The announcement in the “Life” section of USA Today, November 7, 2008, caught me by surprise. In the section on “New on DVD,” I read with delight that the 1949-60 run of the Howdy Doody show has now been released and it costs only $30.00. What a bargain! I thought. I read the summary and smiled:
We’ve had Howdy VHS-DVD predecessors, but the kinescope quality here is excellent and the programming skews toward the earlier prime era. You get: Bob Keeshan (later Captain Kangaroo) as Clarabell; Judy Tyler’s Princess Summerfall Winterspring; Howdy foil Buffalo Bob Smith saying ‘Bouncing Buffaloes’; Chief Thunderthud originating ‘Cowabonga’ and putting a ‘um’ on every word (‘Sant-um Clas-um’) . . .
(Don’t get caught up on its occasional political incorrectness, please. Get a life!) I beamed as I read the description. One of these days I am going to own the collection. Read more…
For more than twenty-five years I have had the privilege of teaching a class entitled Scripture in Context with my friend and colleague, Dr. Gary Hall. The first part of the semester we spend discussing the historical setting of the Old and New Testaments and about two thirds of the semester are spent focusing on the history of the interpretation of the Bible. I always like to hear Gary’s insights about how the earliest Christian commentators approached the Scriptures.
Yesterday I covered a one thousand year period that we call Medieval times. We focused on what happens when there are poor hermeneutical choices made to support the traditions of the Church.
At the end of the lecture I issued a caution. Read more…
One of the visitors to the site, David Mosley, responded to my reflections on the importance of using the Old Testament to understand Revelation. You may recall that I argued that consulting the Old Testament is not an option, it is required. David commented about how we seem to fail to appreciate and understand the Old Testament. He wrote: “I grew up in a church of Christ where the Old Testament was good mainly for two things: 1. Look only at passages that refer to Jesus. 2. For good “Bible Stories” for us to learn.” He concluded by noting that he remembers a statement frequently made: “We are a New Testament church.” Such a declaration needs to be challenged. If we really believe that then we are denying the authoritativeness of God’s Holy Word. Read more…