Brothers and sisters What will separate us from the love of Christ Will anguish or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword No in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels
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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The Year of Saint Paul
The Year of St Paul began on June 28 2008 and it seems right to make note of it before it recedes in the revelries of summer beginning with Fourth of July celebrations tomorrow Prior to St Paul s conversion he persecuted the Church and was trying to destroy it Gal 1 13 Paul recognized
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Who are the Sinners?
To spend any time with Jesus teachings is to be amazed by the depth of the simplicity I have sometimes asked students in class to write parables in order to see how difficult it is to tell a simple story that has power meaning force and a moral that does not seem sappy contrived or sentiment
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Ordinary Time in the Garden
I am so happy that Fathers Leonard and Kilgallen have blogged recently on Ordinary time and especially its connection in the Northern hemisphere to the coming of Spring and Summer and the blossoming of plant life of all sorts I have been looking for a scriptural and liturgical entr e into the worl
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Apart from the Law
The Apostle Paul packs a mighty punch in his letters even when delivered in small doses this Sunday s Second Reading Romans 3 21-25 28 is a short passage that delivers great power It can be difficult today to understand the challenge of the theological issues buffeting the early Church espe
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The Trinity
Two things are immediately brought to mind by the Gospel reading for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity John 3 16-18 One is the ubiquity of John 3 16 amongst evangelical Christians a key verse in the Four Spiritual Laws see Law 1 at http www godlovestheworld com I grew up with this ver
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Three Cheers for…Matthias?
The Feast of Matthias Apostle falls on May 14 How are you celebrating this year Matthias according to Luke in Acts of the Apostles 1 15-26 was chosen to fill the place abandoned by Judas And that is the first and last we hear of Matthias in the New Testament The passage is intriguing at many
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Pentecost
Many years ago now when I was a teenager I went to visit a girl I knew in Texas over Thanksgiving She had a brother at Oral Roberts University so we took the bus from Lubbock Texas to Tulsa Oklahoma to visit him and the campus I did not know much about Oral Roberts but I was sweet on the gir
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The “Ideal” Church: Acts 6:1-7
For the fifth Sunday of Easter the first reading continues with the Acts of the Apostles and the passage chosen raises a number of historical questions Luke again makes the point that the number of disciples continued to grow 6 1 which directs us not only to the acceptance of the message in g
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“All Who Believed Were Together”
Acts 2 42-47 remains an endlessly fascinating reminder of the call of Jesus reiterated by Paul in his letters that Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ part of God 8217 s family see 8216 My Beloved Brothers and Sisters 8217 Christian Siblingship in Paul 8217 by Reidar Aasgard