One of the reasons I loved reading The Red Tent was to imagine the woman behind what is a brusque biblical narrative. The women of the Bible are intriguing, so often mentioned as footnotes in a broader narrative. Some might say that’s because the story is patriarchal, that we’re missing […]
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant was recommended by a friend who’s lived in the Middle East for many years and by Bei-En. It’s a fictional account of the life of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob. I’m a bit suspicious of Bible stories re-told as fiction but I enjoyed […]
The CMS missionary training college is called St Andrew’s Hall and we went to their graduation today. There’s a wealth of missionary experience in the people there, including a number from Tanzania. What a wonderful opportunity for us to hear stories and learn! We got talking with Dulcie, an elderly […]
As I look towards the end of my time at theological college, I’ve been thinking about the beginning. Here are 5 tips for kick-starting theological study, and book recommendations to go along with them. (For price comparisons and easy ordering, I’ve linked to Booko.com.au.)
Here’s my theory about the acceleration of a love story in a TV series. Most narrative in our society is told through male eyes. (That’s not the theory part—that’s pretty well-attested.) But the speed with which the love story develops and the attention given to it are proportional to the […]
Following on from Esther 1 on Tuesday, on Thursday Peter preached on Esther 2. It’s the chapter with the beauty pageant to find Xerxes a wife, where Esther’s chosen. In other words, it’s a story about sexual exploitation.
This week in my Pentateuch class, we looked at the 10 Commandments. They’re given twice in the Pentateuch: in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy 5. They’re almost word for word the some, with only one or two differences. One of those differences concerns women.
Meet Jesus at uni 