Author: John W Gillis

Religion & Society

Competing Myths of Mary Magdalene

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

I’ve recently completed a short online mini-course from Boston College’s School of Theology & Ministry on Mary Magdalene. The idea was to “Explore the imagery of St. Mary of Magdala, her role as Apostle to the Apostles and the impact of her life on the ministry of women in the Church”, according to the course description. Offered at a nominal fee, I thought it looked like a nice opportunity to focus on a small but important part of the gospel story over the last few weeks of summer, and maybe help get my head out of the incessant political morass th...

Politics & Economics

The Calm Before the Storm?

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

The President Donald Trump era appears to be circling the drain. What an utterly unglued five years this has been in American political and popular society. Trump’s enemies, at least in the press, seem to think that his apparent impending departure from public office will mark his removal from the public scene, or at least from public influence. I do not think they could be more wrong (as usual). Setting aside the increasingly far-fetched possibility that Trump may yet pull out a victory via legal challenges to Democrat Party election shenanigans, the fa...

Bible Study Tools

Goodbye to Wordsearch!

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

I guess I always knew it was inevitable that the Wordsearch Bible study application would fold. And realistically, it couldn’t have happened in a better way: Faithlife/Logos put them out of their misery on Friday, buying the platform (i.e. technology, licenses, and customers) from Lifeway, and immediately started moving Wordsearch users over to Logos by transferring their book licenses to Logos editions, and giving them a customized version of the Logos desktop application to run, based on how current their Wordsearch license was. For me, that meant seve...

Music

Musical Reflections: Jethro Tull’s A (1980)

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

One of the old albums I’ve had an opportunity to revisit in my recent push to finish digitizing my old music collection is the 1980 album from Jethro Tull that goes by the simple name A. The album came out in September, about half a year after I’d gotten married. It featured Eddie Jobson on keyboards and electric violin, and I recall being anxious to get my hands on it, as I’d quickly become an Eddie Jobson fan after my exposure to him on the two albums his band UK released (1978 & 1979). However, I was also dirt poor at that point in my life, and wo...

Music

Musical Reflections: Re-Discovering Pat Benatar

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

I had just managed to leave high school behind me when Pat Benatar’s first album was released in 1979. I can’t say I remember it, although I was listening to the radio in those days, and almost certainly heard the singles from it. Her second album, Crimes of Passion, was a different story. Released in the summer of 1980, it was loaded with radio-friendly songs, and I purchased a copy of the LP. It was mostly straight-ahead rock, played cleanly (i.e. more like pop than punk), though with more skill than creativity, and more attitude than musicality. One t...

Scripture

The Revised New Jerusalem Bible (RNJB)–Initial Thoughts

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

I received an early Christmas present from myself today. I had pre-ordered the hardcover edition of the full Revised New Jerusalem Bible from CBD a while back, with the expectation that it would arrive near the end of the month. That was several weeks later than other distributors were offering, but the discount CBD was offering was irresistible. To my delight, it showed up earlier than anyone was advertising delivery. In fact, Amazon is still promoting delivery on the “release date” of December 3rd. Three extra cheers for the good people at Christian Bo...

Ruminations

Bob Centamore: 1942 – 2019

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

The world has lost a good man as my old friend and mentor, Bob Centamore, was called home to the Lord on May 31st. He was 76. I’ve rarely seen Bob since he and his wife Margaret retired to North Carolina. Although he and I were linked on FacePalm™, we hadn’t had much interaction since he moved south. Yet I am deeply saddened by his passing, even while having every confidence in the sure hope of Bob’s eternal life with God in Christ. I am of course hardly unaware of the frailty and fleeting nature of our earthly existence, but it’s still hard to accept. M...

Ruminations

Goodbye to Another Electronic Friend

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

28 years ago, on a cold January Saturday, I dragged my family out to an audio dealer at the Auburn Mall to replace a pair of AKG K240 headphones that had become almost unusable after about a dozen years. Tonight, after buying an adapter that would allow me to use them with my smaller-profile devices, I dusted off those replacement headphones to put them on, and discovered that the left channel was dead. I was shocked. For the first time in 40 years, I do not own a set of working K240s. The world as I’ve known it is falling apart!! As the artifacts ...

Family Life

Holy Family, 2018

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

On this Feast of the Holy Family, may we seek the wisdom to understand the sublime brilliance of God’s plan for the family, the rectitude to carry out our own part of that plan in righteousness, and the fortitude to embrace that part in the face of popular derision and diversions. And may we find guidance in the witness of those who have faithfully cultivated the field before us.