Between the Rock and the Hard Place

The Logos Lecture Series returns tomorrow with another free event at the Mount Baker Theatre in Bellingham. This month’s lecture will be presented by Dr. Steve Delamarter of George Fox Evangelical Seminary. Dr. Delamarter’s talk is titled “Between the Rock and the Hard Place – Fighting for Faith in Second Temple Judaism.”

Dr. Delamater offers this lecture description:

The history and literature of the people Israel in the second temple period (ca. 515 BCE-70 CE) is an amazing witness to the struggle between faith and culture. Beset by invading armies from without and racked by internal division within, the times called forth a host of responses from various members of the Jewish community. In this illustrated lecture we will explore a representative cross-section of the writings produced during this time. Some are known to us in the collection of the Apocrypha. Others are known to us in the collection of the so-called Pseudepigrapha. They include the names of such fascinating characters as Philo of Alexandria and Josephus, a one-time general in the Judean army. Still others have only recently been excavated from places like the caves of Qumran and the sands of Egypt. Taken together, these texts give profound testimony to the ways in which people of faith have always tried to make sense of their worlds, armed only with the authoritative traditions of the past and with the best ideas in their present. If we listen carefully to these texts from the past, we may gain some insights for our own struggles to wrestle meaning out of the chaos in our present.

Event details

• Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
• Time: 7:00 PM
• Location: Mount Baker Theatre in Bellingham, Washington
• Admission: Free!

Stay tuned to the Logos blog for updates about this lecture and information about future events.