Amos: The Crimes of Nations, 1.1-2.5

Amos continues to "redefine" righteousness for religious people. Justice/Righteousness is not simply a matter of personal goodness or morality. There is clearly a personal element in justice/righteousness but it goes far beyond that according to Amos. Amos believes that the personal dimension is taken up into the corporate structural behavior of the group. Thus in Amos there is a structure of righteousness that individuals are a part. The first...

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A Talk With McGarvey on Books, Reading & Preachers

Greetings from the land of Saguaros and Scorpions. It is a marvelous day here in the desert. Bright sunshine, snow capped mountains, majestic cacti and even a few coyotes have been seen this morning.I have watched discussion on books and study come and go by and have been struck by how different the lists look when compared to say the lists that either Alexander Campbell or J. W. McGarvey recommended to preachers. In 1883, J. W. McGarvey appeared...

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Amos at a Glance: Redefining Righteousness

Greetings from the land of Saguaros and Scorpions. I have planned out four or five blogs on the prophet Amos and hope to have them all up by the beginning of next week. My overarching theme is redefining righteousness ... and how Amos radically challenges what religious people think that concept might be. My initial post is an outline of the book:Amos at a Glance: I. International Relations are Subject to Yahweh’s Righteousness (1.1-2.5) 1. Damascus’ Crime (1.3f) 2. Gaza’s {Philistia} Crime (1.6ff) 3. Tyre’s Crime (1.9ff) 4. Edom’s Crime...

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Top Ten Books Every Preacher Should Own and Digest

"Of making many books there is no end ..." (Ecclesiastes 12.12)"When an intelligent person hears a wise saying, he praises it and adds to it;  when a fool hears it, he laughs at it and throws it behind his back" (Sirach 21.15)Here is my list of the Top Ten Books Every Preacher should own, read and digest carefully. It is actually hard to pick ONLY ten because our task(s), as ministers, are varied and complex and we have many areas we work in....

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Social Concerns in Churches of Christ: Trends Since the King Years, 1950-2000

A Word about this essay. Social Concerns was originally written during the Summer of 2000 while I lived in Grenada, MS. In making it available on the web I have edited it only slightly so it does not carry the research up to 2010. But I have continued to grow and learn. The essay is historical in orientation though not without theological perspective. I do not claim to be exhaustive on this matter (in fact I plan on posting a few more papers of...

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