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Enthusiastic Contrafibularities
1–2 minutesToday is a great day for the English language and you didn’t even know it. On this date in 1709, the great English lexicographer (word collector and analyzer) Samuel Johnson was born. He has been described as “arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history” and his dictionary of the English language–nine years in the making–is praised as “one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship” (Wikipedia). Such is his importance that there is even a whole episode of the British comedy series Blackadder that is devoted to Dr. Johnson. If I embed the clip below, will you please…
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One Sentence Summation of Biblical Theology
1–2 minutesWhen we peer into the Bible what do we find? What is the Bible about anyways? Is it possible to summarize the Bible’s view of God in one sentence? Isaiah 57:15 isn’t a bad place to look for such a sentence, albeit a tad long. “For thus says the High and Lifted up, who dwells eternally, whose name is Holy, ‘The high and holy place I inhabit, and with the crushed and low-spirit, to enliven the spirit of the lowly, and to enliven the heart of the crushed.’” In his commentary on Isaiah, John Oswalt calls this verse “one of…
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Literacy in the Ancient World
2–3 minutesA while back a friend and I were discussing literacy in the ancient world. We were entertaining questions such as, two thousand years ago, how many people could read? Could write? Owned books? I never was able to find an answer online, or even a guess. Well, last weekend while on the TGV to Paris I had the time to crack open the latest edition of JETS, the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, and to my delight I discovered an article that treated this very subject while addressing a broader theme. Stanley E. Porter and Bryan R. Dyer, “Oral…
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Ten Tips and Tricks: Photography
4–6 minutesOn Monday I gave my first presentation in French. I presented Dix Trucs et Astuces (“Ten Tips and Tricks”) for taking better photos. Now, I must point out right up front that none of these tips are original to me. I have learned immensely from photographer friends such as the finest photographer in West Virginia and the finest photographer in Kentucky and Aunty Ash (who’s so cool she doesn’t have her own site). Secondly, I do not claim to be a professional photographer. I’m very much an amateur in the full sense of the word: one who loves their hobby. For…