Pursuing Veritas

Reflections by Jacob J. Prahlow
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  • Book Review: The Ancient Path (Talbot)

    When you want to understanding something, you look for information. When you want to make sense of a story, you ask people to explain things from the beginning. When you want to comprehend a complex event, you consult eyewitnesses and experts. In an age of self-help, independence, internet “research”, and self-sufficiency, however, fewer people take…

  • Recommended Readings: March 21-27

    If you read one article this week, engage Can Christian’s Practice Yoga? by Laura Norris. For those of you with more time to read this fine spring weekend, consider reading the following suggestions. As always, if there is something else I should have read this week, let me know in the comments.

  • Why “This” New Testament?

    I am often asked some variation of “Where did we get the New Testament?” or “Why are these specific books included in the New Testament?” In conjunction with yesterday’s post on the Origins of the New Testament, today’s post seeks to address why the New Testament includes the writings which it contains. Most of us…

  • Origins of the New Testament

    The two most common questions that I am asked are some variation of “Where did we get the New Testament?” or “Why are these specific books included in the New Testament?”1 Obviously complete answers to these questions are long, nuanced, and complex (i.e., scholarly discussions of dissertation length answer). But there are also relatively straight-forward…

  • A Brief Introduction to Ephrem the Syrian

    “The greatest poet of the patristic age and, perhaps, the only theologian-poet to rank beside Dante.” — Robert Murray Over the next several weeks, Pursuing Veritas will be running a series on reflections on the theology and hymns of St. Ephrem of Nisibis (often called Ephrem the Syrian). Before launching into these discussions of Ephrem’s…

  • Numbering the Psalms?

    The Psalms have long been the hymnal of Christian worship. Jesus and his disciples sang the psalms of the Hebrew Bible and the practice continued with Paul and other early followers of Christ. In fact, insofar as we can tell, Christians of the first two centuries used the Psalm more than any other book of…

  • Book Review: God’s Problem (Ehrman)

    In the book God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Questions—Why We Suffer (New York: Harper One, 2008), Bart D. Ehrman examines the various explanations for suffering presented in the text of the Christian Bible. Ehrman, a New Testament textual critic and James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at…

  • Recommended Reading: March 14-20

    If you engage one article this weekend, make it Ubi Amor, Ibi Oculus by James D. Conley. If you have more time to read, check out the selection of articles below. Also: Happy official beginning of Spring! Did I miss reading something this week? Let me know in the comments section below.

  • C. S. Lewis on Myth (Part IV)

    This post is the final in our series examining C. S. Lewis’s view of “myth.” Lewis gives perhaps his clearest exposition on myth in his essay entitled “Myth Became Fact“. Lewis begins this essay with the idea that he is going to refute his friend Corineus and his assertion that no one who calls themselves a…

  • C. S. Lewis on Myth (Part III)

    This post is part of an ongoing series examining C. S. Lewis’s view of “myth.” In Miracles, Lewis reflects on the importance of myth in regards to the Old Testament and Israel. Lewis writes that “The Hebrews, like other people, had mythology: but as they were the chosen people so their mythology was the chosen mythology…