Kristin Swenson

Epiphany’s Choice and the Environment: In Reverence to Honor, or in Fear to Destroy

Bible, Bible and ecology, Blog, Ecology, Holidays, Jesus, Non-human Natural World, Politics / kswenson

Hang on, you there, packing up the Christmas lights, dismantling the tree, boxing up the crèche with its cast of characters and that long-tailed star. Christmas is not over. Sure, come December 26th, it may have been all over for the “Little Drummer Boy,” Bing Crosby, and the Nutcracker; but not quite for Christmas. The […]

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A Good Thing about That Emoji Bible

ancient Near East, Bible, Bible and ecology, Bible translation, Blog, Ecology, Jesus, Non-human Natural World, Sex, Writing Process / kswenson

One of my favorite questions as a Bible-scholar-lady is “So, what’s the best translation?” I love this question not only because it opens the door to substantive discussion that can last for the better part of a class period… no matter how long the meeting. But I also love it because we get to talk

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Millet’s Calf, a Newborn Jesus, and God of Earth

Animals, Blog, Church, Jesus, Non-human Natural World, religious holidays / kswenson

Maybe it’s the way the light falls, illuminating the bed of straw like some upside-down and disheveled halo, all gold and shimmery, on which the baby lies – a baby cow, in this case. Or maybe it’s the calf’s beatific face, alert and looking straight out at us from the center of the canvas. I

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Herod and the Magi, a Study in Contrast on Epiphany

ancient Near East, Bible, Blog, Jesus, religious holidays / kswenson

Rich guys, all — Herod, the half-blood king of Judea enjoying extravagances still evident today; and those magi, bearing gifts of rare value. Today is epiphany, in western Christian tradition, remembered as the moment when Jesus’ importance became evident to the greater world. Setting aside belief about Jesus’ divinity and all that for a moment

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The Radical Vulnerability of God

Holidays, Jesus, Non-human Natural World, Peace, religious holidays / kswenson

As far as religious paradox goes, the radical vulnerability of God has got to take the cake (or the stollen, the bunuelos, the figgy pudding, the buche de noel, the truchas de navidad…). As I’ve lost my grip on all the other Christmas traditions still dear to me — the weekly advent services leading up;

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Holiday Bible Surprises

Bible, Biblical Literacy, Jesus, religious holidays, Women in the Bible / kswenson

Some things one might expect to find in the Bible aren’t there at all; while sometimes what we do find is downright surprising. Take Hanukkah, for instance — not there! Ironically, not in the Jewish bible, but it is in the Orthodox Christian bible (in part — 1 Maccabees, if you’re looking). Meanwhile, the Christian

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Rembrandt’s Face of Jesus

Bible and Pop Culture, Jesus / kswenson

The gospels say almost nothing about what Jesus looked like. Some days ago, I mused here on the matter of Jesus’ “second coming.” I threw out the thought: why should Christians (believing Jesus to be God) presume that Jesus should be limited by anything, even including human appearance? Yet we often get most excited about determining

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Second Coming, all the time?

Bible, Bible and Pop Culture, Future of faith, Jesus, Uncategorized / kswenson

What if Jesus has already come back or is even coming back all the time? That the first generation of Jesus’ followers expected the Parousia or “second coming” during their own lifetimes is certain. They were sure, based on Jesus’ teachings and their own, first-hand knowledge of him that it would happen. At least that’s how the

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A Gospel Easter

Biblical Literacy, Jesus, religious holidays / kswenson

This essay first appeared in the Fredricksburg Free Lance-Star on April 4, 2010. Of all the Christian holidays, it’s Christmas that gets the most attention. And can you blame us for that? Light and life in the dead of winter, gifts galore, and cookies to boot — no wonder it’s a favorite. Yet Easter is the

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Palm Sunday confusion?

Bible translation, Biblical Literacy, Jesus, religious holidays / kswenson

Today, Christians celebrate Palm Sunday — the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem to great “Hosanna!” acclaim. But just exactly how did he do it? The stories disagree in a puzzling way… unless you know something about the conventions of biblical Hebrew and that the New Testament writers (Matthew, especially) often looked to the Old Testament, for ways

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