How Did You Celebrate Easter?

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Micheal

Easter Eggs

Do you think of worship, hospitality, or celebration as spiritual disciplines? If you’re like me, you associate the idea of “discipline” with things that are hard, like fasting, daily prayer, intense Bible study, and so on. But if a discipline is something that trains us to live and think rightly, then what better response to the resurrection can there be than over-the-top celebration?

In fact, celebration holds a place of honor in both of my top two books on spiritual disciplines. Richard Foster, in Celebration of Discipline, places celebration at the conclusion of his classic work, while Adele Ahlberg Calhoun puts Celebration at the very front of her Spiritual Disciplines Handbook.

Here’s what Calhoun writes about Celebration:

The world is filled with reasons to be downcast. But deeper than sorrow thrums the unbroken pulse of God’s joy, a joy that will yet have its eternal day. To set our hearts on this joy reminds us that we can choose how we respond to any particular moment. We can search for God in all circumstances, or not. We can seek the pulse of hope and celebration because it is God’s reality. Heaven is celebrating. Right now the cherubim, seraphim, angels, archangels, prophets, apostles, martyrs and all the company of saints overflow with joy in the presence of their Creator. Every small experience of Jesus with us is a taste of the joy that is to come. We are not alone — and that in itself is reason to celebrate. (Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, 27)

The Hickerson Family, all dolled-up for Easter

Here are a few ways that my family and I celebrated the resurrection of Jesus:

Dressing up in new clothes (including new shoes for me)
Attending a packed church, taking communion, and hearing a powerful message on the hope of the resurrection
Singing “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” and the “Hallelujah Chorus” (and hearing perfect silence at that moment of tension before the final “Hallelujah”)
Joining extended family and old friends for an Easter feast of lamb, ham, and too much sugar, all while being welcoming my principal role models of hospitality, my father- and mother-in-law
Catching up – unexpectedly – with some good friends who have had a rough spring
Puzzling over my 6-year-old’s sudden obsession over reading the Bible – and trying to decide whether it is sincere or not (and whether that matters)
Delving into the study of God through conversation about justification and covenant
For my wife, playing (and winning) some great board games with cousins and friends we don’t see nearly often enough

All in all, a great day of celebration. And I didn’t even mention the eggs.

How did you celebrate Easter?

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World Religions: Islam

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Micheal

The flag of Pakistan, showing the Muslim star and crescent, as well as the color green (which has special significance in Islam)

Below are my presentation and handout from the Islam sections of my World Religions class. Last night, we finished our coverage of Islam and began looking at Judaism.

Reminder: there will be no class next week (March 24) because I’ll be out of town. We’ll resume class on March 31 by looking at contemporary issues in Judaism and beginning our look at Hinduism.

Helpful Links

Handbook on Islam: Don Tingle, who many at Lakeside know, has written a handbook on Islam for US military personnel. You can download the entire handbook from his website. You can also read an article about Don’s work from the Christian Standard.

Muslim Followers of Jesus? Although their presence isn’t widely acknowledged in the mainstream press, there are millions of people worldwide who claim to be Muslim followers of Jesus (who is called Isa in Arabic). Christianity Today recently looked at this phenomenon, and also devoted an article to it in 2007.

Using the Koran to Preach the Gospel? The CAMEL Method uses the Koran to introduce Muslims to Jesus. Last week, the New York Times examined critics and supporters of this method.

Download the handout and view the presentation by clicking “Read More.” Continue reading →

The New Testament’s Religious Geniuses

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Micheal

Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman — who used to consider himself a Christian but now calls himself agnostic — has a new book out called Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible, and he has been making the rounds. Over lunch, I heard his interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. During this interview, he touched on a point that has long fascinated me.

Ehrman told Gross that he no longer considers the Bible to be the Word of God, but that he considers several of its authors to be “religious geniuses” — he explicitly included Paul and the writers of the four Gospels in this group of “geniuses.”

That’s interesting, isn’t it? Here you have 4 Jews and a Gentile, living and writing on the marginal fringes of the greatest empire in the world. Only in retrospective do we consider Israel and Jerusalem to have been an important part of the world. At the time, it was a minor province that, while occasionally troublesome, could be routinely put down by Roman force. Two of them (Paul and Luke) were well-educated by the standards of their day, but consider the others: John, a village fisherman; Matthew, a minor government official; Mark, whose “education” consisted of a series of missionary trips with Peter, Barnabas, and Paul.

