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'Americanah' tackles challenge of fitting in from Nigerian viewpoint
Early in "Americanah," Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's first novel in seven years, a newly arrived Nigerian college student and her Nigerian aunt are chatting in the aunt's Brooklyn apartment.
Explaining why she'll straighten her hair for upcoming interviews, Aunty Uju gets right to the point: "You are in a country that is not your own. You do what you have to do if you want to succeed." »Read Full Article
Mexican Fiesta honors culture and history
Celebrating Mexican culture means good food, tequila tastings, music and soccer. You'll find all of them, in generous portions, at Mexican Fiesta, which runs Friday through Sunday at Maier Festival Park.
Back for a return visit is the Tequila Pavilion, which also features the culture and history of Mexico. Tequila tastings will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and 2 to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (separate admission required). »Read Full Article
Paxfest honors newborn whose life was cut short by cancer
Paxton Andrews' parents thought their newborn had a cold when they took him to the pediatrician. Sadly, it turned out that he had cancer. He died just shy of 5 months old.
His parents, John and Danna, who live in Bay View, decided to honor his memory last year with the inaugural Paxfest, which featured local bands including Fever Marlene and Maritime and food from Maxie's Southern Comfort and Blue's Egg. The event raised more than $15,000 for the Pablove Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to funding pediatric cancer research co-founded by Milwaukee native and Elektra Records president Jeff Castelaz, and named after his late son Pablo. »Read Full Article
Serbian Days celebrates food, culture for 3 days
It's the only festival where you can eat a palacinke and listen to Five Card Studs at the same time. And if you know that a palacinke is a Serbian pastry, you're already in.
Serbian Daysruns from 5 to 11 p.m. Friday, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday on the St. Sava Cathedral grounds, 3201 S. 51st St. »Read Full Article(1)


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"We wanted to be there," the senior defensive end said.
"There" is Ford Field, and Central Michigan is back again.
The Chippewas will go for their third MAC title in four years when they play Ohio University on Friday (8 p.m., ESPN2).
"It's a great honor to represent the West Division," CMU coach Butch Jones said. "Every team has one goal when they start camp in August, that is to be MAC champions, and now, we are down to two teams."
Each team took different paths to Ford Field.
The Chippewas marched through their MAC schedule with an 8-0 record while outscoring their opponents 318-137.
The Bobcats finished 7-1 in the MAC, but almost every game was close. They outscored their opponents 222-160 and needed wins against Northern Illinois and Temple in the final two games to secure their spot in Detroit as the East Division champions.
Ohio is back in the MAC title game for the first time since 2006, when it lost to Central Michigan 31-10.
No matter how the Bobcats got to Detroit, Jones said he is impressed with them.
"Ohio is one of the most complete football teams we have played," Jones said. "They have a (Ohio coach) Frank Solich mentality, they play with a physical presence. They don't beat themselves."
The Bobcats also are very opportunistic.
"They are plus-14 in turnovers, which is tops in the conference," Jones said. "That speaks to the mentality of their kids, and that goes a long way to winning a championship."
Solich, who coached Nebraska from 1998-2003, likes how his team has developed.
"We are better in a lot of areas," Solich said. "We have a little more team speed, and we are a pretty good team up front, and that's where it all starts."
But Solich knows what his team is up against. CMU is first in scoring offense in the conference at 34.3 points per game, and first in fewest points allowed at 17.8 points per game.
"With them, it all starts at the quarterback spot," Solich said. "He (CMU quarterback Dan LeFevour) is 240 pounds and is much quicker and faster than you would think. And on defense, they are not big up front, but they are quick and physical."
LeFevour, a senior, enters the game as the MAC career leader in total offense (15,140 yards), pass attempts (1,669), pass completions (1,110) and passing yards (12,255), and is second in touchdown passes at 99 but needs only one to tie former Marshall quarterback Chad Pennington.
Still, the only thing that matters to LeFevour is winning a third MAC title in his storied career.
"We are at a place where we want to be now," he said. "We know the challenge ahead of us and are looking forward to it."


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by Travis Tamerius
This article originally appeared in Volume 11.2 (Spring 2002) of The Reformation & Revival Journal. That issue also has part 2 of the author's informative interview of N. T. Wright.
Evacuating a Burning Paradigm?
One of the perks of a public school education is the instruction received in disaster preparation. Along with learning the alphabet, state capitols, and the table of chemical elements, a student is drilled in survival. All hazards are considered and all precautions taken. If the building is on fire or under threat of an explosive, you walk single-file along a designated path to the nearest exit. In the event of a tornado, you remain in the hallway, burrowed up against a locker, with your head tucked between your knees and beneath your arms. Rarely does a tornado touch down, rarely does the school catch fire; and yet, the posture of preparation serves a good purpose.
The reader of N.T. Wright would be wise to remember his or her schoolboy education. There is smoke in the hallowed halls of evangelicalism and it may well be time to evacuate some burning theological paradigms. To some, the call to line up at the door will suggest a false alarm: "The only thing you are smelling is a British theologian smoking a pipe in the teacher's lounge." The argument goes: how could there be any new paradigms for understanding historical Christianity? At best, such an assertion smacks of chronocentricity, the naïve suggestion that something unusually significant is happening in our own day and age; at worst, it betrays an incredible amount of hubris. Thus, the smoke is cleared with a wave of the hand, and the British guest is kindly reminded of the "No Smoking" sign.
To others, however, where there is smoke, there is fire. Consider the assessment of Alister McGrath, himself somewhat akin to an evangelical fire marshal. McGrath contends that Wright, his fellow Anglican churchman and former Oxford colleague, has "lobbed a hand grenade into the world of traditional evangelical theology" [1]. In particular, when it comes to reading the Apostle Paul on justification, the works of the law and the nature of Christ's death, "if Wright is correct, Martin Luther is wrong" [2].
That is a rather seismic if-then. In Protestant hagiography, Luther is the one who recovered the gospel for a darkened Europe. He prosecuted Rome for her infidelities. He unshackled the people from superstition, blind ritual and unchristian traditionalism. He gave us back our Bibles. He let God be God and grace be grace. He set the benchmark for recognizing true churches: justification by faith – the article by which the church stands or falls. Frame the conditional statement in the way that McGrath has done, and for some, it will be enough said. It will be thought that, if Wright is arguing something different, quite simply he is wrong.
The purpose of this article is to locate the smoke. My aim is to inspect existing evangelical paradigms under threat from Wright's critique. After examining Wright's analysis of early Christianity, I will identify some of the potential hazards and combustibles in evangelical theology.
Who is Tom Wright and what he is saying?
Tom Wright is Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey in London. Prior to his present position, he served as the Dean of Lichfield in Staffordshire, England (1993-1999) and held teaching posts at Oxford University (1986-1992) and McGill University in Montreal (1981-1986). A prolific author, Wright has long been recognized as one of the foremost Jesus scholars on either side of the Atlantic. Significant to that assessment is his ambitious project in New Testament theology consisting of six volumes on Christian Origins and the Question of God. At the present time, two volumes have been published. In the first volume, New Testament and the People of God, Wright uses his scholarly spade to break the ground on methodology. He employs a critical realist approach to his historical investigation. This approach is "a way of describing the process of 'knowing' that acknowledges the reality of the thing known, as something other than the knower (hence 'realism'), while also acknowledging that the only access we have to this reality lies along the spiraling path of appropriate dialogue or conversation between the knower and the thing known (hence 'critical')" [3]. Against naive Enlightenment historiography, Wright disputes the idea that our knowledge is of the sort that we know objects as bird's-eye observers, who simply "tell it like it is". Against the contentions of radical postmodernism, he disputes that we create meaning through an exercise of fictive imagination. We can have knowledge, real knowledge that does not superimpose meaning on texts or objects that are external to us.
Wright argues that essential to historical knowledge is learning to see through the window of a worldview other than our own. These worldviews do four things[4]. First of all, they provide the stories through which humans frame reality. Secondly, these stories address the questions being asked by a people – Who are we? Where are we? What is the problem? and, What is the solution? Thirdly, they include symbols and boundary-markers which express the worldview in daily life. And finally, they include a praxis, a plan of action, a way-of-being in the world. After laying out his methodological approach, Wright offers a survey of second-temple Judaism.
Wright suggests that Jewish self-understanding in the second-temple period looks something like this: We are the people of the one, true God who have graciously been chosen to be His people and, as His people, to be a light to the nations. We are geographically in the holy land, centered in Jerusalem, the city of Zion. Theologically, however, we are still in exile — as the promises have yet to be fulfilled, forgiveness has yet to occur, the wrong rulers are still in power, the age of messianic blessing has been delayed, and YHWH has yet to act in a decisive way in our history. Our hope is that YHWH will act soon and restore righteous rulers to us as we keep covenant with Him [5]. Within this worldview, Israel's symbols — the temple, the Law, circumcision, the land, the festivals, holy war, all of these – reinforce the controlling narrative.
It is on this canvas that Wright paints his portrait of the historical Jesus and his early followers. Volume Two is entitled Jesus and the Victory of God. Wright asserts that there are basically five questions needing to be answered if we are to have an intelligent understanding of who Jesus was and is: How does Jesus fit into early Judaism? What were His aims? Why did He die? How did the early church come into being? Why are the gospels the way they are? A sixth question hovers on the horizon of all this investigation. If this is Jesus, so what? What difference does it make who Jesus was historically? [6]
As Wright chases down answers to these questions, a portrait of Jesus emerges which makes him both "comprehensible and crucifiable" [7] against the background of the first-century. Employing the double criterion of similarity and dissimilarity, Wright portrays a Jesus who was similar enough to Judaism to be intelligible, yet dissimilar enough to be considered a political firebrand dangerous to the nation and deserving of death. Jesus was similar enough to the later concerns of apostolic Christianity to be the source for their theological reflection and missionary activity. His emphases were different enough from the early church, however, that it becomes unreasonable to sustain the notion that the gospel accounts are historically unreliable and should be read as hagiographic retrojections by the first Christians.
