Advent Conspiracy

Robinson Crusoe

Last night I finished reading Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel, in which a castaway spends twenty-eight years living on a tropical island off the coast of South America. There he encounters a variety of unfortunates before his rescue.

Defoe was probably inspired by an earlier (true) castaway story, and his tale inspired a Swiss version, known to us as Swiss Family Robinson—not to mention such modern retellings such as “Gilligan’s Island” and “Castaway.”

My family also watched the disappointing 1999 movie by the same title starring Pierce Brosnan. The Hollywood version added both a romantic/sexual interest and the death of two of the protagonist’s friends at his own hand. Further, the script writer twisted the spiritual sub-plot to make it communicate the exact opposite of what Defoe’s creation said.

In the author’s version the castaway has rebelled against his parents and gone to sea seeking excitement. After several years of solitude, he reads a Bible left on the ship and encounters the grace of his Creator. Later he saves a cannibal from being eaten by fellow flesh-eaters, and this cannibal, whom he names Friday, comes to recognize Christ as superior to the alligator-god who demands such abhorrent practices. Not a PC story, but one with which numerous tribal peoples today still identify.

Replacing Defoe’s humble, compassionate character, Brosnan portrays an angry, arrogant man who yells demanding that Friday accept the love of God (words contradicting actions), but later comes to accept Friday’s prayers to the alligator-god as “just another way to the same truth.”

More like, just another case in which the book was better than the movie.

Funny

A few years ago Adrian Plass (whose writing is wildly popular overseas) spoke at the Evangelical Press Association national meeting. When we invited him, we envisioned him as the keynote speaker and someone else as the humor speaker, but we ended up with two humor speakers that night. He was hilarious. Today an audio version is posted at the EPA web site. You can have a listen here.

Favorite Christmas Traditions

· Every year as a family gift to each other, we choose a Christmas show to see together such as the Nutcracker Suite, the Dallas Symphony Christmas show, or the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This year we plan to see Manheim Steamroller.

· I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where one of my sisters still lives. Every December she sends us a “box of Oregon,” complete with Tillamook cheese, dried salmon, and a wreath for the door. Every time the doorbell rings, we inhale that fresh Douglas fir and think of home.

· Wherever we travel, we purchase a decoration for the tree. Now when we decorate, every ornament reminds of us of a place we’ve visited together. Decoration day is full of "Hey, remember our vacation in Sedona?" or "Here's the one from the year we backpacked the Grand Canyon."

· We wait until midnight on Christmas Eve to set the baby Jesus in the manger scene, and we wait until December 6 (Epiphany) to place the wise men on the scene—after we’ve removed the shepherds. From early December through January 6, the wise men can be seen slowly inching their way toward the crèche (on a nearby window sill or counter).

· When sending Christmas cards, we make it a point always to write something personal at the end. Every friendship deserves at least one line per year.

· On Thanksgiving and Christmas a new puzzle appears on the breakfast-nook table—provided either by our family or my sister’s. After the big meal, we all sit around that table and visit while putting it together. Sometimes if we don’t finish it that day, my brother-in-law will ask if he can come over and keep working on it.

· Our church prepares Christmas boxes (like Samaritan’s Purse boxes) for our sister church in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, as well as the mission they run. About every other year our family makes the trek down to the border (seven or eight hours) to deliver them. Even before my daughter had taken Spanish classes, she could communicate. As she told us, “A smile works everywhere.”

· Dessert between Christmas and New Year's Day always includes steamed pudding cooked in a #1 coffee can and drenched in rum sauce, just like my great grandmother made it.

Do you have a favorite tradition or two?

Rethinking "Persistent Vegetative State"

Did you see this news story/short video about the patient who was diagnosed as being in a coma for twenty-three years, but was actually totally aware of what was going on around him?

Thankful...

Our friends in D. R. Congo who named their baby after me sent a photo recently. I'm thankful for her safe delivery.

Today I'm also thanking God for God. Where would I be without the Eternal Presence walking with me through the ups and down? How can an infinitely holy God deal justly with sin while also showing infinite love? I'm grateful that an infinitely creative God made a way...

I'm thankful for my marriage and our girl. For my family of origin and so many I love who have known and loved me for decade upon decade.

