The Privation of Good and The Neverending Story
Yesterday in my theology class, my professor expressed his disagreement with Augustine’s conception of the nature of evil. Augustine essentially argued three things: God created all things, so that nothing exists that God did not create. God created all things to be Good. Therefore, from (1) and (2), evil cannot be a creation of God, [...]
Spring Break!
I just had a dream that someone hacked into this blog and posted something to the effect of, “I’m appalled that Jacob hasn’t written anything since Monday, especially since he has told us that he really wants to keep this thing updated. I’m not sure we can trust him any more.” If the Lord has [...]
Weekend Update
Well, I did get to go see Nebraska play Alabama, but I use the word “play” there loosely. Nebraska got dominated, losing 8-0, marking Nebraska’s first shutout in 201 games. I did have a good time, though, especially because I got to meet a handful of people from Nebraska who were down at the game [...]
Destination Tuscaloosa
This evening, the Nebraska Cornhusker baseball team will travel today to Tuscaloosa, AL to play the Alabama Crimson Tide, and I’m going to be there. I talked some seminary friends into making the hour-long drive from Birmingham to see the game–some are Alabama fans, and some are just along for the ride. One of the [...]
What We Have Been Given
For my theology class, I just finished reading C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. I know that I had already read the book twice, but I may also have read it a third time before this reading. Reading it again, though, showed me just how much Lewis has influenced my thinking on a number of topics. [...]
Opening a new can of worms…
Lindsey wrote me an e-mail, saying, “I’d like to see some sort of blog discussion about paedocommunion [i.e., infant communion].” We here at Of Bald Men and Bears aim to please our readership, so here we go! If you are unfamiliar with the issue, allow me to give a brief explanation. Baptists, of course, say [...]
Jesus Is Wisdom
I asked a few days ago whether we could consider Jesus’ parables and sayings as the New Testament equivalent of wisdom literature, and, if so, in what ways we should understand what Jesus says to be different from the books of the Old Testament that we commonly label “Wisdom Literature.” First, I want to defend [...]
Letter to the Editor
This past year that I have been in seminary in Alabama, I have still tried to keep up with the Daily Nebraskan, the school newspaper from my undergraduate institution, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. On Wednesday, they ran an editorial asserting that the Bible should be read as literature and nothing more. I wrote a letter [...]
Finished Product
I mentioned awhile ago that I was writing a paper to contrast baptism and the Lord’s Supper in Baptist and Presbyterian thought. I just finished the paper, although, as I began writing it, I realized that I only had enough space to focus on baptism. Here is one of the better sections: This definition [i.e., [...]