According to Ehrman’s view of the Bible, there was nothing inherently special about the Jewish traditions they received. According to Ehrman, Jesus never rose from the dead, so Matthew and John might have known him and his teachings, but Mark, Paul, and Luke were all working from hearsay and secondhand stories. Not that his teaching counted for much: Ehrman’s new book makes the argument that Jesus was deluded. Would you trust your children’s education to the deluded followers of a deluded teacher?

And yet…

How do we account for this sudden explosion of religious genius? It’s as if Gandhi, MLK, Billy Graham, and the Dalai Lama all went to the same kindergarten.

Wouldn’t you want to know who they had as their teacher?

World Religions: Christianity

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Micheal

We had a great turnout last night. If you missed the first class, feel free to drop in another time. We’ll be meeting Wednesday nights at 6:30pm at Lakeside Christian Church. There are a couple of nights that I will be out of town, so we won’t be having class on March 24, April 28, or May 5. Missing class for two weeks in a row is not ideal, I know, but a last minute change of schedule came up just as we were starting class. On May 5, I’ll be in Chicago auditioning for Jeopardy!

Each week, I’ll post some additional resources online, as well as the notes and slides from the class. For Christianity, here are a few good resources:

GetReligion.org follows media coverage of all religions. It’s a great place to see critical assessments of how well the media covers various religions, as well as to learn a lot more about different religions.
Christianity Today’s news page collects Christianity-related news from across the Internet. CT also has a Christian History page that collects articles about Christian history, as well as important events. By utter coincidence, today is the day when Alexander Campbell, one of the founders of the Restoration Movement, died in 1866.
The official website of the Orthodox Church in America is a great place to learn more about the 2nd largest Christian communion in the world.

Are there any other resources you are looking for? Resources from last night’s class can be found by clicking “Read more.” Continue reading →

World Religions Class Starts Tonight!

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Micheal

Tonight will be the first meeting of the World Religions Class that I’m teaching at Lakeside Christian Church. First up: Christianity. Might as well start off on something easy, right? Yeah, right.

If you are interested, feel free to join us, and let others know, too. I’ll be posting updates and helpful links about each of the religions that we cover. You can also drop in at any time. This ain’t college, you know.

Are Smarter People More Liberal?

Posted on February 27, 2010 by Micheal

Emergent Man

Ah, yes, another article proclaiming that smart people are liberal. Elizabeth Landau of CNN reports on a soon-to-be-published article by evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa that claims higher IQ is associated liberal politics and religion, as well as “sexual exclusivity” (a.k.a. monogamy).

I haven’t seen the article (it’s not available yet), but there are a couple of problems with the simple equation “smart = liberal.” First, notice how “liberal” is defined:

The study takes the American view of liberal vs. conservative. It defines “liberal” in terms of concern for genetically nonrelated people and support for private resources that help those people. It does not look at other factors that play into American political beliefs, such as abortion, gun control and gay rights.

Strange definition. In America, conservatives favor the use of private resources to help people. As far as the “genetically nonrelated” issue, I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. Part of the problem here – as with most discussions of liberalism and conservatism – is that the terms can mean many different things. Continue reading →

On Citing Wikipedia

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Micheal

Let’s be clear: You should never, ever cite Wikipedia in an article or book, unless you writing about Wikipedia itself. But it drives me crazy when people hear the word “Wikipedia” and immediately respond, “Wikipedia? Give me a break. It’s so unreliable.”

There is nothing wrong with using Wikipedia to get a quick sense of a subject and to lead you to more reliable sources. Encyclopedias, survey-level textbooks, desk references, and similar resources have been used the same way for generations. If you are trying to nail down some definitive piece of information, then you should never settle for Wikipedia. As your starting point, however, I think there are few options that are much better.

