Yesterday, I wrote about some of the complications involved in telling the stories of our lives. I focused particularly on the problems with endings — how ending them too soon can cause us to misunderstand our stories, and how not ending them at all can leave us stuck in the past or paralyzed like a … Continue reading The Messy Middle (Part II of The Stories of our Lives)
As regular readers here will know, I think and care a lot about the idea of story. And they will also know that the story of my life so far has had a lot of twists and turns. One of the most common reactions people have when they hear my story is to say, "Wow. … Continue reading The Stories of our Lives
The reading today from Genesis recounts what is for my money one of the most powerful stories in all of Western religion: Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers. While I have never done a deep-dive on this passage here, I have commented before on Joseph's remarkable, gracious reframing of his brothers' betrayal in terms of God's … Continue reading A Tale of Two Brothers
In my post the other day about how "The righteous shall live by faith" is really an anti-imperial text, I made a comment in passing that the New Testament plays fast and loose in its appropriation of biblical texts. This took at least one reader by surprise, prompting her to ask me to explain what … Continue reading Completely Prophetical
For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is from faith to faith, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith'. (Rom 1.17) Paul could hardly have imagined the impact these words would have on the world and on Christian thought. To generations of Protestant interpreters, this verse … Continue reading Justice, Faith, and Empire
Matthew Root 