jesus

Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Jewish Bibles, Commentaries, and Cultural Backgrounds
Biblical Interpretation

Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Jewish Bible Translations, Commentaries, and Cultural Backgrounds

10/15/2026 Bruce Strom 0

The eternal spiritual battle is this struggle: Who is going to influence whom? Will the culture influence the church, or will the church influence the culture? If you prefer that the culture would influence your morality, then you can ask Merriam-Webster Dictionary for the cultural definition of Biblical words. If you would rather that the church would influence your morality, then you should ask the Vines Expository Dictionary for the Biblical definition of Biblical words.
Although Vines is a Protestant resource, all Christians can consult its definitions, since it quotes the Scriptures that support their definitions. Another resource is Strong’s Concordance, which tracks where each Greek and Hebrew word appears in the Bible. If necessary, you can discover the Greek word for each word in each verse using an Interlinear Bible.
What is the meaning of the central Christian word for love? Agape and Eros by the Lutheran Theologian Anders Nygren, written between the two World Wars, traces how the Greek words LOVE, agape and eros, evolved from the ancient Greek philosophers and the New Testament until modern days. […]

Biblical Interpretation: How the Ancient World and Modern World Differ
Biblical Interpretation

Biblical Interpretation: How the Ancient World and Modern World Differ

10/15/2026 Bruce Strom 0

St Augustine did not believe that the Bible was always literally true. He teaches: “It is a wretched slavery which takes the figurative expressions of Scripture in a literal sense,” because the Bible exhorts: “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” What does St Augustine mean by figurative? When the Word of God in Scripture does not, “when taken literally, refer either to purity of life or soundness of doctrine, it can be seen as figurative.” St Augustine continues, “Purity of life refers to the Love of God and our love for our neighbor, whereas soundness of doctrine refers to the knowledge of God and our neighbor.”
St Augustine agrees with Origen and many other Church Fathers, that whenever the literal reading of Scriptures, particularly the Old Testament, appears to violate the two-fold Love of God and neighbor, then it must be read allegorically. […]

Should Morality Trump Theology? Why We Are Not Reflections in Theology and Philosophy
Biblical Interpretation

Does Morality Trump Theology? Why My Channel Is Not Named Reflections in Theology and Philosophy

09/16/2026 Bruce Strom 1

The main reason why I prefer the word Morality over Theology is that today most people use theology to prove why their denomination is the true religion; and is thus superior to all other denominations, especially if they are converts. However, I am reluctant to condemn this: doesn’t everyone want to cheer their chosen football team? Don’t all fans see their chosen team in the best light, while judging all others who hopefully will be on the losing teams this next season?
Mine is the Mere Christianity of CS Lewis. As an Episcopalian, you can be as Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant as you want to be, it is the most ecumenical and tolerant of all the denominations, in my experience. […]

Biblical Morality of Deceiving Those Who Suffer From Dementia In Order to Help Them
Biblical Interpretation

Biblical Morality of Deceiving Those Who Suffer From Dementia In Order to Help Them

09/06/2026 Bruce Strom 0

Often adult children just do not want to lie to their parents. They want to empower them and involve them in the decisions about their care. They expect their parents suffering from dementia to reason with them, and that is impossible.

On rare occasions, you are compelled to tell a white lie for their own good. The commandment is not worded: Do not lie. Rather, it is worded: Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. In part, this reflects the reality that ancient jurisprudence relied heavily on eyewitness testimony, unlike modern jurisprudence that relies more on forensic evidence. […]

Mental Illness, Demons, and Free Will in the Bible and Ancient Israel, Greece, and Rome
Dementia and Alzheimers Disease

Do We Have Free Will? Mental Illness and Demons in the Bible, Church Fathers, and the Ancient World

09/06/2026 Bruce Strom 1

Did the early Christians believe in free will? Or could demons rob them of their free will; just as dementia and mental illness rob modern patients today? The New Testament does not discuss whether we have free will, it simply accepts that we are subject to forces in the divine realm. Jesus often heals those who have lost their minds, driving out their demons. Also, St Paul in his epistles argues for divine determination, which St Augustine later develops into his doctrine of predestination. […]

What Spiritual Advice Can Fathers Suggest at Their Daughter’s Wedding Reception
Marriage and Divorce

What Beneficial Advice Can Fathers Suggest in Their Speech at Their Daughter’s Wedding?