So, the reader might ask, who was Jesus and what was he all about? Wright would say that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet who announced to Israel that her story was reaching its climactic, dramatic fulfillment. God was acting in history. The kingdom was "near", "at hand", "in your midst". So far, so good. First-century Jews would listen to this with a fair bit of interest. It didn't take much kindling to stoke an already lit fire. They were expecting a new exodus, the messianic age, the dawn of a new era. Jesus knew this story line and told the story in familiar language. At this point Jesus was entirely comprehensible.
But Jesus alters the traditional telling of the story. He mixes up the characters and changes the ending. He has all the wrong people living happily ever after. Yes, YHWH is going to act, but it will be nothing like Israel might expect. Instead of Israel's being vindicated before her enemies, she is under the threat of judgment for pursuing a path of violent resistance to Rome, for failing to keep covenant with YHWH and for rejecting Jesus' kingdom. Instead of Jerusalem and a gloriously rebuilt temple being at the center of God's plan to gather the nations for judgment and/or conversion, the holy city will be laid waste and her temple will be destroyed. Instead of YHWH's bringing his kingdom to those who are obedient to the Torah and ceremonially pure, He will lay out the welcome mat for all sorts of shabby characters – prostitutes, tax collectors and Samaritans. And, perhaps most emphatic of all in the retelling of the story, the kingdom's arrival – including the restoration of God's people from exile, the return of YHWH to Jerusalem, and the divine victory over evil – will occur in and through Jesus of Nazareth. Both in word and in deed, Jesus is boldly declaring that he is the focal point of Israel's long and twisted story.
This retelling of the Jewish story includes a redefining of the true people of YHWH. True Israel consists of those who repent of their own kingdom agenda to follow Jesus, trusting his kingdom message and embracing his way of salvation. He preaches and authorizes a forgiveness that sidesteps the centrality of the sacrificial cultus. He acts in mighty deeds that symbolically express a kingdom being inaugurated in his own life and ministry. He tells stories that subvert a typical Jewish reading of the way things are and ought to be. He marginalizes the all-important Jewish symbols of temple, land, family and Torah. It is no surprise that such a person was considered crucifiable.
His death, however, was much more than a regrettable miscarriage of justice. From the vantagepoint of Jesus' own intention, he had a vocation to die [8]. Such an act was bound up with his self-understanding and mission. Somewhat as in the movie Braveheart, where William Wallace made a trip to Dunkirk in order to pick a fight, Jesus traveled to Jerusalem to stage a showdown — the climactic showdown.
What did Jesus expect would take place in Jerusalem? Wright suggests:
My proposal is that Jesus took his own story seriously – so seriously that, having recommended to his followers a particular way of being Israel-for-the-sake-of-the-world, he made that way thematic for his own sense of vocation, his own belief about how the kingdom would come through his own work. He would turn the other cheek; he would go the second mile; he would take up the cross. He would be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. He would be Israel for the sake of the world. He would be the means of the kingdom's coming, both in that he would embody in himself the renewed Israel and in that he would defeat evil once for all. But the way in which he would defeat evil would be the way consistent with the deeply subversive nature of his own kingdom-announcement [9].
The way in which he would defeat evil was the way of the cross, the way of his own apparent defeat at the hands of Roman and Jewish authorities. Jesus, centralizing his own character in the story line of Jewish expectation, experienced in his own body the condition of Israel's exile. He took upon himself the fate of the nation, deliberately enacting the punishment of Isaiah's suffering servant (Isaiah 53). Politically, he modeled the program of peace and rejected the path of nationalistic resistance to Rome (cf. Luke 19:42).
If Jesus' death signaled (among other things) the condition of Israel's exile, the resurrection announced the end of the exile and the dawn of the new age. God, in raising Jesus from death, had in fact ushered in the glorious age when life would be transformed. According to Wright, it is only the reality of a re-embodied Jesus, which can account for the continuation of Christianity as a messianic movement. If the story of Jesus had ended with the messianic pretender's burial in a grave, it would have suggested to his followers (using Wright's analogy) that they had bet on the wrong horse. They may have ventured to continue the movement with another stand-in leader, perhaps a close relative of Jesus. But this revolution neither fizzled out nor did it find a substitute messiah. Rather, the early Christian movement witnessed the appearance of a resurrected Jesus and then announced to the world – pagan and Jewish – that this Jesus was indeed Messiah and Lord.
We now turn our attention to a few places where Wright challenges the conventional wisdom of evangelical theology. The four areas I wish to highlight are: his historical methodology, his understanding of Jesus as an eschatological prophet, his understanding of justification by faith and his approach to biblical authority. If you were to walk down the hallway looking for fire in the cathedral, these are some of the doors that would be hot to the touch.
Wright's Historical Approach
Wright is serious about historical inquiry into the origins of Christianity. He is both a committed Christian and a committed historian. Wearing both hats at the same time, however, leaves him vulnerable to the criticisms of both his academic colleagues and fellow believers. His counterparts in academia accuse him of a believer's bias, alleging that he colors the evidence in order to defend traditional Christianity, or what Crossan labels "an elegant fundamentalism" [10]. Wright disputes his critics' claims to unbiased objectivity and argues that there is no such thing as a "view from nowhere." Every person thinks, writes and reads from "somewhere". Such a confession does not mean that we are confined to a hermeneutical morass of radical subjectivity. But neither are we to think that noncommittal, unbelieving secularism is the only legitimate place from which seriously to read the New Testament. At this point, Wright offers a very strong challenge to the methodological assumptions of the scholarly guild.
Evangelical readers will have their own uneasiness with Wright's historical study. Despite the fact that Christianity is a faith deeply rooted in history, evangelicals have been more than a bit nervous about searching for the historical Jesus. For starters, the church is still living in reaction to the Enlightenment project, which concluded its historical investigation of the New Testament by scrapping the miracles, destroying the integrity of the source documents and distorting Jesus beyond either recognition or worship. In our own day, the project is continued by the Jesus Seminar, a pseudo think-tank that leaves us with a whole lot of seminar and not much Jesus. Partly in reaction to this academic approach, and as a precaution against eroding a vital faith, Christians have ended up with Jesus' portraits radically divorced from history. It should be noted that Wright is favorable to many of the Enlightenment's questions, while remaining sharply critical of the movement's presuppositions and conclusions.
Another reason advanced for ignoring the historical investigation is that the whole enterprise seems so unnecessary. What, if anything, can be said that we don't already know? Recently, my son and I were watching an ABC special with Peter Jennings entitled, The Search for Jesus. After its dramatic introduction, which highlighted the bevy of scholars carrying out a new search for the historical Jesus, my son told me: "I don't know why they're looking for Jesus. They'll never find him." Curious about the worldview of a seven-year old, I asked him why they wouldn't find Jesus. He replied, "Because he's in heaven." For my son, the search party could be called off because he knew the Apostle's Creed: the latest word had Jesus at the right hand of the Father. Other well-intentioned Christians call off the whole historical project because they think anything that is significantly new must be significantly wrong if only because it is new [11]. Wright calls us to a new search for the historical Jesus, arguing that the older paradigms lack sufficient explanatory power and, also, that the increase in Jewish background literature has made possible a more plausible reading of Jesus and the early church.
A third reason for the church's disengagement from a first-century Jewish Jesus is our tendency to think in abstractions and universals. It has been common for dogmatic theology to work in broad categories, loosely connected to the actual exegesis of specific historical texts. When this happens – when Christian theology becomes unhitched from biblical studies – theology "lapses into a mere ad hoc use of the Bible, finding bits and pieces to fit into a scheme derived from elsewhere" [12].
There is a suspicion that, if we read the Bible the way Wright does, we are left with little of relevance to our own day and age. Consider the basis for such evangelical anxiety. Wright carefully and critically works through the primary source material (biblical and extra-biblical) with the aim of arriving at the most plausible reading of the character of early Judaism and Christianity. He continually poses the question, how was this heard in its original audience? When Jesus spoke about repentance, the kingdom of heaven or forgiveness of sins, what sense did those terms make to first-century listeners? When he cleansed the temple, withered a fig tree, rode a donkey into Jerusalem, what significance did those actions hold for second temple Jews? Questions such as these reveal Wright's aim to situate Jesus more thoroughly in his particular Jewish milieu.
Wright's Jesus, then, starts out very context-specific. Jesus was not going around dispensing a clever assortment of universal wisdom sayings. He was not setting up a timeless system of ethics. He was speaking a specific message (the kingdom of God) to a specific people (his Jewish contemporaries) and acting out the presence of YHWH in Israel's very particular story. A nervous evangelical may fear that this historical Jesus becomes less accessible to our own day and age. For evangelicals, the Bible is a preached Book. It is central to the church's ongoing proclamation of God's Word to the world. The Bible is believed to have eternal authority and continuing relevance. Wright's approach would seem to compromise that confessional stance. His insistence on a knowledge of Jesus mediated through historical investigation would appear to threaten a pious reading of the Bible that pursues an immediate 'meaning' of the texts.
In response, Wright would say a number of things. First of all, he would argue that our knowledge of Jesus must be based on the Jesus of history. We honor God in our thinking and praying and obeying, not by disregarding history and inventing our own Jesus but, rather, by rigorously committing to discover the Jesus who lived in first-century Judea. Secondly, and correlative to the first point, Wright would warn against the distortions which result from reading our own worldview into the world of the Bible. Simply stated, "well-meaning and pious readers have often been guilty of thinking in categories that are entirely alien to the world of first-century Judaism" [13]. Vitally interested in what the Bible means, readers have often lacked a proportional interest in what the Bible meant. Thirdly, a more committed study of New Testament history and theology is highly relevant to discipleship in this new millennium. Far from shutting up our Bibles to history, the approach by Wright prepares the way for the continuing appropriation of Jesus' original mission and message. Wright suggests:
within the history as we shall see, there will be plenty of material for theology to go to work, though it may be surprised at what it finds. The silhouette of the cross against a darkened sky is more, not less, evocative for our study of the portrait of the man who hung there. And the total historical picture, in all of its complex simplicity, will challenge the most experienced iconographer [14].
