Word: jesus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Exegetes like Eden Theological Seminary's Patterson think the angel's birth announcement embodies the hope that Jesus' coming kingdom will turn political as well as religious worlds upside down. "Luke can't be saying anything other than 'You think you have a son of God in Augustus?'" he says. "'You think you have a savior in the Emperor? It's all foolishness. If you want to know the peace of God, not the Pax Romana, you have to look somewhere else.'" Since the '60s, such readings have inspired Christian social activists from civil rights preachers to Catholic liberation theologians...
...will Velcro to her shoulders a couple of weeks from now. A floral wreath, spray-painted gold, will bedeck her head. All eyes will be upon her. But the costume will not be the draw. In the Arlington Heights pageant, she will play the angel who carries the baby Jesus to the manger at the front of the sanctuary...
...debates over the literal truth of the Gospels, just about everyone acknowledges that major conclusions about Jesus' life are not based on forensic clues. There is no specific physical evidence for the key points of the story. There are the Christian testimonies, which begin with Paul in the 50s A.D. and are supported in part by a 1st century Roman reference to "Jesus, the so-called Christ," a "wise man" who "won over many of the Jews and also many of the Greeks," and who is described as crucified in accounts from the next century. Beyond such testimony, there...
...might be tempted to abandon the whole Nativity story as "unhistoric," mere theological backing and filling. Or one might take a broader view and, like the constantly evolving scholarship, look anew at these stories and what they tell us not just about the birth of Jesus but also about how his message was spread. "It's virtually impossible to reduce the accounts to a single core narrative," contends L. Michael White, University of Texas at Austin religious historian and author of From Jesus to Christianity. But that may not be the most important point. "What jumps out at close readers...
...forthcoming Feminist Companion to Mariology, are more interested in what might be called Mary's feistiness. After all, Levine points out, the handmaid line does not follow immediately upon the angel's tidings that "thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and call his name Jesus ..." Rather, Mary poses the logical query, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" Says Levine: "She asks, 'How's that going to happen?' And when his answer makes sense to her, she in effect gives permission." Was this what Luke had in mind when...