death in the flesh he was brought to life in the Spirit In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison who had once been disobedient while God patiently waited i
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Ash Wednesday: A New Creation
Ash Wednesday whose ashes symbolize mourning and penitence is also it seems to me a period of joyous return The Apostle Paul captures this sense of joy in the second reading today 2 Corinthians 5 20-6 2 Paul has written earlier in 2 Cor 5 that the love of Christ urges him on in his ministry
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No Country for Biblical Scholars
I must come clean about something though I could plead guilty to a lot more and it has to do with the modern study of the Bible At times I have criticized the study of the Bible as practiced since the Enlightenment even to those who are not of the guild of Biblical scholars That is I have betr
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Memorial of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr
The readings chosen for the Memorial of Saint Agatha are poignant and thought-provoking The first reading from Hebrews 12 18-19 21-24 speaks eloquently beautifully of the approach to the Living One God almighty now made less fearful since the mediation of Christ It also notes that in approach