Brian Chilcote
An Invitation to Uncertainty
"Trust is the bedrock of social life at all levels, from romance and parenting to national government. Deception always undermines it....
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Affirming Church West Chester
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Loving God and Loving Others Fearlessly
Matt Kistler
- Aug 23
- 1 min
Psalm 1
God, you are bigger than my problems. You care that I grieve but God, my challenges are small when I lift my eyes away from my mirrors...
Brian Chilcote
- Aug 3
- 16 min
Homosexuality and the Bible Part Three
Examples of misunderstood New Testament verses First let's remind ourselves of the Greco-Roman-Jewish perspectives that are unique to the...
Brian Chilcote
- Aug 3
- 9 min
Homosexuality and the Bible Part Two
Now let's look at those unusual passages in the Bible, remembering that they reflect the sensibilities of post-exilic conservative Jews...
Brian Chilcote
- Aug 3
- 7 min
Homosexuality and the Bible, Part One
Data over Dogma is a popular podcast that features Bible scholar Dan McClellan and Atheist Dan Beecher interacting with biblical material...
Brian Chilcote
- Jun 30
- 13 min
Bible Things That Make You Go, "Huh?"
"What is it?" Whether it's Superman, a UFO or a strange sea creature, inquiring humans want to know. We make our best guesses: A bird? A...
Brian Chilcote
- Apr 13
- 11 min
Genocidal Joshua?
What about the bothersome parts of the Bible that depict God telling people to kill other people? How did these scenes make it into our...
Brian Chilcote
- Mar 21
- 9 min
Can I get Your Autograph?
Thoughts on the Authorship of Scripture We cannot be dependent on the “original autographs,” not only because we do not have them, but...
Brian Chilcote
- Mar 16
- 7 min
They Told Stories About Him
"… Jesus was the kind of extraordinary person who inspired people so profoundly that they told stories about him. As they did, they...
Brian Chilcote
- Mar 9
- 11 min
It's All About That Center
What do the Pentagon, Lower Manhattan and Lindor Truffles have in common? We associate each one with the idea of a Center. Especially...
Brian Chilcote
- Mar 2
- 13 min
Interrogating Biblical Inspiration
"We contend that viewing the inspiration of Scripture solely from the cognitive environment of print culture opens the door to...
Brian Chilcote
- Feb 21
- 20 min
Sources of Truth: How do we know what we know?
You've seen optical illusions- they're everywhere. In times past, decorators and artists would produce paintings called trompe l'oeil...
Brian Chilcote
- Feb 16
- 22 min
Time, Text and Translation: A (very) Brief Biography of the New Testament
It's around 40 CE. Stories and sayings of Jesus are circulating around Jerusalem, other nearby urban centers and Galilee. A novel Jewish...
Matt Kistler
- Feb 2
- 8 min
A Kaleidoscopic View of John 15-16
As I prepared to talk about John 15:26-16:4 over the last few weeks, I have to admit that I struggled. At first glance, I didn't feel...
Brian Chilcote
- Jan 26
- 9 min
Peeking Over the Wall of Certainty
Many churchgoing believers are given the impression that the Bible is totally unique among written works. We are taught that in subject...
Brian Chilcote
- Jan 10
- 7 min
The Centered Set Church Part 2
Is it easier to define your social world using negatives or positives? In other words, is it more important to establish your group by...
Brian Chilcote
- Dec 30, 2022
- 9 min
The Centered Set Church
We human beings can't seem to escape our natural affinity for hierarchies, pecking orders, in- and out-groups, us-versus-them and general...
Brian Chilcote
- Dec 20, 2022
- 23 min
What's so Apocalyptic about the Gospel?
There's more than one way to see the Good News. Ever heard of an exophytic complex cyst adjacent to the splenic dome? Unless you're a...
Kevin Brisbin
- Dec 6, 2022
- 13 min
Advent-ure
Let's test your familiarity with the Christmas tradition we call Advent. So as not to leave any readers in the dark, I have provided the...
Matt Kistler
- Nov 29, 2022
- 3 min
Razed and Rebuilt
Every year at Thanksgiving we gather with a small group of college friends. As the years go by, our little group grows and changes with...
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