Elsewhere, Wright notes:
it should be clear that the church's use of the Gospels prior to, and indeed since the rise of so-called critical historiography has given scant attention to what the Gospels themselves are saying about the actual events of Jesus' life and his kingdom proclamation. It should also be clear that therefore the church is, in effect, sitting on but perhaps paying no attention to a central part of its own tradition that might, perhaps, revitalize or reform the church were it so be significantly investigated [15].
Clearly then, Wright's historical engagement aims to take serious seekers back to another world – a world where Herod reigned, Rome was in control, John was beheaded, Jewish messianic movements dreamed and schemed and Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom. Having lived faithfully then and there, in the dust and drama of ancient Israel, we discover the resources for living out a faithful discipleship here and now.
Jesus and Eschatology
Wright offers a second point of challenge to the more typical evangelical approach in his understanding of Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet. Wright argues that Jesus is most properly understood as an eschatological prophet warning of coming destruction. According to Wright, Jesus stood in continuity with the great prophets of old by offering a critique from within. He was calling Israel to repentance and announcing YHWH's salvation to those who obeyed the prophetic summons. To those who ignored the message of Jesus, however, continuing to pursue their own kingdom agenda, Jesus threatened judgment.
It is with regard to the precise nature of this eschatological judgment that Wright is at variance with both scholarly tradition and popular evangelical understanding. Wright contends that we have traditionally misread the judgment that Jesus threatened. When Christ warned in his parables and in the Olivet discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21) about approaching doom, he was not announcing the end of the world as we know it. He was anticipating the desolation of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish Temple, which occurred in A.D. 70.
Some, following the lead of Albert Schweitzer, have read the judgment teaching of Jesus as a prediction of the imminent end of all things, an end destined to be cosmic and universal in scope. According to this reading of the apocalyptic imagery of Matthew 24:29 ("Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken"), Jesus gave a mistaken forecast of the near future. The end didn't come. Celestial objects kept their place. Jesus was hopeful, but deluded. Further, it is held that Jesus' followers perpetuated his mistake by living out an 'interim ethic' in anticipation of the dissolution of the world.
Wright agrees with Schweitzer that Jesus offered a warning about imminent destruction. But the destruction threatened was not regarding the entire cosmos. Rather, Jesus was employing apocalyptic imagery from the Old Testament to warn the Jews of a shake-up of their symbolic worldview – a shake-up involving the destruction of the Temple, the severe punishment of the Jewish people and the vindication of Jesus and his followers
This view argues strongly against popular evangelical prophecy, which pollutes the world of Christian publishing and television programming. The typical approach reads the apocalyptic language in the Olivet Discourse as literal (in line with Schweitzer), but relegates it to the still-yet future. Wright argues that both the scholarly tradition descending from Schweitzer and pietistic interpretation are fundamentally mistaken. The cosmic imagery is not referring to a literal dislocation of the sun, moon and stars. The apocalyptic language is "an elaborate metaphor-system for investing historical events with theological significance" [16]. The Jews knew "a good metaphor when they saw one, and used cosmic imagery to bring out the full theological significance of cataclysmic socio-political events" [17].
These socio-political events centered in and around Jerusalem from A.D. 66-70. Thus, the great tribulation announced by Jesus in Matthew 24 is, for us, an event in the past rather than the future. Likewise, the coming of the Son of Man, spoken of in that particular passage, belongs with the calendar rather than the crystal ball. Because of this pervasive historical reading of the Olivet discourse, Wright is often criticized for an over-realized eschatology which leaves no place for a future parousia. In response, he repeatedly assures his critics that he does believe the New Testament speaks of events which are still to come, citing Romans 8, I Corinthians 15 and Revelation 21-22 [18]. Wright's position does not deny the creedal affirmation of Christ's coming again to "judge the living and the dead". His position simply emphasizes the fact that the pervasive thrust of New Testament eschatology refers to an apocalyptic 'end' to be fulfilled in the first century.
At this point, some evangelicals might wish to argue for an additional future referent to the Olivet pericope, perhaps invoking a sensus plenior for the passage. But Wright counters:
conservative protestants…who have pressed me personally to allow for second-level meanings in Mark 13 and its parallels, meanings that make the passage to refer not only to first-century events but to events yet to come, seem clearly to be looking for a let-out, a way of focusing not on what the passage refers to but on something else. How can this be loyalty to the text? [19]
Wright's eschatological reading has raised additional questions: how can the crucifixion and resurrection be the defeat of evil and the return of YHWH to his people when evil continues unabated to this day? How can the judgment of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 be the end of the evil age and the emergence of the great and coming day of the Lord when the obvious –that much remains unchanged — is too readily observable. Wright argues that we must begin thinking in terms of the dialectic between achievement and implementation. In the death and resurrection of Jesus, YHWH achieved the decisive victory over sin and death. The church has been entrusted with the ongoing task of implementing this achievement [20].
Paul and Justification
Another area in which Wright challenges conventional evangelical wisdom is in regard to the place and meaning of justification within Paul's theological reflection [21]. Wright alleges that we misread Paul's confrontation with Judaism if we read the second-temple Jew as a proto-Pelagian, or as a 16th century Roman Catholic straw man, who needed to be told that a person was not saved by works of self-improvement but rather by God's free grace in Christ Jesus. Such a reading is anachronistic and misses the context of Paul's thinking.
In making this criticism, Wright is echoing aspects of the work of Ed Sanders, a towering figure in Pauline scholarship these past 25 years. In 1977, Sanders wrote Paul and Palestinian Judaism, in which he argued that Judaism was not a legalistic religion of works- righteousness. Looking copiously at the background literature, Sanders claimed that no serious-minded Jew would have considered entry into the covenant people attainable by law-keeping. The law was not an entrance requirement. Rather, within the covenantal scheme of things (which Sanders labels, "covenantal nomism"), God graciously chose a people to be his own possession and entrusted them with his Torah, the standard for living responsively to His grace. The Jews were already inside the covenant because of God's initiative; they maintained that covenantal status by observing the law.
In two studies of Pauline theology to date, The Climax of the Covenant (1991) and What Saint Paul Really Said (1997), Wright accepts Sander's basic point [22]. We have to reconsider the problem with Judaism as Paul saw it. Blind-eyed sketches of ancient Judaism create a caricature of the Jews' having the wrong sort of religion, rescued by Jesus and Paul, who have come to announce the right sort. Roughly put, it is thought by some that Jews believed in works, and Jesus and Paul believed in grace. Such a picture does not accurately describe Paul's problem with Judaism.
The "works of the law" which could not justify (Romans 3:28) were not the works of the merit-seeking moralist. Rather, these works were those peculiar to the Jew as a Jew. The Jews could not be saved by insisting on their national, racial privilege. The importance of this shift in emphasis is underscored by McGrath when he writes:
It is important to appreciate at this point that it is not merely evangelical interpretations of the phrase 'works of the law' that are called into question by Wright. Having studied the development of the Western interpretation of Paul on justification over a period of 1,800 years, I have to report that, until recently, virtually every writer within that tradition of interpretation treated the notion of works of the law in this manner, irrespective of whether the interpreter is Protestant or Catholic, evangelical or not. It is for this reason that the general line of interpretation, developed by Sanders, which is echoed in (yet modified by) Wright, is of such significance [23].
According to Wright, what frames Paul's discussion of the "works of the law" and justification are the important ideas of eschatology, covenant and the lawcourt. Various first-century Jewish sects considered their intensification of Torah observance a signal that they would be vindicated in the future day of judgment [24]. Their obedience to the law was not self-help, gutting it out in order to be saved. Rather, particular groups of first-century Jews intended to be the advance guard of God's righteous kingdom and saw themselves as the true Israel living in anticipation of that great and glorious day. Imagine Paul's speaking into this world with his gospel announcement. Jewish expectation in the second temple period was fairly well laid out like an elaborate Etch-A-Sketch drawing. Paul, following the lead of Jesus, comes in and shakes up the picture.
Paul argues that the Jewish works of the law were inadequate in their failure to recognize the decisive importance of what God had done in and through Jesus. What Israel anticipated at the end of time – vindication, deliverance, victory over evil, final judgment – God had accomplished in the middle of time through the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth [25]. It was this great eschatological event, revealed to Paul in the vision of an exalted Jesus, which set Paul's mind to rethink the plight of humanity and God's grand solution.
Paul discovered that God had acted climactically on behalf of his people in Jesus. God had displayed his righteousness (dikaiosu,nh qeou understood as his "covenant faithfulness") by keeping the promise made to Abraham and his descendants. He had dealt with sin once for all and would now vindicate his people. But who, in fact, were the people to be vindicated? According to Paul's gospel, all those who believe in Jesus would now belong to God's covenant family. Irrespective of racial identity and Torah observance, access had been opened to all nations because of Jesus' death. The Jews could no longer cling to the Torah as a union card for admittance into God's restored Israel. All the laws that fenced them in as a distinct people (food laws, circumcision, sabbath observance) had to be radically reconsidered in the light of God's renewed covenant community.
In this context, justification marks out who belongs to this new renewed family. Justification,
is not a matter of how someone enters the community of the true people of God, but of how you tell who belongs to that community. …It was about God's eschatological definition, both future and present, of who was, in fact, a member of his people. In Sanders' terms, it was no so much about 'getting in', or indeed about 'staying in', as about 'how you could tell who was in'. In standard Christian theological language, it wasn't so much about soteriology as about ecclesiology; not so much about salvation as about the church [26].
Those who are recognized as belonging to this new covenant community are those, whose sins are forgiven, who are recognized as 'righteous' before God's law court.