I'm thankful for my friends who have loved us through thicks and thins, made us laugh, cried with us when it hurt.

I'm thankful for a shoulder that works great, a hip that works fine, and the ability to walk and swim, to see, to hear, to smell, to feel, to taste.

I'm thankful for meaningful work and great administrators, colleagues, and students who make it a joy to do my job. I'm grateful for employee benefits!

I'm thankful for the faith of my sister and her kids in the midst of the trauma they are experiencing.

I'm thankful for my church--a supportive community.

I'm thankful for my city, my county, my country and those who work to make it a safer, more just place.

I'm thankful for a full pantry, for the bounty of a full refrigerator, for the fact that we have so much abundance that the word " leftovers" is commonly used in our language.

I'm thankful for the beauty I have seen this year from The Tetons to Istanbul to the Aegean to the Dead Sea.

There's so much more I could say! And I know you're thankful, too, aren't you? We are so rich!

Wordless Wednesday

The Status of Women

Read this post by Judy Douglass, and think about what you can do about the status of women. FYI, the book she recommends is co-written by one of my favorite journalists, Nicholas Kristof. He is with the New York Times and frequently covers justice issues worldwide, including the plight of women.

Free Education

Did you know you can download DTS lectures on iTunes? Check it out here.

Dallas, November 22, 1963

Forty-six years ago today I was a month shy of my fifth birthday playing under the dining room table on our friend's rug. Suddenly her son, Peter, an elementary-school kid, came running through the door mid-day and announced that President Kennedy had been shot.

About twenty years ago my husband and I went skiing in Colorado with about six couples from our church in Dallas, one of whom were "the Kennedys." The husband told us how he was the last person to shake JFK's hand. A child at the time, our Kennedy friend apparently stuck out his hand and said, "My name's Kennedy, too." And after greeting that boy, the president got into his convertible.

Small world, Dallas. People here still talk about that fateful day so deeply embedded in the city's psyche. And when such conversations came up, for years I thought the conspiracy theorists were too cynical. The kind who are suspicious about everything. But then this and that piece of evidence would trickle in. More and more deathbed confessions started rolling in to the point that six years ago CBS news reported that seventy-four percent of Americans believe there's been a cover-up of the JFK assassination, and only 10 percent think the gunman acted alone.

Something happened a few years back that convinced me all the more to question the Warren Commission's report. I attended the visitation for Dick, a friend from church who died. And his widow sat down with me right there in the middle of the crowd at Dick's visitation and unfolded for me how he witnessed JFK's assassination. For years Dick worked for the U. S. Postal Service, and the P.O. was across from the Book Depository in downtown Dallas. So when Dick heard the president was coming, he watched from an upper window as the president's motorcade made its way down the street. Then Dick heard shots and saw the president's slumped form. But Dick's testimony about the shots fired didn't fit the evidence in the official report. Still, when Dick saw what happened to some of the people whose stories he knew to be true, he decided to keep quiet.

Then last year I was doing a women's retreat for a church in a Dallas suburb, and I met a woman, Beverly, who told me she was married to a mob boss before she came to Christ. (He was later shot to death.) She was a nightclub singer for Jack Ruby, and she said Jack introduced her to Lee Harvey Oswald. She also told me she filmed the president's motorcade, but some guys who identified themselves as government agents confiscated her camera two days later. (Remember, back then stuff had to be sent off to be developed before viewing.) She never saw it again. If you look at the woman under the arrow in the picture above, which she says is her, she looks, indeed, like she could be filming. And in the years since, no one else has claimed to be this woman in the photo. (You can read more here.)

I find it quite interesting that her testimony and Dick's don't contradict each other's...

Make a Living (or not) at Writing

Reality check time.

One of my former students, Jeff Wofford, sent me links to two stories in which a NY Times bestselling author tells the truth about a writer's income:

Last April:
http://www.genreality.net/the-reality-of-a-times-bestseller


Recent followup:
http://www.genreality.net/more-on-the-reality-of-a-times-bestseller

Summary: Don't quit your day job.

Glahn's maxim: If you love to write, get at least a part-time job as an editor or writer. (Don't expect to make it by writing books, even if you have a breakout novel.)

