by Tim Sensing | Jul 24, 2013 | Uncategorized
Many historians ironically look to Fredrick Schleiermacher (1768–1834) as the father of modern practical theology and also the initiator of its demise as a discipline. Schleiermacher’s proposal is often summarized by the metaphor of a tree. The roots of the...
by Tim Sensing | Jun 25, 2013 | Uncategorized
I love preaching. I preached my first sermon when I was 13 years old. The congregation allowed me to preach any Sunday night I wanted as long as our preacher read every sermon before I preached it. One deacon drove me to nearby towns so I could preach. Others in the...
by Tim Sensing | Jun 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
The Effective Practice of Ministry:
Essays in Memory of Charles Siburt Tim Sensing, editor ISBN 978-0-89112-328-6 306 ppg $25.00+ shipping, tax (if appl.) Few people have made a larger contribution to the ongoing life and health of Churches of Christ around...
by Tim Sensing | Jun 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
Recently, the Christian Scholars Conference hosted a luncheon to honor the memory of Charles Siburt. The new release by ACU Press, The Effective Practice of Ministry: Essays in Memory of Charles Siburt was presented to Charles’s family, Judy, John, and Ben. ...
by Tim Sensing | Jun 5, 2013 | Uncategorized
Recently I was asked to speak to a gathering of Elders in Dallas on the topic, “What are young people looking for in a church?” It’s a good question. I understand why they are asking the question. They look around their Sunday assemblies and they see less and less...
by Tim Sensing | Apr 26, 2013 | Uncategorized
Recently, Dr. Ken Cukrowski made the following announcement to the CBS community. Dear CBS faculty and staff, Upon the recommendation of the faculty of the Graduate School of Theology and the approval of the Provost, I am delighted to appoint Dr. Timothy R. Sensing as...
by Mark Hamilton | Nov 1, 2012 | Uncategorized
This is the last of a series of talks given recently about major ideas of Christianity. In a time of rapid, widespread, and not easily understood change, it’s important to be clear about the small number of things that truly matter. Hence this series. Any...
by Mark Hamilton | Oct 25, 2012 | Uncategorized
The third in a series of talks on the main ideas of Christianity, this time on revelation. Big Idea 3...
by Mark Hamilton | Oct 19, 2012 | Uncategorized
Here is the second talk on a major idea of Christianity, the idea of a common humanity, with a particular angle on human beings as users of language and the redemptive power of language. Big Idea 2...
by Mark Hamilton | Oct 19, 2012 | Uncategorized
This is the first of four talks given at a local church on four big ideas of Christianity. There are a few technical issues at the beginning, but it gets better. Big Idea 1 God ...
by Mark Hamilton | Jun 5, 2012 | Uncategorized
It’s nice to settle in at home this week after spending last week in Israel. On Monday-Wednesday I had the privilege of attending, and presenting at, a conference on prophecy and politics at the University of Haifa. The conference involved about 50 scholars...
by Mark Hamilton | May 6, 2012 | Uncategorized
This post concludes the series on why we love the Bible, even when we also struggle with it. Thank you for reading and thinking along with me. Why, then, do Christians love the Bible? In prior posts in this series, we considered some reasons for not loving it,...
by Mark Hamilton | Apr 29, 2012 | Uncategorized
In the previous post, I talked about objections that many people lodge against the Bible and thus against those of us who understand it as a book representing in some fashion a window onto the true character, practices, and convictions of God. Obviously,...
by Mark Hamilton | Mar 29, 2012 | Uncategorized
This is a continuation of a prior post on the Bible and what it does and does not say. The series will continue next time as well. To respond to the claim that the Bible is immoral, a claim often made in our current world, it makes sense to try to unravel several...
by Mark Hamilton | Mar 16, 2012 | Uncategorized
Why do Christians love the Bible? Since many millions of us read it fairly frequently, and hundreds of millions of us revere it as a communication from, or at least about, a benevolent God, what in it makes reasonably intelligent people take it...
by Mark Hamilton | Feb 17, 2012 | Uncategorized
The previous sections of this discussion emerged from my reflections on the future of theological education in Churches of Christ, which is deeply bound up with what we imagine the future of this part of Christianity to be. Educating young men and women – the...
by Mark Hamilton | Feb 6, 2012 | Uncategorized
This is part 2 of 3. Thank you for your comments to the first part of the essay. I am grateful for the encouragement and look forward to the ongoing conversation! The Theological Landscape Today But if the news is good, what precisely is it about? To...
by Mark Hamilton | Jan 31, 2012 | Uncategorized
Once upon a time, a group of cousins inherited a large mansion, one of those plantation houses with wide be-columned porches all about, from which the owners could gaze across verdant lawns down to the river. It had once been glorious, and parts of it still were,...
by Mark Hamilton | Jan 17, 2012 | Uncategorized
Psalm 58 is one of those troublesome hymns that seems much too honest for our polite, bourgeois church language. Other than the first couple of verses, it contains a string of invectives that seem to fantasize about a world in which evil people (“those with...
by Mark Hamilton | Jan 12, 2012 | Uncategorized
One of the recurring notions of the Bible that seems counter-intuitive to many of us is that God’s reputation among human beings matters and that we religious people have some bearing on it. It’s not that the Bible thinks that God needs human beings to...
by Mark Hamilton | Jan 4, 2012 | Uncategorized
Psalm 56 appears in a string of psalms that affirm trust in God. This string begins in Psalm 53, or maybe even 51, and continues for awhile (where it stops is a bit unclear, or rather, is a subjective decision). These psalms seem to belong together somehow, and even...
by Mark Hamilton | Dec 19, 2011 | Uncategorized
This time of year, I need to come clean about something. I too am part of the excessive consumption and sappy sentimentality. I like the music, and not just Ave Maria or Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, but also Bing Crosby and Tony Bennett and even, in moments of...
by Mark Hamilton | Dec 6, 2011 | Uncategorized
David Prital tells the story of the Baptist Ukrainians who rescued him, a Jew from the Nazis. The poor farmer brought him into their hut and said to his wife, “’God brought an important guest to our house’,” he said to his wife. ‘We should thank...
by Mark Hamilton | Nov 28, 2011 | Uncategorized
The retreat from regret, the aching sorrow that crushes a spirit and snuffs out the first flicker of hope and goodness, begins with repentance. Repentance allows us to cast away shame by acknowledging it and refusing to give it control over our lives, a control...
by Mark Hamilton | Nov 15, 2011 | Uncategorized
With this post, we reach a point 1/3 of the way through the Psalter. And a lovely point it is. Psalm 50 raises a question previously unasked in the Psalter, at least in precisely this way: what does God want from human beings? If we remember that ancient people saw...
by Mark Hamilton | Oct 25, 2011 | Uncategorized
Sometimes, you read something that you know is true, but it puzzles you anyway. An example comes in Psalm 49, a wisdom reflection that calls itself a mashal or proverb. Notice the line in verse 16 (Hebrew 17): “Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, when...