Critics of Wright's understanding of justification (an understanding often termed the "new perspective") may conclude that he is dancing on a land mine and threatening the settled ground of core orthodoxy. Wright, however, believes that if you start from his angle and emphasize justification in the context of Jewish thought (its covenantal, judicial and eschatological dimensions), you get the rest thrown in. "If you start with the popular view of justification, you may actually lose sight of the heart of the Pauline gospel; whereas if you start with the Pauline gospel itself, you will get justification in all its glory thrown in as well" [27].
Wright argues that this reading offers a much more plausible and coherent understanding of Paul, the law, Judaism and justification. It offers the most faithful reading of the pertinent texts. In its biblical and historical context, then, justification is not "how someone becomes a Christian. It is the declaration that they have become a Christian" [28].
It is worth mentioning here that Wright considers the new perspective on justification to be extremely relevant to the contemporary church (What Saint Paul Really Said,157-161). Properly understood in its biblical and historical context, justification calls the church to a more communal self-awareness, an energetic pursuit of unity, a commitment to holy living and a courageous confrontation with the powers of the world.
Of pressing interest to many evangelicals is Wright's claim that justification is the doctrine that
impels the churches, in their current fragmented state, into the ecumenical task. It cannot be right that the very doctrine which declares that all who believe in Jesus belong at the same table (Galatians 2) should be used as a way of saying that some, who define the doctrine of justification differently, belong to a different table. (What Saint Paul Really Said, p. 158)
In recent years there has been considerable dialogue between Protestants and Roman Catholics regarding their divisions and their unity. Questions abound: What should determine eucharistic fellowship? Who should we recognize as members of the family? Is there anything to be gained by dialogue? Does a commitment to the ecumenical task inevitably lead to compromise?
For those Catholics and Protestants disinterested in dialogue, all that remains is a reenactment of the Reformation War. Protestants inherit a framework, which asserts that the mark of a church's legitimacy is her allegiance to justification by faith properly defined. Losing this cardinal truth, she has lost all. Such a paradigm reinforces the historic war policy: the opposing armies must drop their theological arms, unconditionally surrender their doctrinal position or we'll continue to shell them with the same dogmatic buckshot.
If Wright's exegesis stands– that is, if Wright is correct in assessing the biblical and historical dimensions of Paul, the law, and justification by faith– then it follows that both camps (Protestant and Catholic) would have something to learn from a more precisely focused doctrine of justification. And what they learn could set a match to some longstanding paradigms in the western church.
Wright and Biblical Authority
Finally, Wright challenges evangelicals to a reconsideration of biblical authority. From the outset, it should be noted that the issue is not if the Bible is authoritative but the manner in which it is authoritative [29]. Too often the Bible is read like a code book for all of life's questions, a sort of Chilton's auto manual giving us an exhaustively detailed blue print for the repair of life and church and society. It is this way of reading the Bible that leads to an endless amount of clever proof-texting, whereby we force Scripture to address what it never intended to address. Wright seeks to offer a different mode [30]. He likens a Christian reading of the ancient text to what he terms "faithful improvisation." Imagine, he says, that we discover one of Shakespeare's lost plays. Further, imagine that the play is lacking a fifth and final act. What would be necessary for that play to come to life would be a trained group of Shakespearean actors to improvise the final act. These actors would not simply be winging it. Rather, they would immerse themselves in the first four acts and the other plays of the famed English writer. They would then act out their parts, striving to be faithful to the developing plot and character portrayals.
The church's reading of the Bible is likened to this imaginary group of actors. We have a script (what Wright terms a "meta-narrative") consisting of four parts: Act One is creation; Act Two is the fall; Act Three is Israel; and Act Four is Jesus and the church. The fifth and final act is the church's ongoing improvisation of the developing story. We, as Jesus' actors, are called to inhabit the world of the Bible and then act out that worldview for a new day.
The promise of such a model is the merging of the two different worlds of the writer and the reader [31]. On the one hand, we are not radical revisionists when it comes to reading the Bible. There is authorial intent. There is an existing narrative. So we are called to a faithful reading that is continuous with the received script. We are called to consider what the Bible means by considering what the Bible meant. On the other hand, the changing world of the changing reader demands that the church continually reenact the ancient story as Script-inspired and Spirit-inspired actors. Loyalty to the original playwright and composer demands faithful improvisation of the original script and score for a new audience and a new day.
Wright's ambitious theological project will continue to sound an alarm to the occupants of existing evangelical paradigms. Questions will continue to be raised about Wright's picture of second-temple Judaism, his understanding of Jesus' own self-consciousness, his understanding of Paul and the law and his reading of New Testament eschatology. At the end of the day, the primary consideration for a thoughtful evangelical must be this: has Wright achieved a more plausible and comprehensible picture of the origins of early Christianity? Is the picture of Jesus and the early church clearer because of Wright's interpretation of the biblical text and the worldview, which informs the biblical text?
My Berean hunches tell me yes. Wright has provided us with a history of early Christianity that is magisterial in scope, remarkably solid in its hermeneutical foundation and grand in its witness to the Jesus of history. He has well situated his readers inside the narrative thought world of second temple Judaism. It is there, in that ancient air, on that dusty soil, that Jesus is to be understood and believed. It is that Jesus, so firmly grounded in the Jewish world of a backwoods province in the ancient Roman Empire, who is the Jesus of our own hopes and aspirations, our worship and allegiance.
A Short Note on N. T. Wright & His Reformed Critics
Getting Some Perspective on "the New Perspective"
1. Carey Newman, ed., Jesus and the Restoration of Israel: A Critical Assessment of N.T. Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity, 1999), 178.
2. Jesus and the Restoration of Israel, 169
3. N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God. Volume I of Christian Origins and the Question of God (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press, 1992), 35.
4. The New Testament and the People of God, 123-24.
5. The New Testament and the People of God, 243.
6. N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God. Volume II of Christian Origins and the Question of God (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress, 1996) 90-91.
7. Jesus and the Victory of God, 98.
8. Jesus and the Victory of God, 593.
9. Jesus and the Victory of God, 564-565.
10. Jesus and the Restoration of Israel, 297, n. 84.
11. Stephen Evans, though not dismissing the need for historical investigation, finds Wright's historical portrait problematic because of its elements of novelty: "it must be said, that to the degree that Wright's reading of the narrative is absolutely original, it seems less probable that it could be true, insofar as the reading is seen as an attempt to describe the significance of Jesus' life in a way that is useful for Christian theology." Jesus and The Restoration of Israel, 203.
12. The New Testament and the People of God, 138.
13. Jesus and the Victory of God, 613.
14. Jesus and the Victory of God, 611.
15. Jesus and The Restoration of Israel, 251.
16. Jesus and the Victory of God, 96.
17. New Testament and the People of God, 333.
18. Jesus and the Restoration of Israel, 261-272.
19. Jesus and the Restoration of Israel, 265-266.
20. Jesus and the Restoration of Israel, 272. This church's role in implementing the kingdom is described in these popular works by Wright: The Way of the Lord: Christian Pilgrimage in the Holy Land and Beyond (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999); The Lord and His Prayer (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1996); Bringing the Church to the World (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House, 1992)
21. It should be recognized that Wright has yet to write a full and sustained exposition of justification. Future publications (not least, a commentary on Romans scheduled to appear in 2002) will treat the issue in more detail.
22. Wright goes beyond Sander in many ways, both in his methodology and in his conclusions. It should be noted that not all of the theological socks match, which are commonly lumped into the categorical drawer named the 'new perspective'. There are differences between the respective theologians proposing this rethink of Paul's interaction with Judaism.
23. Jesus and the Restoration of Israel, 173.
24. N.T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1997) 119.
25. What Saint Paul Really Said, 36, 127.
26. What Saint Paul Really Said, 119.
27. What Saint Paul Really Said, 113.
28. What Saint Paul Really Said, 125.
29. Wright states: "The modes of reading and interpretation that have been followed are, in fact, functions of the models of inspiration and authority of scripture that have been held, explicitly or (more often) implicitly within various circles, and which have often made nonsense of any attempt to read the Bible historically." New Testament and the People of God, 60
30. The model can be found in New Testament and the People of God, 140-142 and in his lecture and published essay, "How Can the Bible Be Authoritative?" in Vox Evangelica, April 1991.
31. Such a model has been recently employed in various areas such as pastoral ministry, worship, the doctrine of baptism, Christian apologetic and Christian ethics. See J. Richard Middleton and Brian J. Walsh. Truth is Stranger Than It Used to Be (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995) 182-184; Marva Dawn and Eugene Peterson. The Unnecessary Pastor, (Vancouver: Regent College Publishing), 29-30; Marva Dawn. A Royal 'Waste' of Time: The Splendor of Worshipping God and Being Church for the World (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999) 53-54; Rodney Clapp. A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 138-139; Donald Bridges and David Phypers, The Water that Divides: A Survey of the Doctrine of Baptism, (Ross-Shire, Britain: Mentor Press, 1998), 174-175; Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, (Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing), 84-85; See also France Young, Virtuoso Theology: The Bible and Interpretation, (Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press, 1993); Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1996), pp. 304-306. Hays describes the church as an embodied metaphor, called to 'perform' the Scriptures.
While Evangelicals may think that N.T. Wright is smoking up the halls with a new fire, I am more of the opinion that he is just smelling the incense of older Orthodox patristics. This is not a call to panic, but a call to worship.
As a catholic student of the bible, I am thrilled to consider a bridge between catholics and evangelicals. I am praying for our unification. Thank you for explaining NT Wright's writings in an 'easy to digest' format.
Thank you for an impressively written overview of N.T. Wright. You have provided an excellent, useful resource for concerned Christians like myself.
Since the Anglican church was started to give Henry VIII an excuse to divorce Catherine of Aragon, there has not been this much push to find communalities in our faith expressions.
