Greg Boyd
God’s Way of War
Category: General
Tags: God, Non-Violence, Old Testament, War
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
As Judah was facing impending doom, the Lord told Hosea that he would save them “not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God” (Hos 1:7). So…
God’s “Ways” and “Thoughts” are Higher
Category: General
Tags: Covenant, God, Israel, Nationalism, Transcendence
Topics: God
Verse: Isaiah 55
Isaiah 55:8-9 is one of the more often quoted passages in the Bible. It reads: … my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways … As the heavens are higher…
When God Endorsed Polygamy
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Cruciform Theology, God
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
We often find God acting as if he supports things we know, by other means, that he does not. For example, though his ideal was monogamy, it’s clear in the biblical narrative that, once God…
What Is Required to See God for Who God Is?
Category: General
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
The way individuals and groups view God often says more about them than it does about God. Our perception of God, as well as other spiritual truths, is conditioned by the state of our heart….
Crucifying Transcendence
Category: General
Tags: Church Fathers, Cross, Cruciform Theology, God, Jesus, Philosophy, Platonism, Transcendence
Topics: Attributes and Character
The classical view of God’s transcendence in theology is in large borrowed from a major strand within Hellenistic philosophy. In sharp contrast to ancient Israelites, whose conception of God was entirely based on their experience…
The Greatest Mystery of the Christian Faith
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Cruciform Theology, Incarnation, Love, Self-Sacrificial Love, Trinity
God has always been willing to stoop to accommodate the fallen state of his covenant people in order to remain in a transforming relationship with them and in order to continue to further his sovereign…
The Rule of Love
Category: General
Tags: Augustine, Cross, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Love, Rule of Love
The traditional confession that Scriptura sacra sui ipsius interpres (“Sacred Scripture is its own interpreter”) presupposes that there is one divine mind behind Scripture, for example. Moreover, Church scholars have traditionally assumed that Scripture’s unity can be…
Should Innovative Theology Be Rejected?
Category: General
Tags: Approaches to Theology, Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
In some conservative Christian circles innovation is suspect, if not sin. And as a result, theologians and pastors who take this stance often criticize what I propose in my writings simply because it’s innovative. However,…
Is the Bible History?
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology, Historical Criticism
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
Even though I argued for interpreting the final form of the biblical canon as opposed to using the history behind the text in my post yesterday, I am not endorsing the radical post-modern view that biblical texts…
History and Bible: Do They Align?
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Biblical Criticism, Historical Criticism
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
To begin, it is significant that when Jesus and the authors of the NT referred to their sacred writings as “God-breathed,” they were referring to the writings that had been handed down to them. So…
The Bible is Infallible NOT Inerrant
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Covenant, Cruciform Theology, Faith, Inerrancy, Infallibility
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
While the cruciform understanding (explained here) of the “God-breathed” nature of Scripture is in tension with the way most talk about inerrancy (See previous post on inerrancy), I do not believe it is at all incompatible with what…
The Key to Understanding the Bible
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Cross, Cruciform Theology, Jesus
In yesterday’s post we discussed how Jesus is the starting point for interpreting Scripture. If this is the case and Jesus is the subject matter of all Scripture, then the ultimate challenge is to disclose how each aspect of…
An Alternative to Biblical Inerrancy
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology, Inerrancy
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
As with all other theological issues, when it comes to affirming that Scripture is “God-breathed,” everything hangs on where one starts. A dominant strand of the Evangelical tradition started with the assumption that, if God is…
Rethinking the Resurrection
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Resurrection, Revelation
Topics: Christology
As much as every other aspect of Jesus life and ministry, I submit that the resurrection must be understood in light of the cross. This event was not anything like the resuscitation of a random…
The Old Testament Is NOT on the Same Plane as the New Testament
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, New Testament, Old Testament
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
Paul taught that unbelievers are blinded by “the god of this age” when they read the OT such that “their minds are made dull” and a “veil covers their hearts…when the old covenant is read”…
Why Did Jesus Curse the Fig Tree?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Gospels, Jesus, Miracles, Satan
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
One of the strangest episodes recorded in the Gospels is Jesus cursing a fig tree because he was hungry and it didn’t have any figs (Mk 11:12-14; Mt 21:18-19). It’s the only destructive miracle found…
Was Jesus Fully Human and Fully God?
Category: General
Tags: God, Incarnation, Jesus
The New Testament is very clear that Jesus was a full human being. He had to grow in wisdom (Lk 2:52) and learn obedience by going through trials, just like every other human being (Heb….
Greg Interviews Jeremy Jernigan on “Redeeming Pleasure”
Category: General
Tags: Christian Living, God's Character, Interview, Jeremy Jernigan, Redeeming Pleasure
Greg: Thanks for agreeing to this interview Jeremy. Having read your soon-to-be-published book Redeeming Pleasure, I’m really looking forward to its September 15 publication. Okay, to get started, suppose I’m a stranger and we meet in an…
The God of Wisdom: Romans 9, Part 5
Category: General
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will
This week we have been looking at Romans 9. In this post, we will look at the sixth and final argument against the deterministic interpretation of this famous chapter. Argument #6: It’s About Wisdom, Not…
God is Flexible: Romans 9, Part 4
Category: General
Tags: Determinism, Israel, Open Theism, Potter and Clay, Predestination, Romans 9
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will
Verse: Romans 9
As we continue this series on Romans 9, [Here’s the link to the first post in the series.] today we will look at the famous potter/clay analogy. Most tend to interpret the potter and clay image…