Seeing through the Mundane

By David Horn, ThD
Director, The Ockenga Institute

Perhaps poets have this perspective in a way that most of us don’t, poets and novelists. If they have taught us anything through the years, it is that in the smallest, mundane details often overlooked in our lives are revealed the greatest truths. It is in the linnet’s wings of Yeats, and the common spider web of Frost, and the mundane daily trek out into the ocean by Hemingway’s fisherman that we find the largeness of life and death exposed.

Profound truth embedded in the mundane: Perhaps this is why we miss so much of what makes our lives so rich and worth living. We look far out over the distant horizon to understand our lives and, in doing so, we overlook the meaning that is right there in front of us. We so often find ourselves tyrannized by the familiar, allowing the redundancy of time and familiarity of place to rob us daily of what is most important in our lives and souls.

All this crossed my mind the past three days as my colleague and historian, Garth Rosell, and I led a group of individuals from the west coast on a Spiritual Heritage Tour of the north shore of Boston. For those of us who live here in New England, chances are many days we walk unthinkingly over ground that Whitefield may have trod on his way to preaching to thousands upon thousands of his fellow colonialists. Or, without giving it a second thought, we pass by the place where the young D.L. Moody was converted in downtown Boston, a mere stones throw from where the five men fell during the Boston Massacre. Or, could any of us be accused of being more interested in window shopping the stores of Salem without a thought that the modern missionary movement was given birth right there on its shores?: Holy ground masquerading as common, everyday terra firma.

The privilege of leading the tour for these thirty some modern pilgrims involved, of course, the opportunity to point out the significance of places that have long since faded into the woodwork. To multiply our efforts, Dr. Rosell has written a self guided tour book, Exploring New England’s Spiritual Heritage: Seven Daytrips for Contemporary Pilgrims. Hot off the press, the Ockenga Institute has had the privilege of editing and publishing the tour book. For those of you who may be interested in purchasing a copy, please stay tuned to our website for further information in the coming weeks.

Next Year in Jerusalem?

By Roy Ciampa, PhD
Associate Professor of New Testament

I’m writing this during my first trip to Israel. I’m here at Jerusalem University College (JUC), auditing their three-week course on Historical and Geographical Settings of the Bible, which is being taught by Dr. Carl Rasmussen (author of the Zondervan Bible Atlas, who lived here for 16 years and has an exhaustive knowledge of the land). This has been a wonderful experience. JUC has many years of experience in teaching these courses and their faculty (as in the case of Dr. Rasmussen) really know their stuff.

Although the course has more of an emphasis on Old Testament contexts there is plenty of New Testament context in the course as well. We have walked all over Jerusalem multiple times (I’ve done so a few more times in my free time). Just thinking of things relating to New Testament times or events, I/we’ve been to the pool of Siloam, the pool of Bethesda, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (traditional site of Christ’s crucifixion and burial and, hence, resurrection), the “Garden Tomb” and “Gordon’s Calvary” (alternative sites for the same, promoted by some), the traditional site of the garden of Gethsemane, the Temple Mount, sat on the steps to the Hulda Gates (gates in the southern wall of the Temple Mount), and more. Outside Jerusalem we’ve been (among other places) to the Mount of Olives, Bethlehem (and the traditional site of Christ’s birth), Masada, Qumran. Tomorrow we leave for a four-day trip to Galilee and then a day in Samaria. So far each day has given me clearer images and understandings of biblical things and events and why things happened they way they did or were done the way they were.

Does someone have to come to Israel to understand (most of) the Bible? Of course not. Most of the readers of the Bible throughout history never lived in or visited the places mentioned within it. Most of the original readers of the New Testament had probably never lived in or visited the places mentioned in the Bible. (Of course most of the original readers of the Old Testament did live in the land and knew these places.) But seeing these places and learning about the geology and geography helps one not only visualize what took place but understand more clearly the strategic importance of many of the places mentioned and how they relate to other places mentioned in the biblical narratives.

