Trebilco’s The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius, a Review

The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius. By Paul Trebilco. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2007. 826 pages. Paperback, $85.00.

Paul Trebilco’s work represents a substantial endeavor in describing the ancient urban life of Ephesus in light of its early Christian believers. The purpose is two-fold: to first look at the life and activity of the early Christians, and second, argue that there was not a single body of believers in Ephesus, but a number of believing groups or communities. Trebilco’s erudition of ancient Ephesus is undeniable from the introduction, which explains how recent interests in Ephesus have sparked in the form of historical undertakings in cultural studies, sociological dimensions, cultic presence, and new archaeological findings. The scope of Treibilco’s research is not in any way a wholesale assimilation into any one of these historical approaches. The difference in Trebilco’s voluminous work is his careful examination of the biblical texts connected to Ephesus. Trebilco takes these canonical sources seriously enough to allow them to tell the history of ancient Ephesus.

 

America is 51% Pro-Life

From the AP:

NEW YORK – A Gallup Poll released Friday found that 51 percent of Americans now call themselves pro-life rather than pro-choice on the issue of abortion, the first time a majority gave that answer in the 15 years that Gallup has asked the question.

The findings, obtained in an annual survey on values and beliefs conducted May 7-10, marked a significant shift from a year ago. A year ago, 50 percent said they were pro-choice and 44 percent pro-life — in the new poll, 42 percent said they were pro-choice.

The new survey showed that Americans remained deeply divided on the legality of abortion — with 23 percent saying it should be illegal in all circumstances, 22 percent saying it should be legal under any circumstances, and 53 percent saying it should be legal only under certain circumstances. [...]

 

McGrath: ‘Augustine’s Origin of Species’

Alistair McGrath has written an article on Augustine’s views on creation, well worth the read (CT):

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th of the publication of his On the Origin of Species. For some, such as Richard Dawkins, Darwinism has been elevated from a provisional scientific theory to a worldview—an outlook on reality that excludes God, firmly and permanently. Others have reacted strongly against the high priests of secularism. Atheism, they argue, simply uses such scientific theories as weapons in its protracted war against religion.

They also fear that biblical interpretation is simply being accommodated to fit contemporary scientific theories. Surely, they argue, the Creation narratives in Genesis are meant to be taken literally, as historical accounts of what actually happened. Isn’t that what Christians have always done? Many evangelicals fear that innovators and modernizers are abandoning the long Christian tradition of faithful biblical exegesis. They say the church has always treated the Creation accounts as straightforward histories of how everything came into being. The authority and clarity of Scripture—themes that are rightly cherished by evangelicals—seem to be at stake.

These are important concerns, and the Darwin anniversaries invite us to look to church history to understand how our spiritual forebears dealt with similar issues. [...]

 

Pace of Job Loss Rate Easing

A sign that the relentless pace of job losses is starting to level off… From the NYT:

The American job market remains dreadful and is still worsening, but at a slower pace than before — good news given the stomach-churning events of recent months. The government’s monthly employment report buoyed hopes that the longest, most punishing recession since the Great Depression may be relenting.

Another 539,000 jobs disappeared from the economy in April, and the unemployment rate jumped to 8.9 percent, its highest level in a quarter century, the Labor Department reported Friday. Yet the deterioration was milder than expected, prompting encouraging talk. [...]

 

Tongue Exercises Eases Sleep Apnea

From a study reported on WebMD:

May 7, 2009 — Doing certain tongue and facial exercises for 30 minutes daily may ease the severity of obstructive sleep apnea, a Brazilian study shows.

The study included 31 adults with moderate obstructive sleep apnea.

Speech pathologists taught 16 of the patients to do tongue and facial exercises for half an hour daily. Those exercises included brushing the tongue with a toothbrush, putting the tip of the tongue on the soft palate and sliding the tongue backward, pronouncing vowels quickly or continuously, and keeping the tongue in a certain position when eating.

For comparison, the other 15 patients didn’t learn any tongue or facial exercises. They were simply supervised as they sat for half an hour per day, practicing deep breathing through the nose. [...]

 

Men: Less Hugging in Church, Please

From Christiantoday.com:

A new survey has suggested that men who go to church would like less hugging and holding hands and more singing of anthems and “proclamational” songs.