You have provided an excellent context to re-read Wright. After reading much of Wright, I am just finishing a year-long Bible study by Dr. Harry Wendt of Crossways International. He follows much of Wright with the themes of Grace, the promises to Abraham, the Law which drew sin to Israel, the Mosaic Covenant seen throughout the Old Testament, and all of these seen in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth, and how as the new Israel all sin was drawn to Him, and only Jesus fulfilled the promise of bring blessing to the nations. Wright and Wendt's overview have opened up the Jesus story and motivated me to read and re-read the whole of scripture as it applies to the church and my personal narrative life of faith in God's promises. Thanks so much.
Thank you for this wonderful summary and the footnotes. I could not remember where I had read some of this before and now with the help of your references I know which book it came from!
It strikes me as absurd that we need a new "gnosticism" to interpret the Bible for us. The idea that something should be accepted at face value just because it is new is ridiculous.
Furthermore, not one of the church fathers even remotely suggests any of Wright's ideas. That alone ought to make it suspect. The Reformed tradition instead believes that its theology is rooted and grounded in apostolic doctrine, i.e. doctrine that is there from the beginning and handed down by oral tradition until it was recorded in the Bible. Secondary sources such as the church fathers are fallible sources which sometimes confirm and sometimes challenge a biblical understanding of justification by faith alone. However, as any Reformed believer knows, practically all of the Protestant Reformers were favorable toward the Augustinian side of the theological developments in the Roman Catholic Church. I.E., they were against the pelagian and semi-pelagian theology of Rome.
The very fact that Wright's theology attacks Augustinian theology and is a "new" innovation shows that it is in fact not "apostolic" in origin but rather a product of liberal theology, which as absolutely no commitment to Reformed confessions of faith or catholic creeds. Now, if Wright could establish that his theology is indeed apostolic and is the same Gospel from the beginning and passed on to the church fathers and then to the Protestant Reformers, I might be inclined to give it a look.
However, from all indications, Wright's theology is something similar to John Dominic Crossan where a vivid imagination and creativity seems to predominate over actual facts and historical grounding. The short of it is that N.T.Wright is basing his work on Sanders and Dunham's previous work and there is absolutely no basis for it in church history. If we accept the liberal theological presupposition that theology is basically man's creative innovation, then Wright is a genius. However, if we accept the fundamentals of the Christian faith, such as Carl F. H. Henry's view that revelation consists of propositional truth given to us in understandable and written form, then Wright's theology makes little to no sense at all. Wright's tactic, like that of all liberal theologians, is to re-interpret the Bible to fit his new innovation.
However we might dislike it, the Reformed view of theology is that of the perspicuity of Holy Scripture and that of private interpretation. That is, we do not need an intellectual gnosticism or a Roman Catholic magisterium to tell us what the Bible means. Every believer can read and understand the Bible precisely because God has plainly revealed Himself there. Yes, it is true that Reformed churches practice Sola Scriptura and not any hyper-individualism. We interpret the Bible by right of private interpretation but we are also committed to a confessional and dogmatic theology where we read the Bible together as a church, composed of both lay persons and clergy, and we come to a sustained agreement as to what the Bible teaches doctrinally and for practical living.
We should not be surprised that the church has often committed apostasy and fallen away into idolatry and heresy. If we read the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was often challenged by worship of other gods, idolatry, heresy, and national infidelity. The fact that even the Reformed churches have fallen into theological liberalism, Amyraldianism, Arminianism, and now the Federal Vision heresy should not surprise us at all. Mainline denominations within the Reformed tradition are now so liberal as to be completely unrecognizeable as "Reformed" churches and the majority of them no longer even look at their confessions of faith or attempt to live by them.
While it might take awhile to play out, the Federal Vision/New Perspectives of Paul is, as its own proponents admit, a frontal assault against "Evangelical" and "Reformed" theology. As Paul said, you are preaching another gospel and not the Gospel that Jesus and Paul preached. The end result can only be further apostasy and idolatry.
The primary concern of the FV and NPP is in fact to destroy any idea of the absolute holiness of God or any accounting to God for a violation of His holiness and His moral law. Any fool can see where this is leading. In my opinion, any church which refuses to enforce discipline against those who preach another gospel is doomed to apostasy in the end. Not only so, but church discipline is one of the marks of a true church.
It is indeed telling that this heresy originates with those who have little regard for Reformed theology or confessional commitments to what Scripture actually teaches. Call me a prophet but I foresee that the consequences of Federal Vision and its agenda will be further decay and corruption of the churches.
Soli Gloria Deo!
Charlie J. Ray, M.Div.
Wow, Mr. Charlie J. Ray, I can tell that you have never read any of Wright's works nor understand where he is coming from. You do not appear to understand the present article either. You do the man such a serious injustice as to be truly slanderous in regard to almost everything that you have said. You make Wright out to be a monster out of thin air, out of your own imagination. There is no excuse for that behavior. Your baseless comments come across as quite arrogant and divisive.
Please, brother, come to the discussion table with truth not slander or misleading accusations.
For my part, I appreciated this article and I thank the author for it. I have read several of Wright's books, some more scholarly while others closer to devotionals, and I have appreciated his insights tremendously. Yes, I am reformed in perspective. But I am even more committed to solid exegesis. That is what Wright brings to the table; solid exegesis that largely supports and undergirds reformed theology. In regard to the 5% that Wright challenges, he does so exegetically, not because he holds reformed tradition in higher regard than he Bible itself. The reformed faith is supposed to be always reforming, but what do we do to those who actually try it?
Kurt Symanzik
"Jewish expectation in the second temple period was fairly well laid out like an elaborate Etch-A-Sketch drawing. Paul, following the lead of Jesus, comes in and shakes up the picture."
Evangelical and Reformed expectation in the 20th-21st centuries was fairly well laid out like an elaborate Etch-A-Sketch drawing. The NPP, following the lead of the NT itself, comes in and shakes up the picture. Hmmm …
Charlie J Ray,
I completely disagree with your comments, and to illustate this I will just pick up on one of your sentences:
"Every believer can read and understand the Bible precisely because God has plainly revealed Himself there"
Yes, but you completely miss the point that has been brought out by this article.
The problem is that we all read the Bible through a particular worldview, and our preconceived ideas about what it means distort our understanding and blind our eyes to what God is saying.
The standard evangelical hermeneutic is that the primary meaning of the text is what it meant to those people to whom it was written. So to understand the Bible we must understand those people. The Bible is set in a different time, country, language and culture to where we are now.
If we read the Bible without knowing its context we do not get a precise understanding, we get a precise misunderstanding!
Whilst I don't agree with all of NT Wright's ideas, he has done a seminal job of studying the context of the New Testament and this gives his interpretations great credibility. Please don't dismiss them just because they challenge your own worldview. After all, once upon a time, Martin Luther did something similar…
Just for people who come across this site:
I would argue that the view of evangelical theology assumed by this article is a straw man. I suggest looking through the internet and viewing the endless evangelical responses to Wright's work. It is voluminous and is a good response to this article.
Good evangelical theology has understood Jesus as an eschatological prophet for years, thanks to the work done on eschatology during the 20th century after the topic became hot in the early years of the century. Ladd's Theology of the New Testament goes deep into this topic– and it is arguably the "standard" of evangelical theology since the 70's.
Evangelicals are also creatively interacting with the doctrine of Scripture (see Kevin Vanhoozer, for example), and the stereotype of treating the Bible as a answer-book is old and dying, and should be put to rest.
As for the doctrine of justification, evangelicals have differing opinions. Volumes and volumes have been written arguing against Mr. Wright and the New Perspective, and others have been more favorable.
NT Wright has been under close scrutiny by Reformed theologians for the past several years as his ideas were passed around by Federal Vision proponents who find solace in his writing (as do some Catholics) due to Wrights emphasis on "remaining in covenant membership" after a person has been declared not guilty by faith alone in Christ alone. Many believe he is again confusing aspects of justification with sanctification (as was so forcefully argued during the Reformation with Calvin and Luther).
But if you pay attention (and what is my biggest concern) is Wright's method. No one in Reformed circles today or in the past has denied that historical context and the thinking of the historical Biblical writers is the crux of understanding what the Biblical writers meant to say to us. However, in the past Reformers used the supposition that Scripture must interpret Scripture as the primary rule of interpretation. Otherwise, anyone could cast a "historical context" upon a text or book and steer it's message down a totally different path. In Wright's case, he has "dropped in a different historical context" based on studies of second temple Judaism into discussion around Paul's writings (eg. Galatians particularly) and made them the primarily rule for understanding the rest of Scripture. But historical discovery or understanding of any period is hardly infallible! To quote my first seminary history professor- "historians can do one thing God cannot – change history"! It is a much safer enterprise to compare the body of Biblical and Systematic theology as we compare the teaching of Scripture with Scripture – allowing it to "bring out the history" of the text through the text of Scripture itself. Certainly the historical background that we gather from secular research is important and should always be considered, but it should not be allowed to govern the doctrines or texts of Scripture when Scripture gives us a historical setting from it own pages. Otherwise, any text can be made to mean anything if the right pretext of history is "dropped down on it"
I will give one quick example and close. When in Chicago I was privileged to see the Broadway play "Wicked". It's the retelling of the popular movie 'The Wizard of Oz'. But unlike the 'original' movie, when you leave the play, you have a TOTALLY different understanding of each of the characters you were first introduced to in the movie. You leave wondering "how could I have been so wrong the first time". The bad witch is a good witch, the good witch was a flake, (spoiler) the scarecrow ends up marrying the bad witch and the Wizard was an unfaithful spouse whose behavior helped produced the birth of the so-called green 'wicked witch'. But the amazing part was that after you left the theater the entire play made perfect sense even in like of what you had learned from the movie. Why" because the play had masterfully 'added another historical backdrop or context' that when overlaid onto the movie left you with a totally different conclusion. Wright's 'second temple Judaism' brings that type of format or method into the discussion of Justification. The serious flaw in this method revolves around the primacy that his historical context is given to the original text and if in fact, that historical context is correct and accurate to start with.