Visual perception and how maps, pictures and diagrams don’t do the same (at least for me) as actually seeing the places and things and recognizing their sizes, proportions, physical relationships with other objects, etc. If you haven’t done so already, I highly recommend you take a course like the one I’m doing right now. For the JUC course see their website and check out the short-term programs. Gordon-Conwell will be offering its own “Study Seminar in Israel and Jordan” in January of 2011, led by the highly competent Dr. Jim Critchlow. You can see his excellent syllabus. If you are interested in going along I suggest you contact the GCTS Hamilton registration office as soon as possible to see if there are any slots left!

If you are a student at GCTS you might speak with the chair of the division of biblical studies about how you might include one of these courses in your program. If you are an alumnus/alumna of GCTS and in full-time ministry, I recommend you consider coming for one of these courses during a sabbatical break from your ministry if possible. If you find yourself in a different situation you may have other means of or better times for coming.

For those who may not be able to come, I can recommend Dr. Carl Rasmussen’s website, “Holy Land Photos,” as a source of wonderful pictures about just about any place of interest in the lands of the Old or New Testament.

The words “Next year in Jerusalem” are usually recited by Jews at the conclusion of the Yom Kippur service and the Passover Seder. But perhaps it would be an apt phrase to keep in mind when you think of your plans for biblical study, spiritual renewal or professional development as well!

The Centre for Public Christianity: Communicating Christian Perspectives in Clear and Compelling Ways

By Roy Ciampa, PhD
Associate Professor of New Testament

I’m writing this from Sydney, Australia, where I will be participating in the Moore Theological College conference on “The Wisdom of the Cross: Exploring 1 Corinthians.” Today, however, I had the special treat of going to the offices and studio of the Centre for Public Christianity (also known here as CPX) here in Sydney, where they interviewed me on the topics of Paul’s approach to sexual ethics in 1 Corinthians and on issues in Bible translation. For the former topic we did a longer audio interview to be posted as a pod-cast (and possibly a radio bit) and a shorter video interview to be posted online. On the subject of Bible translation we just did a couple of video pieces.

I must say I am very impressed with the work of CPX. They have put together quite nice library of audio, video and print pieces on a wide range of topics of interest to Christians and non-Christians alike. Their key categories are Christianity, Society & Politics, The arts, World Religions, Science & Religion, Ethics, History, and Big Questions.

The folks at CPX are an impressive and gifted group who are committed to articulating the Christian worldview and its implications in a way that is clear and (hopefully) compelling to modern listeners of various stripes. And for their efforts they have gained a reputation with some key media outlets here in Australia as being the key go-to people for getting the/a contemporary Christian perspective on whatever issue comes to their attention.

I encourage you to take a look at the resources available through CPX and to think about how they might be used in your ministry context, and how they might serve as a model for our own challenges in reflecting upon and communicating the implications of the gospel message for the issues of our days.

I think we need a ministry like CPX in North America. In the meantime I give thanks for the example they have set for the rest of us!

Codex Moment

By Sean McDonough, PhD
Associate Professor of New Testament

Regular readers of Every Thought Captive are likely interested, in one way or another, in the intellectual life of the church (anyone who wandered to this url while looking for Jonas Brothers ringtones or Red Sox updates can just consider all of this a kind of field trip to the Boring Zoo). So they may be less surprised than others that I recently found great inspiration in an article on early Christian use of the codex by Graham Stanton in his book Jesus and Gospel.

The title of the article is “Why Were Early Christians Addicted to the Codex?”¹ It refers to the remarkable early Christian preference for book-like documents (codices) over the generally more popular scroll form. He puts forward the thesis that the church’s addiction to codices stemmed from its prior use of codex-like notebooks which “were used by the very first followers of Jesus for excerpts from Scripture, for drafts and copies of letters, and perhaps even for the transmission of some Jesus traditions” (Jesus and Gospel, p.6).