For that matter, Wikipedia is an excellent resources for certain subjects, such as:

Controversial subjects that many people, with many different perspectives, care a great deal about. Theology is a great example. If Catholics, Calvinists, Wesleyans, Orthodox, and even Swedenborgians can come up with an article on justification that they all more or less accept, I bet that’s going to be a pretty decent article.
Obscure pop culture facts, like alternate versions of the comic book character Nightcrawler.
People you are encountering for the first time, and need to get a quick triangulation on them, like Emanuel Swedenborg.

I use Wikipedia everyday, and there’s nothing wrong with it. If Wikipedia is your only source of information, then there’s something wrong with you, but don’t blame Wikipedia.

Emerging Scholars at Jubilee 2010

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Micheal

Cross-posted from the Emerging Scholars Blog

Byron Borger at Jubilee 2009

I spent the weekend at Jubilee, the annual student conference of the Coalition for Christian Outreach. Jubilee has a great reputation for emphasizing the theology of vocation – a reputation which was confirmed, by the way – but I didn’t expect the high level of fun generated by the conference. Saturday evening featured a hilarious (and moving) monologue from actress and writing Susan Isaacs (author of Angry Conversations with God) and a can’t-possibly-be-true-except-he-brought-pictures talk from Bob Goff, president of Restore International and good friend of Don Miller.

Photo: Byron Borger at last year’s Jubilee, but he looked basically the same this year. From livingjubilee via Flickr. Click for a larger image.

Occasionally, these streams of fun and vocation combined, such as the first night. In quick succession, seven speakers presented pecha kucha, a speed-presentation format of 20 slides, changing automatically every 20 seconds, whether the speaker is ready or not. The pecha kucha presenters included:

David Greusel, an architect speaking on the connection between architecture and faith, especially what he called “the lie” that “secular work” doesn’t matter in God’s kingdom on earth (Greusel was the lead designer of Pittsburgh’s PNC Park).
Gideon Strauss, President of the Center for Public Justice, who testified to the application of Isaiah 58 in our current society.
Leroy Barber, president of Mission Year, speaking about Green My Hood, a program which identifies the abuse of the environment in poor urban neighborhoods and looks for ways to bring good creation stewardship into the inner city.
Good friend of ESN Byron Borger of Hearts & Minds Books, who said that “part of this conference is learning to read deeply,” and reminded us that the word “disciple” means “student.”

As Benson Hines (who was also there) said on Twitter,

Lord, let me be as passionate about my calling as Byron Borger is about his.

More about Jubilee and some upcoming articles after the jump Continue reading →

New World Religions Class Starting

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Micheal

I’ll be starting one of my favorite teaching series next month: World Religions. Here are the details.

Where: Lakeside Christian Church, Lakeside Park, KY (directions) Dates: March 3 through May 5 (no class March 24 or April 28) Time: 6:30pm to 8pm

We’ll be covering the history, beliefs, and practices of major world religions and new religious movements, including:

Christianity
Judaism
Islam
Hinduism
Buddhism
Mormonism
Wicca
Scientology

…with a few more thrown in just to be safe. The class will include time for discussion and coverage of the current state of each religion in the world and the U.S.

I hope you can make it!

Photo: Buddhist Temple in Bangkok, Thailand, by Stuck in Customs via Flickr

ESN Makes the News!

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Micheal

The good work of my InterVarsity colleague (and fellow ESN blogger) Tom Grosh has been recognized by his local paper. Tom is hosting an Emerging Scholars Network event later this month, “The Sociology of Faith,” featuring Christian college professor Donald Kraybill of Elizabethtown College. Kraybill will draw upon his academic expertise as a scholar of Amish culture, as well as his personal experiences, in discussing the impact of Christian faith on one’s work and study.

“Each academic discipline raises different questions for (Christians who are involved in those disciplines),” he explained. “I’ll be talking about some of the issues I’ve struggled with as a Christian and as a sociologist (and about) the ways that I, as a Christian, can teach sociology.” He added that he will focus on ways that individuals can work through issues such as the ones he experienced.

Pray for Tom as he finishes organizing this event. Pray, too, for the students, faculty, and church members who will attend the event and for Donald Kraybill as he prepares his talk.

Also, read Tom’s latest post on the ESN blog, What are you picking up for Lent? We’re used to the idea of giving up something to grow closer to God, whether for Lent or some other reason, but what about adding something to our lives?

MikeHickerson.com

Communication – Theology – Technology