This is why his work deserves careful attention and scrutiny and why so many highly recognized evangelical and Reformed theologians are critizing it with 'raised eyebrows'.
BT… if the historical take that Wright is employing in his efforts is seriously flawed then I challenge you (in the best sense of the word) to develop a more accurate picture of 2nd temple Judaism. For my part his framing of Galatians helped me resolve the issue of whether or not Paul was confused & contradicting himself. I find it interesting that you site "secular" research as important and considerable, and then proceed to state that the scripture gives us "a historical setting from its own pages". So I am left wondering what need you have for any "outside" historical research in the first place. Having said that, I must assume that if you are married, that of course you don't allow your wife to speak in church, that her hair has not been cut since she came to faith, and that you urge others that may be considering marriage to abstain.
I am finding in Wright's work a fresh enthusiasm for the scriptures and an even more compelling narrative to live into while I "work out my salvation with fear & trembling". No one has the "view from nowhere" and this includes the reformers. May we all be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to judgement.
This article was very well written with precision. The interesting thing about this debate is that an Anglican is out 'sola scriptura' the reformed camp, and there answers seem less than satisfactory. They say you have to abide by the dogma, to that a lot of us evangelicals are saying, sola scriptura, exgete. Wright has punched us in the mouth, so lets go toe to toe! But he may be Gentleman Jim Corbet and we can't get a glove on this English pugilist, he is to fast, and so slick and to good of an exgete to stop him.
The truth is I think NT as a biblical theologian is amazing and spell binding. But I still think the " works of the law" needs some work. I'm not convinced this is a closed case, these are just Jewish symbols, circumcision, food laws, identity markers is all this is about. Phil 3 seems to say it was more than that. But, maybe this will lead to all the terms for salvation, justificaion, regeneation, new creation, ressurrection, in Christ, in the Spirit, and not have a debate of 400 years ago color the fulness of salvation. My issue is what we believe about second temple judaism, they were men of grace, there was not a legalist among them, and that is the Rome/reformer debate. What about Luke, tax collector and sinner parable, all the places in Matthew that talk about them strain out a gnat and swallot a camle, thats legalism. Something is missing here, Sanders has not answered all the questions…. NT if he moderates this or gives a fuller explanation would be rewarding, I heard him and Jimmy Dunn go at it, and NT is more reformed than some give him credit but he will not follow the reformers unless they can prove it exegetically.
Travis Tamerius' piece is a worthy and informative summary of N. T. Wright's work which I am in the midst of reading. On the section, "Wright and Biblical Authority" the idea of "faithful improvisation" while a bit scary-sounding, seems to equate with the practical living out of the gospel paradigm by the church, sort of the old idea of the open-endedness of Acts to be filled by the church's progress throughout history into the world and the times beyond the New Testament and the Roman Empire (think Constantine). I aver that the church's faithfulness to Christ and to the practice of God's Word are always under the auspices of the Holy Spirit whom I regard as Inspirer, Interpreter, and also Applicator of God's Word (Guide, Director, Teacher). Spirit and Word – Word and Spirit are crucial to the Church in every age. Although not a trained theologian or biblical scholar, I have worked in Christian ministry for 40-plus years, local, national and international.
The interesting thing to me is that those who have here objected most strenuously to Wright's positions apparently have no idea what Wright's positions actually are–one gentleman falls back on the objection that "Church Fathers" didn't say anything like Wright is saying it, nevermind that both Wright and the article above addressed this skewed objection. Another gentleman voraciously defends the sola scriptura principle, arguing the futility of allowing historical frameworks to influence the authority of the Bible; apparently in this gentleman's book we must twist only scripture, and not include history, in order to wrest from scriptures the meanings we want. Indeed, if we discount the authority of history and evidence, the only guide to scriptural authority becomes what we think scripture has elsewhere said, a descending, chaotic spiral of hermeneutic subjectivity sometimes described as systematic theology of the evangelical kind. But both the article and Wright have addressed this, particularly in describing the appropriate dialog between the knower and the known–the article addressed this concern in its opening paragraphs; Wright thoroughly addressed this concern in the FORWARD of, and the rest of, "The New Testament and the People of God," and insists that a synthesis historical method and religious material should produce a cohesive picture on all counts, not a picture that only makes sense if it is never challenged by outside sources–sola scriptura is a closed system, just as potentially faulty as Wright's critical realism, but with the additional, tragic quality of sacred hubris.
Those who object to Wright most frequently are those people concerned with maintaining their status quo, whether academic or religious, and rarely address the merits of Wright's actual arguments or positions, because Wright can slice to ribbons in a handful of sentences what many critics must write chapters to argue. The Wright most often attacked is the straw-man Wright. Very few people will tackle the actual Wright head on.
lets talk about the bible jesus words to his father,god in heaven.Jesus ask his father in heaven,when on the cross,father (why)jesus father God answer(so),think about who the bible said jesus is.Think about who the bible say God is.Now as you think about we,us, his people.Thank you so much for your answers.Henry B.Clemons,Jr/USA.
I am a Presbyterian Minister. I preach 50 sermons per year (roughly). Time and time again as preachers we try to emphasize to people that we are saved by grace, not by our works. This also seems to be at the heart of Paul's Gospel, at least as I have read it. In his letters, Paul tells us 1.) He was a bad man 2.) He is a bad man (chief of all sinners) and 3.) He is saved by grace through faith. In Romans 8:1, Paul says "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." In other words, because of Jesus, our sins are not counted against us. Therefore, if you want to be saved, receiving God's grace in Jesus Christ is more important than being a good person. Is Wright saying something different?
charlie m Jay…don't know how you got an M Div, but you're a bit thick…the reformers never ever covered most of the topics NT WRIGHT EXPRESSED….ur a little bit theologically thick but i still love you:)
Guess what?? NT Wright is a self-proclaimed REFORMED Anglican, much like JI Packer. If he is claiming he is one of your own, why would you throw the man and his work under the bus? He's obviously not only smarter than most Biblical scholars, but also has a winsome and pastoral touch to his teaching. Unlike most Reformed scholars, writers and bloggers who think that they have cornered the market on orthodoxy, Wright is not corseted in by a system of thinking that is derived by a catechism. Instead, he travels back to the creeds, the early church fathers, and most importantly, Scripture itself!
Clearly, N.T. Wright's musings require a closer consideration (and what theological discussion in depth and detail does not?). In any case, I am struck by the fact that theology has grown weary of the sterile results of the historical critical approach of the enlightenment and has turned to the narrative element of the Bible. Now we have a whole movement devoted to narrative theology as one of the means to simply by-pass the great desert of unbelief produced by the solipsisms of nvael contemplations produced by an unbelieving methodology that must destroy itself, when it turns its formidable skepticism upon its own methodology. Forty years ago I was made aware of the problems of the present day scientific method, of its admittedly too narrow and limited focus, its paralysis of analysis, and I began to consider the possibility of a synthetical methodology. One thing sure, people,sensing their need and the Bible's answer in its message, have not been hindered from experiencing relief in the reception of the biblical Gospel. My final form of atheism before my conversion was how there could be a God and let little children suffer? A local Bible critic, a professor in a University has given up faith in God and Christ due to the issue of suffering. I think it is ironic that He comes to the end of his faith and lands in the same slough of despond that I was in, when Christ came to me and delivered me out of my atheistic morass. Life is, indeed, full of ironies. In my case, it was like C.S. Lewis, one of being surprised by joy. In my conversion I cried tears of joy for the first time in my life. That was on Dec.7,1957. Funny, I never even thought of what was bothering me, when Isaw Christ that first time. There is something about Him that drives one's questions into forgetfulness. When I did years later dream of telling Him about such griefs, He said words that provoked a happy, healthy laughter. What He said, I do no know. It was at that point that I awakened.
9/11/11 clearly I too agree with Dr. N.T.Wrights theological in depth details of god and his earth son jesus and the here after eternal life for the mankind's soul.I too have be made a son of this god amen.The theology(sound the alarm) is an eye opener.Yet there is more to this god and jesus than just alarms.Events of the oxford King James Holy Bible has stated events of god's wealth and the good ministry of his son jesus here on earth for his people.Iam one them people by being born again of water and spirit-John 3:16.Are you a born again child of god ? tell me about it. The late James Cleveland song -where is your faith adds light to the title sound the alarm and the factors of god's wealth and son jesus good ministry.I am under and with the laws of god's son jesus ten commandments of the new testment,are you? The rules of law of these jesus commandments past on from the creator god as noted in genesis 1-2 (man and woman place in the garden of Eden to have god's mindset,god's riches wealth,good health here on earth and eternal life in heaven.are the factor,gifts fo being born again and thus becomeing a child of god to enjoy all of god's blessing here and now on earth.
thank you N.T.Wright and Evangelical theology.there is a new dawn in my life,understanding why Adam slept and Eve ate the apple,Eve only a few days early having been brougth forth by god and man to be part of god's creation here on earth.amen 9/15/2011
Just a brief note to BT. I refer you to the Talmud to the Targums and other Jewish sources including Josephus. While not included in the Christian Bible they are far from what one would call secular. Wrights sources when you read him are definitely not secular. We also have from the Jews of 2nd temple some serious contention between Hillel and Shammai whose Rabbinical interpretations, to quote the Talmud almost tore the Torah in two. Jesus stands in the midst of such Chaos and makes sense within the setting. Read it will do you good. I promise
Sounding the alarm,N>T>Wright and Evangelical Theology.This article,of Dr. wright of reformation & rivival journal,I find most vaulable to all mankind,the trip,the beginning of life and and the new life with man and god.The trip,the mind of the unborn,you the carrier of the unborn,your words,your wants,I want a boy or I want a girl or what ever is born.The trip of life for that person starts now and then.,this is the word of god from the new king james holy bible,new testament,the gospel according to John.In the beginning was the word,and the Word was with god and the word was god./the word become flesh.amen. Henry B.Clemons,Jr. research june/2012
of the subject,the first sin recorded,Eve sin,having sex with satan in the garden of eden.The holy bible recorded book genesis 1:+ christian theology of the past states other wise.Disobeying an order of god,thou shall not,.The reason there are laws today 2012 is because of orders of our country,usa and other and our goverment and their states.Adam and Eve where god's first family.Mary and Joseph with jesus and the holy spirit the next family.where do you and i fit in,the word, behold i stand at the door and know,if any person open their heart with faith and love i god ,jesus and the holy spirit will be with that person for ever, forgiven mankind of their disobeying of the ten commandment.old and new testaments.Now this bring me to a most vaulable point,unhitching the old version of the holy bible,by hitching to todays workable meaning of this subject,sin.eve,adam and satan,see the facts location,location all in the same location.the garden of eden of the first garden,all four god,satan,adam and eve.The blessing of god came after eve and adam sin at that location with satan,revelation 21:,new heaven and earth.do you see it now?god's forgiveness is my pray for my sins ,what about yours?Amen.—–Henry B.Clemons,Jr.