Stanton’s thesis seems quite plausible to me, but his precise reconstruction was not what struck me. It was instead the image of these early Christians – apostles, associates, couriers, scribes – running around the Mediterranean with their back-pack full of sermon notes and Scripture passages and who knows what else…rather like the modern-day seminary student (without the laptop). The church was not only thinking and preaching about the revelation of God in Christ from the beginning – they were also engaged in at least a simple form of academic endeavor involving the written word.

None of this will be particularly earth-shattering to even the beginning seminary student: Paul’s note in 2 Tim. 4:13 (“When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments”) is enough to let us know of the importance of written documents in the early church. But there was something about the sheer physicality of Stanton’s discussion – the wax tablets and leather thongs and papyri – that brought home to me the reality of early Christian scholarly work.

Scholarship is not always valued in society at large, and sometimes it is valued even less in the church. We can often have the haunting feeling (especially when we are convincing ourselves that looking at the Greek text is not critical for this sermon preparation, or that no possible good could come from my memorization of hollow Hebrew verbs) that Christian academic work is a late, unnecessary addition to the pristine faith, a kind of luxury option that ought to be eschewed in favor of more pressing matters.

It is encouraging to know that right from the beginning Christians have been doing what most of us reading this column are doing: laboring for the gospel by our careful preservation of the gospel tradition. It may involve literal note-taking in little books not all that different from the ones used in the first-century; or posting some relevant biblical background on the church web-site; or writing a lengthy monograph on verbal aspect in Koine Greek. Scholarly work is not all the church should do; but it is a vital part of the life of God’s people. It is a privilege to teach at an institution where that tradition is maintained.

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¹ You can get at least a taste of the article at http://books.google.com/books?id=A7wNGMrAiD0C&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=stanton+why+were+early+christians+addicted+to+the+codex&source=bl&ots=2302WSOs_0&sig=qiNHpTozF_IA2dm_FVGgo-oUSMg&hl=en&ei=-d9xSvjgA47aNri76LAM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1.

Women, History and the Debate about Leadership

By Maria Boccia, PhD
Professor of Pastoral Counseling and Psychology and
Director of Graduate Programs in Counseling at the Charlotte campus

Those who oppose women in leadership in the church continue to assert that egalitarians are capitulating to the culture, bowing to pressures to conform, starting with the women=s movement in the 1960s. According to complementarians, there was no support for women in church leadership until some Christians got led astray by that movement. If we learn anything from a study of women=s history, we learn that this is absolutely false. However, too often, Evangelical Christians are naive about the importance of history and tend to know little church history in particular. When it comes to women in history this is doubly true, because our larger society also tends to ignore women in history. For example, last month, March, was Women=s History Month. Did you notice? February was Black History Month, and there were all kinds of activities, special programs on television, conferences and lectures in celebration of the contributions of African Americans to our history and culture. Women=s history month seemed to go by with almost no notice. Women=s contributions throughout history do not get much play. Sometimes, this is through benign neglect. Other times through active, willful suppression. I got to thinking about this because in March, Women=s History Month, I was in Massachusetts attending the inauguration of our seminary=s new president. As I thought about my first visit to Boston, I got to thinking about Paul Revere. We all know about Paul Revere. Every schoolchild learns about him: Aone if by land, two if by Sea.@ He rode from Charlestown to Lexington, some 15 miles, to warn Samuhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming to arrest them. His house is a historic landmark and museum dedicated to his story (see http://www.paulreverehouse.org/bio/) and everyone learns his story. But, have you ever heard of Sybil Ludington?

Sybil Ludington was the oldest daughter of Colonel Ludington. On April 26, 1777, he received word that about 2000 British troops, under the command of General Tryon, were attacking Danbury Connecticut. Sybil volunteered to warn people of the attack and alert the militia who were scattered across the countryside in farms and villages to come to Danbury's defense. She rode some 40 miles through the area of New York adjoining Danbury Connecticut in the middle of the night during a rainstorm that turned roads muddy, calling out Ludington's troops. As a result, American troops were able to turn back the advancing British and drive them back to their boats. I only know about her because I lived in Mahopac New York, through which she rode and in which is a historical marker about her ride. In the adjacent town of Carmel NY is a statue of her (see photo). Women in history, like Sybil, are often ignored even when what they accomplished is quite impressive. Other times, however, women are left out, not through benign neglect but through active exclusion and repression.