Another One Down

Faulty Towers Meets the Academy—that’s my TV Guide description of Lucky Jim, the latest on my PhD reading list.

The story follows an inept British university lecturer bumbling through a series of social and academic disasters. His bumblings are not due to a lack of intelligence, mind you, but rather to complete disregard for academia’s absurdities such as the publish-or-perish mentality and cut-throat colleagues.

Some describe the book as hilarious, which I suppose was true forty-some years ago when it hit the shelves. But today that assessment seems overrated. Still, I did laugh out loud twice. Though it took me a full fifty pages to “get into” the 150-page book, the moments of whimsy made for a “not completely unfortunate” read.

Pregnancy Loss: Free Bible Study

For the past decade friends at Threads of Hope have been selling a Bible study for those experiencing pregnancy loss. Now they have decided to make it available for free via download. It's intended for both group and individual use. You can download it here.

Population Ungrowth

The Economist has an interesting article on world fertility rates dropping, titled "Go Forth and Multiply a Lot Less." You can check it out here.

U Nebraska Considers Tighter Stem Cell Rules

Here's a new twist: The University of Nebraska is weighing whether to set tighter limits on stem cell research than those allowed by the government. If so, they would be the first such institution. You can read the story, which appeared in this morning's New York Times, by going here.

The Sot-Weed Factor

So I'm working my way through the PhD reading list...

I spent the past week reading a 750-page historical-fiction work published in 1960 by John Barth titled The Sot-Weed Factor. Because Time Magazine included the novel in its 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005, I expected an excellent read.

“Sot-weed” is an old term for tobacco, and a “factor” is a middleman who buys for re-sale. The phrase, from which the novel takes its title, is from an actual poem by the same name published in London (1708) and signed Ebenezer Cooke.

The story is set in the 1680s in London and on the east coast of Maryland. Drawing on his mastery of Maryland’s history and the few pieces of actual information available about Cooke and his family, the novelist weaves a story of his protagonist’s adventures on his way to and in Maryland. Along the way Cooke composes his poem, which is originally intended to sing Maryland’s praises, but instead relates Cooke’s disillusionment with the place.

Sadly, the story has entirely too much coincidence, including one character's ability to maintain for months numerous disguises that make him unrecognizable to those closest to him. Then there's the constant inclusion of gross sexual references (think incest, animals, VD, prostitution), which left me with the impression that the author had a scholar’s education with a bawdy school-boy’s fascinations. He also seemed too enamored with his own cleverness and too ready to jar the reader with authorial intrusion. Seven-hundred-plus pages of seventeenth-century English also made for laborious reading.

Henceforth, methinks I shalle be me more skeptical of Time’s lauding recommendations.

Your 'Net Worth: Communicating in a Virtual World

Yesterday at Dallas Seminary's women's conference I did a couple of workshops titled, "Your 'Net Worth: Communicating in a Virtual World. You can read today's blog post on the topic at the Tapestry site here. To access my notes with links, go here.

Angela Thomas was both deep and hilarious. My neighbor, Reiko, went with me, and I thoroughly enjoyed her company, too.

Now we're on break for two weeks. Whew!

In other news, my 89-year-old father just returned from a rigorous Rotary trip to Thailand. Way to go, Dad!

Plan Ahead

I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, and don't think I'm rushing you! But please keep in mind that anything you order from Amazon can benefit our friends in Kenya if you use the Amazon link from this blog to place your order. It costs you nothing and it benefits others. So if you order from Amazon this Christmas, please swing by here on your way.

Freebie articles

Through my eleven or twelve years as editor of Kindred Spirit, I've written some articles and had book excerpts posted on the DTS web site. Here are most of them. Anything here of interest to you?

Jordan: Encounter God as Storyteller
A great narrative needs a great setting. And God has often set His redemption story in Jordan.

The Gift God Still Wants
From the time of Cain and Abel until today God has been asking for only one gift. (Christmas focus)

Informed Consent
Read an excerpt from Informed Consent, a novel that considers a compassionate response to AIDS and end-of-life issues.

Premium Roast with Ruth
Book Excerpt: In the face of famine two women journey to the “house of bread.”

Vindicate the Villain?
This brief overview will introduce you to the fundamentals of Gnosticism, the philosophy behind the Gospel of Judas.

