Sam Scriber

Square Peg by Al Truesdale is a book which compares and contrasts modern day fundamentalist Christianity with Wesleyan Christianity. Its main purpose is highlighting a distinction between the brands of Christianity which reject modern methods of scholarly analysis about the Bible and the world around us and the Wesleyan brands. Fundamentalist Christianity is very influential on Christian culture today and also upon the way Christianity is perceived by the unbaptized. The intended outcome of this text is to offer up a Wesleyan interpretation of Christianity with the understanding that it will help the Christian world heal from over a century of vitriolic alienation from the rest of society. In the 2nd chapter, Dr. Mulholland provides a good overview of the fundamentalist understanding of what scripture is. As he explains, “While all fundamentalists support a high view of Scripture, such topics as why Scripture is believed to be the Word of God, inerrancy, and the nature of biblical a...

Texts of Terror by Phyllis Trible is book which seeks to highlight and explore four biblical stories which often go ignored by mainstream Christianity. The author specifically focuses on stories of women who are abused, neglected, raped, and killed for various reasons. Trible shows how these women are figures that would traditionally be viewed as simply tragic stories that are explained away by the suffering of the cross. She seeks to demonstrate how they, like Christ, can serve as figures of redemption for the faithful. This is an unabashedly feminist reading of scripture. As Trible puts it, “As a critique of culture and faith in light of misogyny, feminism is a prophetic movement, examining the status quo, pronouncing judgement, and calling for repentance.” She shows how these women are made vulnerable by the patriarchal human systems of their cultures, by the chauvinism and misogyny of their contemporaries of both genders, and by deity’s response to their various plights. Ultim...

In a short essay, Flannery O’Connor quotes St. Cyril of Jerusalem, “The dragon sits by the side of the road, watching those who pass. Beware lest he devour you. We go to the Father of Souls, but it is necessary to pass by the dragon.” This wise saying encapsulates well the fiction and philosophy of Ms. O’Connor. Her stories often deal with darkness and pain, her characters could be described as grotesque and profane, yet grace and redemption shine through and make themselves evident in a world populated by falleness. In another essay, Ms. O’Connor remarks, “I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil.” The author has come to recognize that this world truly is as it is described in the Holy Scriptures. Darkness has befallen the Earth and surrounded the human race, yet the light of divinity still finds a way to gleam into the lives of her often macabre anti-heroes. Growing up a Catholic in...

The Theology of the Gospel of John is a scholarly work by D. Moody Smith. Smith is a highly degreed academic and is more than qualified to present this primer for those who wish to delve deeply into the study of the fourth gospel. Currently serving on the faculty of Duke University’s Divinity School, Smith’s scholarship has been highly influential in the world of New Testament studies. The book itself is a very helpful and relatively accessible work which explores the multi-faceted influences which surrounded the composition of the Gospel of John. Smith’s major assertion is that the Gospel was composed during a time, the late first century, when the Jewish sect which would come to be known as Christianity was being shunned for their assertion that Jesus was indeed the fulfillment of the Old Testament Messianic prophecies. He shows how this schism caused the Johannine community to become sectarian and sharply define itself against Judaism, which would cause their theology to become v...

The God of the Gospel of John by Marianne Meye Thompson is a book which seeks to fill a void in New Testament scholarship. The void is God. According to the introduction, Thompson wrote this work in response to a then twenty-five year old essay by Nils A. Dahl of the Yale Divinity School called “The Neglected Factor in New Testament Theology”. Dahl reportedly asserted, along with others after him, that scholars had been primarily focused on Christology and had all but ignored theology. Thompson asserts that the new Testament is actually a book about God, expressing himself through Christ. She does this by exploring and analyzing the fourth gospel, successfully unpacking and applying some very interesting facts about the way the Greek world of the early church interacted with the divine, and how that interaction played into the development of early Christian theology. This critique will succinctly summarize the entire book, discuss the support Thompson uses to demonstrate her poi...

Upon reading A Turn in the South by V.S. Naipaul, one could liken the essence of Southern Religion to that of a passionate young crusader knight who has been defeated and suffers a broken heart. This soldier, in his youthful zeal, made many blunders and suffered crushing defeats as a result. These defeats brought on bouts of depression, aimless confusion, and tortuous doubts. Yet, out of these defeats he has found a new courage to take up the cause again, though it’s not as defined as it once was. The cause is now a nebulous notion that,  whatever the finer details may be, the righteousness of Southern Religion will dominate the global culture, whether by the butt of a rifle or the smile of a televangelist. In the view of southern religion, this is humanity’s last best hope; all other possible outcomes are wide paths which lead to destruction. Naipaul’s road trip through the south took place during the late eighties. During his time there, he found a culture haunted by the pas...