08/07/2026 Bruce Strom 0

For all our close friendships, and our marriages, we need to ask ourselves: Do we bring out the best in each other? Or, do we bring out the worst in each other? Our marriage should be a monastic calling: our marriage should be for our children. The prospective bride should ask herself the key question: Will he be a good father? Will he be good with our children? We cannot love some and hate others, hatred infects all our relationships. […]

Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi Te, On Love for the Poor. Is Leo a Woke Pope?
Morality

Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi Te, On Love for the Poor. Is Leo a Woke Pope?

04/01/2026 Bruce Strom 0

Pope Leo XIV teaches us: “Love for the Lord, then, is one with love for the poor” ““This is not a matter of mere human kindness but a revelation: contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history. In the poor, he continues to speak to us.” “Care for the poor was also a great concern of St Francis of Assisi: in the person of a leper, Christ himself embraced Francis and changed his life.”
Pop Leo XIV teaches us: “By embracing poverty, he wanted to imitate Christ, who was poor, naked, and crucified. In his Rule, he asks that “the brothers should not appropriate anything, neither house, nor place, nor anything else. And as pilgrims and strangers in this world, serving the Lord in poverty and humility, they should go about begging with confidence, and should not be ashamed, because the Lord made himself poor for us in this world.” […]

Classical Christian Psychologist Paul Tournier on Old Age, Death, and Faith
Aging

Classical Christian Psychologist Paul Tournier on Old Age, Death, and Faith

08/26/2025 Bruce Strom 2

Tournier reminds us that we may experience many successes, but as we grow older, “success retreats, and escapes us, it is limited, unfulfilled.” “When one comes to the end, a man’s life is nothing much.” “Professional life is over, and it finishes unfinished. This is a prefiguration of death, in which the whole of life will finish it, too, being unfinished. That is the dramatic contradiction of death.” Quoting Robert Mehl: “An end, but not a fulfilment, that is the face of death.” […]

St Augustine’s On Christian Teaching and JD Vance, Order of Love
Politics

St Augustine’s On Christian Teaching and JD Vance, Order of Love

07/05/2025 Bruce Strom 0

St Augustine clearly teaches us: “All people should be loved equally. But you cannot do good to all people equally, so you should take particular thought for those who, as if by lot, happen to be particularly close to you in terms of place, time, or any other circumstances.”
St Augustine explains further: “Suppose you have plenty of something which had to be given to someone in need but could not be given to two people, and you met two people,” you could flip a coin for who would receive it. But if one of them was a relative, Jesus would not object if you benefited him. In other words, if your children are starving, you need not share what little food you have with strangers.
Should we love everyone, even our enemies? Definitely, Christians are exhorted to love their enemies. As St Augustine teaches us: “We do not fear our enemies, for they do not take away from us what we love, but we pity them, for they hate us all the more because they are separated from the one we love,” since they are separated from God. […]

St George the Dragon Slayer, From the Golden Legend and Butler’s Lives of the Saints
Lives of Saints

St George the Dragon Slayer, From the Golden Legend and Butler’s Lives of the Saints

05/23/2025 Bruce Strom 0

Dacian then sought to trick St George with persuasion, and our saint played along. St George was led into a pagan temple where the people expected he would sacrifice to the gods. “But instead of sacrificing, St George knelt and prayed for the Lord to destroy the temple and all its idols, and destroy it so completely that, for the glory of God and the conversion of the people, absolutely nothing was to be left. At once fire fell from heaven and burnt the temple, its idols and priests, to a cinder, and the earth gaped open and swallowed up the remains.” […]