sounding the alarm./water and spirit.Dr.N.T Wright,please expand the earth or heavenly meaning of ST.John 3:5 and of jesus, expand the before and after power of water and spirit.see the time of jesus baptism and what he jesus told Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews. Henry B.Clemons,Jr.,
Dr.N.T.Wright 0f sounding the alarm have in the past brougth forth the sounding of the alarm on subjects of the right and wrong of not having faith in our higher power for mind and soul.I now ask that the subject of the next war,world wide be a subject of Dr.Wright.The next world wide war seem to about to be.of the three most power full gods,the god of the king james holy bible,the god of Islam-Muhammad-the mission of the Arab Prophet.The god of Buddhism founded in INDIA BY BUDDHA.nOW THERE IS TALK OF A WORLD WIDE WAR BETWEEN THE FREE WORLD AND IRAN,SEE CHRISTIANITY GOD,JUDAISM,SEE THE iSLAMIC GOD OR HIGHER POWER TO THAT DOCTRINE.WHY TALK OF WAR IN 2012,THE GODS AS OF THIS SUBJECT MATTER WILL BE FOREVER,THE WORD OF THE KING JAMES HOLY BIBLE AND THE WORD OF THE DOCTRINE OF ISLAM.THINK,THE EVER LASTING GODS GOING TO BE HAPPY WITH THE NEXT FREE WORLD WAS.HEAR THE GODS NOW.LET US NOW PRAY TO OUR GOD,HIGHER POWER FOR PEACE NOW.hENRY b.cLEMONS,jR.
Dr.Wright will the human mind be in heaven to be part of our god,s judgment,and what about god.s (judicatory powers.)the holy bible states of god having to rest.,of god's powers,the eviction of mankind from the garden of Eden that God himself only a few days ago had created.Then there is the fire that God started himself that burn down a whole city and kill many people,then there is the rain that kill ever thing on earth except one white family and one of a kind ,male and female animal.,then there is the time god let all those new born babies die ,their heads cut off when his son Jesus was born to another man's wife,that Mary.Now Dr.wright,about you and I,why will this God have us in heaven doing nothing for an eternity,answer,of thatday.com research.This eternity will be known as God's theology. Rd.Rev.Henry B.Clemons,Jr..
sounding the Alarm:N.T.Wright;by Travis Tamerius-Discover Christ Church,what a wonderful,inspiring text—-that in reading the subject matter here in of The Reforation ,Review Journal.there is a good thing about a disaster,it can bring God our creator centerfold in our life;of the mind,heart, and soul;there is a new path to and for God.there is a designated path to see the past of the past history of your personal life,how ever ,most of all,there is the joy,the next step you and god takes for for the now journey ahead with new joy and happiness for yourself and family with your higher power,God.———- The late Rachel Sykes Clemons Bland,my mother,would have agreed with me,the text here in,Disaster can be a good thing,the history of her young life with my father,the late Rev. Henry B.Clemons,Sr.and myself,Rd.Henry B.Clemons,Jr.bring to light that a family that a disaster to one of the children,the pain the suffering cause by the disaster,the survival did cause my family,that of the late Rev.Elder O.C.Clemons of stokes,NC. that of the pastor emeritus of the Riverside Church,new york,NY.Rev.Dr.James A.Forbes,Jr.to see the path to survival with with god.the now president Barack Obama 2012 reelection,USA. restates survival,Change,yes we can!:the causes,the life's disaster,the survival the joy seeing new light at the end of a disaster tunnel of life.amen.—Henry B.Clemons,Jr.Sdc.
How to connect with God,the salvation of Jesus the son of God,hearing the voice of God ,Jesus the first time.Jesus was being water baptize by another human,then only then did he Jesus and other hear the voice of God.Real possibilites ,heaven with Jesus and the voice of God.(Water)wait! wait! now think! and thank God for ,what!Water.–thatday.com++++++++++++++++Henry B>Clemons,Jr.
You said in the article: 'Wright portrays a Jesus who was similar enough to Judaism to be intelligible, yet dissimilar enough to be considered a political firebrand dangerous to the nation and deserving of death'. Surely this is Wright's relationship with evangelicalism. Like Jesus Wright is a divisive figure, not because he speaks rubbish but because he speaks with authority.
Seeing God,the bible says that no man has seen god,However i some time think about the first man that God created,that man whose name was Adam, here in is some to think about or you may say to to talk about , seeing God I think that ii will accept the fact that no man has seen God,and may be you now can agree with me on this point.I am going to close this point of bible history,But, I got just one more thing to say about this God ,of the old testament ,God was ,is the King Of kings and for the new testament God's son Jesus is the first King of the new testament,Now my eye s or open and i can say ,My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord and his truth is marching on.Thatday—————Henry B.Clemons,Jr.
As all ways iam greatfully to be counted amount the living of God and mankind . Think,. death has it value to mankind, The fear of the pain of death is what cause pain in the minds of every living human being from an early age to a very old age of 85 and older.Think of our Lord Jesus Christ death on the cross that day when his father god gave his first child Jesus to save mankind from sin death.,think of the after thought of god about the painfully death of his only son Jesus,yes,yes ! think of God thoughts today of mankind sins and what he,God would do about the sin of mankind today.I know for a fact that God will never again give a family member to death .Today,January 22.2014 to save mankind of their sin.(One last thought then I will close on this subject of the value of death.death of the human body will come to each of us a one time or another,how, will be the great thought on each and every one of our minds,let that thought not be a daily thought,how one takes care of their God and mankind given body and mind is the key to peacefully death,therefore one should live the good life for mankind and God always.,amen
July 13,2013———-9:04 am ^This Life here and now.The walk with God,Jesus in and with the Holy Spirit.Life now,today as we live.Know the meaning and purpose of you being born to life and this world.If you are sick in the body or mind,with or without doctor help,your personal God with pray have the healing answer for you right now.There is peace for all causes,money,health.joy or sadness.This God of the King James Holy Bible,HIS SON Jesus of the King James Holy Bible.THE WAY,THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT,yOUR FAITH IN THE WORDS OF gOD'S SON jESUScHRRIST,iAM THE THE WAY ,THE TRUTH AND THE LIGHT. hENRY B.cLEMONS,jR.
Secular mind.Secular of the mind and fear.Mankind and God and beyond.God's happiness for mankind;Just what is happiness anyway?Understand this, of we human,(all) we have is our mind and heart.God has taken that and made a soul for himself,jesus and the holy spirit.The Holy Bible (KVJ.)Genesis 1: and there off.


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Whitely now serves as president.
The North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers (NAFEM) announced the results from its Board of Directors Elections and updated its officers.
Hatco Corporation's Mike Whiteley now serves as NAFEM president, replacing Franke's Tom Campion, who continues to serve the association as an ex-officio member of its Board of Directors. Rounding out NAFEM's officer slate are Ice-o-Matic's Kevin Fink, who serves as president-elect, and Lakeside Manufacturing's Joseph Carlson is secretary/treasurer.
The NAFEM members elected the following individuals to serve a three year-term on the association's Board of Directors:
In addition, Glenn Bullock of A.J. Antunes & Co. was appointed to fill Carlson's unexpired board term since he moved up to the secretary/treasurer position.


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Academy Award winning actress Elizabeth Taylor died Wednesday, March 23, of congestive heart failure.
Ms. Taylor appeared in more than 50 films, ranging from the searing "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" to the campy "Cleopatra."
Take our poll: What was Ms. Taylor's greatest role?
Here's a look at a few of those roles.
Lassie Come Home (1943) trailer
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Other clips of interest:
Los Angeles Times obituary with video (2011)
Elizabeth Taylor tribute by Paul Newman from TMC.
Elizabeth Taylor on 'What's My Line?'
Elizabeth Taylor's Best Movies: 10 Reasons She Was a Hollywood Legend (Moviefone)
Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story (metacafe)
Elizabeth Taylor trailers and clips (tvguide)
"A Place In The Sun": A Playlist For A Legend, Elizabeth Taylor (Huffington Post, 2011)


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The University of New Orleans is planning faculty and staff layoffs and larger class sizes to deal with the latest round of state budget cuts announced by the governor this week.
On top of nearly $10 million in reduced state revenue in the past year, the school is now bracing to slash another $3.8 million by June 30.
University administrators met Wednesday morning to begin hammering out a new spending plan, which must be reported to the state by Jan. 8.
"The reality of it is, it's a heavy-duty midyear cut, and we're going to have to lay faculty and staff off," said UNO spokesman Mike Rivault. "We're cutting at the bone at this point. It could be significant."
Even deeper cuts are expected for higher education when the Legislature meets in the spring to fashion the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
To address the problem, state colleges need to be able to raise tuition at a more substantial rate than currently allowed under Louisiana law, Rivault said.
"We're going to have to address the revenue side of this equation," he said.