A survey of 400 readers of Christian men’s magazine Sorted found that 60 per cent of men did not like flowers and embroidered banners in church. Around 52 per cent also said they were not too keen on dancing in church either.

The survey suggested that men were uncomfortable with physical contact such as holding hands and with activities such as sitting in circles to share their feelings.

Almost 60 per cent of the respondents said they enjoyed singing in church, but many added comments saying they preferred anthemic or “proclamational” songs over emotional love songs.

Sermons and talks were popular with respondents, with 72 per cent saying they were the best part of the service. [...]

 

On Losing Heart in Ministry

It’s true–it’s so easy to get worn out and grow weary in ministry. This post from desiringgod.org really spoke out to me:

What does it mean to lose heart?

To lose heart is to lose our courage or lose the will to go on. It means to be utterly spiritless and worn out, to throw in the towel. It is more than discouragement. It’s discouragement to point of quitting the race before it is over.

God forbid that any of us should throw in the towel of our gospel ministries! We are those who do not lose heart! We do not throw in the towel of displaying the glory of God to the world! To throw in the towel of the gospel is to have believed in vain, to make shipwreck of our faith.

There are glorious promises that tell us that if we have indeed received this ministry that we will indeed not lose heart (John 10:27-30 for one). No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck us from his hand.

How do we keep from being among those who just give up? [...]

 

‘Defecting to Faith’

A NYT Op-Ed column pointed me to a study released by the Pew Forum entitled “Faith in Flux,” which reports that more people with non-religious upbringings are flocking to churches to fill their spiritual void rather than those with childhood indoctrination. The columnist writes:

So what was the reason for this flight of the unchurched to churches?

Did God appear in a bush? Did the grass look greener on the other side of the cross? Or was it a response to the social pressure of being nonreligious in a very Christian country?

None of those reasons topped the list. Most said that they first joined a religion because their spiritual needs were not being met. And the most-cited reason for settling on their current religion was that they simply enjoyed the services and style of worship.

For these newly converted, the nonreligious shtick didn’t stick. There was still a void, and communities of the faithful helped fill it. [...]

 

CT: ‘How to Shrink a Church’

The “strict-church thesis” is a bit far-fetched and grossly over-generalized. It certainly doesn’t take into consideration the sociological shifts that evangelical churches are facing today. From Christianitytoday.com:

We evangelicals have long chalked up our success to this “strict-church thesis.” People are leaving liberal, mainline churches, we say, because liberals have compromised the gospel, and people are flocking to evangelical churches precisely because we have remained true and firm in the faith.

But a new book — Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace, by Shayne Lee and Phillip Luke Sinitiere (NYU) — argues that the strict-church thesis does not hold water. The authors look at five mega-ministries in broader evangelicalism, movements led by Joel Osteen, T. D. Jakes, Brian McClaren, Paula White, and Rick Warren. They examine these ministries through a marketplace approach to American religion, which analyzes spiritual supply and demand, marketing techniques, religious needs, and so forth. [...]

 

Examiner: ‘Evangelicals are a Minority’

The Examiner has posted an editorial on why evangelicals must learn to think like a minority:

According to the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey, the percentage of self-identifying Christians has steadily declined for almost two decades, dropping 10 percent. During the same period, the percentage of Americans claiming no religious affiliation nearly doubled, rising to 15 percent.

Newsweek’s Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Jon Meacham gave a thoughtful, if predictable, response, writing of “The End of Christian America.” Yet the philosophy he attacks, that of the old-guard Religious Right, as seen in The Moral Majority, vanished 15 years ago in most evangelical circles.

The news here is not that Evangelicals must recognize their Winthropian vision of “A City on a Hill” as a pipe dream. Ask your average evangelical if they want to see a Christian takeover of government and an implementation of “Christian laws” and you are likely to hear laughter.

No. The news stirring the collective evangelical consciousness is that they must assume a new mindset in the public square. Americans’ religious beliefs are becoming more polarized, and without “minority thinking” Evangelicals may lose many of the freedoms they cherish.

The article is not bashing evangelicals–well, not entirely. Towards the end, the writer sees the challenge ahead for evangelicals:

The real lesson, the big picture, is that America is rapidly losing a shared frame of reference, and Evangelicals must think ahead. They must see through the secular stereotype of Evangelicals behind all the levers of power and view themselves as a minority that they might ensure religious freedom for all.