Espresso with Esther Click here to read this excerpt

Empty Arms, Heavy Burden
One in six couples struggles with infertility during their childbearing years. But they are not alone. Read a book excerpt from The Infertility Companion.

Storytelling: The Twelve Ways of Christmas
What other time of year can we walk into the mall and hear music that directs us to worship Christ the Lord? When else can we stroll through business offices and see strings of cards depicting nativity scenes? Let’s take advantage of the seasonal opportunities, keeping our focus on Christ and sharing the gospel in the process.

Why We Honor the Human Embryo

Handful of Dust

Tonight I watched "Handful of Dust," based on Evelyn Waugh's novel by the same name.

Apparently Mr. Waugh's book was terrific. He also wrote "Brideshead Revisited," which I loved in the long BBC version. But this film left me constantly asking "Huh? What just happened?" I had to read a plot summary online to figure out what I'd just seen. Eh.

Austen-esque

When one of my supervising profs in my PhD program handed me a list of works to read, I gulped when I saw that list included about six pages of single-spaced titles. After I recovered, I hopped on the internet and looked up on Netflix every title I’d not yet read. And anything produced in movie form, I stuck in my queue. That way, I figured, if I don’t make it through my list before examinations, I’ll at least be familiar with all the storylines.

One such works available in DVD is Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope. I’m showing my ignorance again here, but I had never heard of him or it. But apparently Trollope (1816–1882) was one of the most successful, prolific, and respected English novelists of the Victorian era.

Yesterday, I sat for six hours watching the 1982 BBC-produced seven-part mini-series, "The Barchester Chronicles," based, actually, on two of Trollope’s books, The Warden and Barchester Towers. The series had an impressive cast with terrific performances by Donald Pleasence as the kindly Septimus Hardin; Nigel Hawthorne as the volatile Archdeacon Grantly; and Alan Rickman as the ambitious Reverend Slope. (I kept hearing “Snape.” Not far off, eh?)

Storyline: A series of reforms and reformers from both the general public and the Anglican Church hierarchy shake up the small-town diocese of Barchester. And while his superiors sometimes lose sight of true justice, Rev. Septimus Harding is a guileless, loving servant with clear vision, if little power. Yet in the end his life demonstrates how one humble person with right on his side can effect change. In a good way. When some of his clergy colleagues want to “win” at the expense of justice, Hardin’s character annoys them with what his bishop describes as his “persistent bouts of Christianity.”

When it comes to light that Mr. Harding, through no fault of his own, is being paid more than was intended (according to the terms of an endowment) for serving as warden of a hospital for the poor, he resigns. When those around him try to talk him out of it, we have this dialogue:

Sir Abraham Haphazard: Give up this idea, Mr. Harding. A man is never the best judge of his own position.

Rev. Septimus Harding: A man is the best judge of his own feelings. I would rather beg than see those words written about me in the [newspaper], and know that the man who wrote those words has truth on his side. My God knows whether I love my daughter, but I would rather that she and I begged in the streets than that she should live in comfort on money which is rightly the property of the poor! I'm sorry. And now you should know that from tomorrow, I shall no longer be Warden of Hiram's Hospital.

Sir Abraham Haphazard: You should sleep on this, Mr. Harding. Make no hasty decisions.

Rev. Septimus Harding: I have slept on it. I have done more than sleep upon it, I have lain awake on it, and that night after night. I found I could not sleep upon it. But now—now that I have made my decision, I think I shall sleep again. I shall sleep tonight.

Trollope has a new fan in me. Watching "The Barchester Chronicles" was like discovering a new Jane Austen story, the only difference being that after the first episode, my husband stuck around to watch, too. I loved and hated the characters, the period, and the honest portrayal of good and bad clergy.

And then add the romantic chemistry, clever wit, and costumes. I'll probably buy the DVD and use episodes for group discussion. Five stars.

The Martian Chronicles

My latest read for my PhD examinations was The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. The book is a 1950 work of speculative fiction (i.e., it falls in the sci-fi, fantasy, or future category). In it a string of missions take humans to Mars, where they eventually kill off its inhabitants by accident with chicken pox and colonize the planet. Then the usurpers watch on their horizon as an atom bomb blows up Earth. Nice.