The recession and declining state tax revenue after the Katrina recovery have left the state with less money to spend on government operations. Gov. Bobby Jindal was obligated this week to begin closing a $247.9 million gap in the current-year state budget. He announced cuts across the board for state agencies, including $84 million from higher education.
All universities will have to present a plan. The precise amounts for each school have not been determined. Louisiana State University is in the phase of deciding what to do and an announcement will be made early next month about how the Baton Rouge campus will deal with its cuts, a university spokeswoman said.
UNO's proposed share at this point is $3.8 million. That comes on top of a $3.2 million midyear budget cut a year ago and a $6.6 million reduction that was already slated for the school's budget this fiscal year.
Rivault said an effort will be made to minimize the impact on the quality of the education for UNO's 11,700 students. What he called "non-essential functions" are likely to be cut, such as the university's support for the private Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans.
"Anything that is not directly related to educating a student has got to be looked at," Rivault said.
Midyear budget cuts are particularly difficult, because instead of spreading a reduction over 12 months, the savings must be absorbed in a six-month period. For example, a layoff of a $50,000 salaried employee would gain the school only $25,000 in savings over six months, and probably less once the staff member is compensated for owed vacation time.
UNO laid off 40 people this past summer and eliminated its metro college, which offered non-credit and distant learning programs.
Like other state universities, UNO raised tuition by the maximum-allowed 5 percent in the fall, generating $1.9 million in new revenue. The school plans to raise tuition again in 2010, the last year in a three-year window of tuition increases approved by the Legislature.
State lawmakers would have to decide whether to allow further tuition increases.
Robert Travis Scott can be reached at email@example.com or 225.342.4197.


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The mystique surrounding the Heisman Trophy remains even though the Downtown Athletic Club is no more, another in a long line of victims of the Sept. 11th terrorist attack.
The Club, located just a few blocks from the World Trade Center, was damaged beyond repair but the trophy lives on. And for critics who say it isn't a meaningful award any longer, just watch the replay of Mark Ingram's emotional acceptance speech last December.
The list of potential Heisman Trophy winners for this December is long. It is topped, of course, by Ingram who will be a junior this fall and going for that elusive back-to-back win, something that has only been achieved one time by Archie Griffin of Ohio State who won in 1974-75.


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In 1 hour and 30 minutes, you will learn how to make a Quiche Lorraine from scratch.
Bring your quiche at home and have the dinner ready! Contains Eggs, Bacon, Flour, Butter, Cream, Cheese and Onions.
Where: Fairfield | When: 12:30pm-2pm | Price: $65/person.
Click here to contact Emilie and join the Class
We make every effort to ensure the accuracy of this information. However, you should always call ahead to confirm dates, times, location, and other information.


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News.bytes Extra, issue 385
Three "working" mustangs and their riders represented BLM's Ridgecrest Corral in the Bishop Mule Days Parade Memorial Day weekend. The riders and their mustangs came home with three first place prizes in the "Working Class." They are from left to right Christine (CJ) Wallace, who was awarded Parade Fancy Horse Western Woman, Stacy Peters, awarded Women's Working Class, and Art DiGrazia, awarded Men's Working Class.
- Dave Briery, 6/3/09
BLM-California News.bytes, issue 385


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This chair would look gorgeous anywhere. It would look particularly gorgeous in my living room!
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2 Comments
Ximena on 02.21.2009 at 23:50 PM
Hi, I would like to know where to get this chair?
Jaime (post author) on 02.22.2009 at 10:35 AM


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Medford Enjoys 14th Annual Jingle Bell Festival
Hundreds of people enjoyed Medford's annual tree lighting at City Hall on November 28 and continued the celebration inside City Hall at the 14th Annual Jingle Bell Festival.
Sixty trees, holiday displays and other items were donated by businesses and civic groups to be raffled for the benefit of Community Family Memory Loss Center on Washington Street, Medford. An iPad, an iTouch, a flat screen TV, a motorized car and a Barbie tree were some of the more sought after items donated for the raffle.
Six Medford families opened their homes for the Jingle Bell House Tour. On Saturday evening and again on Sunday afternoon over 200 ticket holders toured the six houses. The Saturday tour was followed by a dinner reception at City Hall. The Sunday tour was followed by a pastry reception and the drawing to name the winners of the trees.
Thanks to the generous support of this community over $15,000 was raised to help The Community Family continue the support it gives to families and especially continue with the great care it gives to its Alzheimer clients.
Pictured: The Rocci girls won the Sancta Maria Lodge tree after helping their grandparents, Frank and Koreen Rocci, show their house on the Jingle Bell House Tour. Molly Fagan, a student at St. Raphael School, won the Elf on the Shelf basket. Morgan and Rory Kirby were the happy winners of the Sports Tree.
– Submitted by Jean Barry


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Thrown chairs, thrown punches, body slams and screamed slurs went for 5 minutes as a vocal onlooker caught it all on video and, of course, posted it to YouTube.
The Tuscaloosa Police Department confirms officers were dispatched to the site, but they could not release specifics Sunday night, including whether or not arrests were made.
The obligatory trash talk began outside before tempers flared, and it escalated into a violent melee.
The video does not show how the arguments started, instead only revealing the chaos that followed as bystanders looked on.
The punches started flying in the entrance but it soon moved into the restaurant.
"This how y'all do it in T-town, bruh?" the man filming the action yells to friends as the brawl began to subside.
NOTE: al.com chose not to embed the video because of the racially offensive language. Watch the video -- which contains racially offensive language, cursing and violence -- here.


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In response to John Reid's in-game updates from the New Orleans Hornets' rout of the San Antonio Spurs, nola.com reader cattlehead wrote:
"The win over the Spurs will turn the season arounds on many fronts.
1.) 18,000+ in the Hive tonight will want to attend another game soon.
2.) The Hornets now know they can beat any team in the NBA.
3.) More wins means the team is more likely to acquire pieces before the trade deadline, knowing that they can be a move or two away from contending.
4.) The pundits may (keyword: may) show some respect to Monty and his team.
5.) Emeka is out for blood.
"This is why basketball belongs in New Orleans!"


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Hotel Sudima
Entry level accommodation offering comfort and space with two double beds and ensuite bathroom. These rooms also feature ceiling fans and a work desk with a chair. Recently refurbished, the Lakes Restaurant & Mallards Bar provide the perfect dining experience. Lakes Restaurant delights guests with its first-class service and a fresh approach to top-quality dining for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The lavish buffet breakfast is just the right way to start an action-packed day in Rotorua. Mallards Bar offers the ideal venue for a quiet drink while taking in the magnificent view over Lake Rotorua. Alternatively enjoy a round of pool while catching all the sports action on the big-screen TV. In-room dining is also available for guests 24-hours a day. An excellent traditional Maori Hangi feast and cultural performance is on offer every night. Children aged 4 - 12 years dine half price. A modern low rise building designed to maximise lake views. Medium size lobby Set on the shores of beautiful Lake Rotorua, Sudima Lake Rotorua is the largest hotel in Rotorua, and a great choice for business or pleasure. Adjacent to the world famous Polynesian Spa, Rotorua Museum and Government Gardens, the hotel is a short stroll from Rotorua's vibrant city centre, Convention Centre and the Energy Events Centre. $10NZD 24 hours unlimited WiFi data. CA0214 $10NZD 24 hours unlimited WiFi data
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Services and terms: Hotel Sudima
Accommodation facilities
- Lift
- Bar/Café
- Business Centre
- Money Exchange
- Nursery
- Garden/Terrace
- Laundry
- People with reduced mobility access
- Non-smoker Rooms
- Parking
- Restaurant
Leisure facilities
- Billiards
- Massage
- Swimming Pool
Standard Room Services
- Coffee & Tea Making Facilities
- Safe
- Radio
- Hairdryer
- Telephone
- Television
- Video
Useful information: Hotel Sudima
Other names for Hotel Sudima:
Sudima Lake Rotorua
Sudima Hotel Lake Rotorua
Lake Plaza
Location: Hotel Sudima
Excellently located on the Lake shore, with a brief stroll to the restaurant and shopping district of the city. 10 kms to the airport (rotorua airport) 250 kms to the airport (auckland airport) 3 km to the nearest station 5 minute walk to the nearest bus stop 1 km to the nearest fair site (rotorua convention centre)


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|How Many Master Knitters Are There?
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As of the end of December 2012, there are 268 TKGA Master Knitters in hand knitting and 17 in machine knitting. The Master Knitter® title, certificate and pin are awarded only to those knitters who have completed all three levels of the TKGA Master Knitting Program. This figure, of course, continues to grow. A list of those who have completed the course appears at the end of this page. The program began in 1987.
From October 2001 (when The Knitting Guild Association staff began entering program details into a database) to the end of December 2012, 1905 people had submitted their workbooks and projects to the Master Knitting Committee in pursuit of a Level One, Level Two or Level Three certificate.
How many of the 1905 passed their program level within the same timeframe? A whopping 1478! (20 of these are machine knitters.) The rest are considered "pending" and are highly likely to finish.
A few other facts: Even though the program is only offered in English and those who participate must be fluent in English, those who have completed part or all of the program include knitters from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, England, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden and Thailand.
55 ----------------Master Hand Knitting Level One
15 ------------------Master Hand Knitting Level Two
17 ------------------Master Hand Knitting Level Three
5/1/2016Charles Gandy's Beyond the Sock Exhibition
10/13/2015Cast On Photo Shoot (Winter Issue)
8/31/20152015 TKGA Conference
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Baby Name Poll Results
Aileen Isabella vs. Aileen Serafina vs. Aileen Stella
Which middle name for Aileen? (ay-leen) Thank you!!
The Top Baby Name is...
|Aileen Isabella Nash
|41% (7 votes)
|Aileen Serafina Nash
|29% (5 votes)
|Aileen Stella Nash
|29% (5 votes)
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