September 30 will mark Canada’s second annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It’s intended to be a time for national recognition and remembrance, especially of “the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools” on Indigenous communities across the country. Of course, this is just one, very small, piece of what reconciliation … Continue reading Pathways of Peace: Towards a Decolonizing Theology
When I started this study on Ephesians, I framed it in terms of a desire to see what it would be like to apply the ‘Integral Hermeneutic’ framework I developed a few years ago to a whole book of the Bible. And, while I definitely did this in terms of preparation, thought process, and ultimate … Continue reading The Life in Christ, Putting it All Together: Ephesians in Integral Perspective
To bring together the themes of the studies in the first half of the series, I did a Targum — an extended paraphrase and application — of Ephesians 1-3. Today, I’d like to do the same for the second half of the book: (4.1) In light of all this, I — a prisoner for our … Continue reading A Targum on Ephesians 4-6
Today we come to the end of the text of Ephesians, which concludes with a famous exhortation for the faithful to arm themselves for battle against their spiritual foes. At first glance this may seem jarring; we’ve spent the past couple of weeks (and chapter and a half) deep in codes of conduct and now, … Continue reading God’s Armour for God’s People: Ephesians 6.10-24
The past two posts in this series on Ephesians have explored the controversial household codes from Ephesians 5.21-6.9. I’ve made the argument that, while Paul — in his relatable struggle to manage the tension between the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’ of Christian life — left the structures of ancient Mediterranean society intact, he sought … Continue reading A Case for Christian Egalitarianism
Matthew Root 