Author: Mark Randall James
Dr. Mark Randall James is adjunct professor of religion at Hunter College and Fordham University. His work examines various understandings of language in the ancient Christian, Stoic, and rabbinic wisdom traditions, asking how ideas and practices from these traditions can contribute to contemporary debates about scriptural interpretation. He received his Ph. D. in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia with a concentration on Scripture, Interpretation, and Practice. Follow his Twitter feed @interpretweeter for running classical Jewish and Christian commentary on Scripture. Mark was selected as one of three Outstanding Contributing Scholars to speak at State of Formation's workshop held at the 2014 American Academy of Religion.
I Am Not Ashamed
Scriptures travel. Many people talk about ‘religious traditions’ as if they were nation states with clear and tightly guarded borders, but of course the borders of a tradition are porous a... Read MoreWhat is a Sword?
In my last post, I showed how Christian supporters and critics of gun control read the Bible with a common assumption: that wherever it speaks about ‘swords,’ it teaches us about weapons i... Read MoreSwords, Guns, and Evangelical Allegory
Right after the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary shootings, I Googled ‘Christian gun control’ and ‘Christian gun rights,’ and found, not surprisingly, some spirited Biblical defens... Read MoreWhat is Holy to Others
I do not pretend to understand how an asinine video like “The Innocence of Muslims” can drive crowds to violent and even murderous anger. Many commentators insist that the ultimate cause... Read MoreIn Defense of an Undergraduate Education
Bill Bonner's diatribe against undergraduate education at UVA in the name of Thomas Jefferson and Rabbi HIllel demonstrates the same lazy habits of thinking and writing that I try to drill out of my f... Read MoreWhat the Bible Clearly Teaches
The inauguration of the Center for Christian Thought at Biola University reminds us that evangelicals remain entangled with the intellectual habits of fundamentalism, particularly the assumption that ... Read MoreThe Post-Evangelicals, Part II
In my last post, I characterized post-evangelicals as those whose evangelical heritage has become questionable and problematic. In this post, I discuss some of the particular questions we post-evange... Read MoreThe Post-Evangelicals, Part I
Evangelicalism is changing: just look at the rise of the post-evangelicals.... Read MoreSing the Third Verse!
The spirit of Advent is one of sensitivity to oppression and suffering, to hunger and need. Under the weight of such sorrows, Advent finds in the prophets of Israel a hope that gives voice to these ... Read More- 2 of 3
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