On my first visit to Rome (Italy), I visited the Church of St Praxida (thanks to Dr. Cathy Kroeger, who directed me to this fascinating church). In this church is a chapel dedicated to St. Zeno. In the chapel, there is a very interesting mosaic, probably dating to the 5th century AD. Four women are depicted (see photo). Three of them are saints (as indicated by the round halos). One was still living at the time the mosaic was made (as indicated by the square halo filled with blue). The inscription around the still-living woman reads Episcopa Theodo. The o on the end of Theodo makes the word a masculine name. However, the first part of the inscription Episcopa is the feminine form of the word for Bishop. This is unusual, to say the least: Gender of adjectives, titles and names always match. Outside the chapel there is a column inscribed with names of patrons of the church. Among them is Episcopa Theodora. Apparently, the original mosaic was altered to make Theodora masculine. But the bishop was a lady! In this case, the evidence of at least one woman bishop was removed from history through active suppression, not benign neglect.

Today, the discussion of women in leadership in Evangelical churches can be not only loud but also harsh and disrespectful. Those who affirm women=s gifts and calling are accused of following the world and the modern women=s movement. This has been disproven by so many so frequently that it is hard not to be wonder about the motives of those who continue to assert this. The voice of Episcopa Theodora suggests this discussion goes back into the early history of the church. In fact, one might argue that the church, following Jesus= example of affirming women (for example, commissioning a woman as the first evangelist), initially welcomed women into leadership and only later excluded them. One evidence of this is the series of restrictions placed on women=s ministries through canons of the Church Councils (see Fore Mothers: Women of the Bible by Janice Nunnally Cox):


Council of Orange (A.D.441), Canon 26: "Let no one proceed to the ordination of Deaconesses anymore."
Council of Epaon (A.D.517), Canon 21: "We abrogate completely in the entire Kingdom the consecration of widows who are named Deaconesses."
Council of Orleans (A.D.533): "No longer shall the blessing of women deaconesses be given, because of the weakness of their sex."

Joan Morris documents the history of suppression of women=s ministries and leadership in her book The Lady Was a Bishop: The Hidden History of Women with Clerical Ordination and the Jurisdiction of Bishops. One aspect of this story I find particularly significant is that, for centuries, women were heads of abbeys with both male and female dormitories, and held authority which extended to the local parishes and their priests. All of these individuals, male and female, vowed obedience to these abbesses. The popes vigorously supported and defended these women=s right to rule, so to speak. This only ended when the power of the popes waned and the power of secular states rose, from which the local bishops derived their power. The bishops could then depose these women with impunity, which they did. In the history of Protestant denominations, one can find this pattern repeated over and over: when a new movement starts with a fresh breath of the Spirit, women=s gifts and calling to leadership are recognized. Then, as the movement institutionalizes, perspectives on power and authority creep in from the world, and women are excluded.

I am distressed when the history of women and their contributions to the kingdom are neglected. We need to study and be aware of how God has raised up these and many other women to leadership positions, and how the church supported and endorsed them. Too much of the history of women in the church is one of progressive exclusion. Despite what people supporting such organizations as Counsel on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood assert, the contemporary movement to affirm women in ministry and leadership did not begin in the 1960s. It began in the 30s when Jesus told Mary Magdalene to go . . . to my brothers and tell them, >I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. (John 20: 17).

"The church in many ways is a sort of potter's field, where the gifts of women, as so many strangers, are buried. How long, O Lord, how long before man shall roll away the stone that we may see a resurrection."

Phoebe Palmer
The Promise of the Father, 1869