A feather in your theological cap.
The personal blog of pastor, grammarian, and runner Brent Niedergall
Reading While Black
A Book Review Although I now live in a town that’s 64% Black or African American and only 30% White, it still feels strange that our local churches don’t even remotely reflect these demographics. Not even close. I admit I gave little thought to skin color and...
Book Review—The Shepherd of Hermas: A Literary, Historical, and Theological Handbook
Jonathon Lookadoo The Shepherd of Hermas: A Literary, Historical, and Theological Handbook T&T Clark: London, 2021. Pp. xii + 295. Hardcover. $115.00 ISBN: 978-0-5676-979102 Amazon Rick Brannan Independent Scholar https://rickbrannan.com The Shepherd of...
Frogs, an Eagle, Monkeys, and Giving: The Lexical Intersection Between the Greek New Testament and Aesop’s Fables
BDAG, the standard Greek lexicon for reading the New Testament, has somewhere around 180 references to the Greek text of Aesop’s Fables. You’re probably familiar with some of Aesop’s Fables—for instance, maybe the one about the thirsty crow who fills a pitcher with...
Bauer, Danker, Arndt, Gingrich, and Aesop
Did you know BDAG occasionally cites Aesop’s Fables? In this post, I’ll explain how you can benefit from this useful repository of evidence. Let me begin with a word of warning. The numbering system for the fables is unsystematic and BDAG induces some struggle...
Historical Theology for the Church
A Book Review What is historical theology? According to Historical Theology for the Church, a new textbook from B&H Academic and edited by Jason G. Duesing and Nathan A. Finn, “historical theology is the study of the development of Christian doctrine and...
A Theology of Backgammon
Ever play backgammon before? You know the game that folds up into a handy little briefcase? It has all the points on the board, and the checkers, and the dice. It’s a popular game in our house. It’s my favorite game. I’m no master or anything. I haven’t studied the...
Bad Moms of the Bible
Counting up women in the Bible we would consider good mothers is easy. But what about the bad ones? You may know some Bad Girls of the Bible, but who are some bad moms of the Bible? Herodias was bad. She told her dancing daughter to ask for the head of John the...
The Existence of God
Do we need to prove God’s existence? https://youtu.be/B3Dh9jZUiOY Your cosmological and teleological arguments aren’t going to convince anyone that God exists. Neither will your ontological or moral arguments. And they don’t need to. Scripture says God has already...
Sunday Prayer (Psalm 136)
This is the latest in the series of corporate prayers for Sunday worship that I’m writing from the Psalms, working through them in reverse order. Our God, we give you our praise because you are good. We recognize you show loyal love to your people. You are always...
Small Preaching
A Book Review I’m not a great preacher. When I’m standing in the pulpit my manuscript retains a tight hold on my focus, my delivery is tepid, and my conclusions falter. But wanting to improve gives me a good reason to read books on preaching. Jonathan Pennington has...