Bradbury called his book a "half-cousin to a novel" and "a book of stories pretending to be a novel," because the vignettes form a series of chronological short stories, often with unrelated characters. An imaginative creator of another world, Bradbury also provides a commentary on humanity. The best part for me: he gets a humorous (if sicko) last word against those who oppose comic books, fairies, trolls, Edgar Allen Poe, and munchkins.

Family Update

Many have asked me how my sis is doing. On her Facebook page last week, she wrote this: Visited the cemetery on Tuesday morning after taking Julia to school. Friends had put some carnations in a vase on the grave as there is not yet a marker. It was a hard time for me, but also good. My tears flowed.

What she didn’t say there was that she had just been to receive, on Gordon's behalf, The Excellence Award, granted by the Vancouver School District. She didn't know what had been painted on the hall in the 200 wing until she walked in. Here’s what the write-up on the district's portal said:

The Excellence Award is given posthumously to Hudson’s Bay Teacher Gordon Patterson

“I love you, in a positive sort of way.” This message greets all who approach the 200 wing at Hudson’s Bay High School. It was Gordon Patterson’s catch phrase. Gordon, a 25-year veteran with Vancouver Public Schools, was revered by students, parents and staff members. He was a “kid magnet,” able to make connections with every type of student who walked the halls of Hudson’s Bay. Gordon always had a smile on his face, and if you were within 200 feet of the 200 wing you could always hear his laugh. In addition to teaching math, design technology and science, Gordon taught compassion, acceptance, and inspiration. Gordon went out of his way to acknowledge students. He had a habit of calling home to parents—not to say their child was a problem in class, but to tell them their child was a pure delight. Gordon was all about kids. He would do anything he could to help students be successful. He led the extracurricular BEST—Bay Engineering, Science and Technology team. One student went on to college and a career as an electrical designer after having Gordon as a design tech teacher. Gordon touched thousands of lives. The echo of his laugh still rings through the hallways of Hudson’s Bay High School.

Gordon's wife, Carrie, accepted the award. She was joined by Gordon's parents, Elaine and Lyle, at the recognition.

Good Show

Tonight my brother-in-law, Mark, my hubby, and I watched “The Express.” All three of us gave it two thumbs up. In this flick Rob Brown stars as Ernie Davis, who on the field was the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. Off the field he fought for racial equality and taught his coach (Dennis Quaid) at Syracuse University how to stand up to racism. Here’s the line that made us chuckle with knowing laughter: “Down in Texas, football is a religion.” Sad, but true.

The Future of Books

Yesterday somebody asked me if I thought someday the physical book would be obsolete, replaced by the Kindle and its cousins. My answer is no. I use my microwave all the time, but I still have a stove and an oven, don’t I? I even still boil water for coffee rather than nuking it, because my instant sissy-coffee dissolves better when I pour water over the powder than when I add powder to hot water.

And while I can heat up the Thanksgiving turkey in the microwave—I’ve done so in the past—this year I plan to cook it in my oven. I like the oven better for holiday meals. Try making an apple pie in a microwave. Or don’t. If I could have two ovens, I would. That’s how much I like oven-based holiday cooking. Have I mentioned how much I like ovens?

“You can’t highlight with a Kindle,” somebody told me hopefully. (This from a soul concerned that the true book will die.) And that’s not true. You can. In fact now you can do so without destroying property. (Insert cheers from bifocal-wearing librarians.) No, you can’t dog-ear an e-book, but you can make highlights, bookmarks, clippings, and notes. You can even look up words in the dictionary without having to get off your bum. And when you travel, you can take an entire lug-free library.

Now, I’m not saying all this because I get a cut off of Kindle sales. I don’t own one, and I don’t plan to purchase one anytime soon.

I like paper. I like sitting on my bed stretched out with a book that has a binding. I like reading at the beach without having to think about how to adjust myself so the sun won’t glare on my little screen. I like feeling “how many pages to go” until I’m finished. I like hard-copy books. I like the smell of them, the feel of them, the sound of them.

But I also welcome those readers who prefer e-anything. See, the good news about this e-revolution is that people with Kindles download more books than they used to buy. Three-point-one times as many, in fact. And far be it from this novelist to stand in the way of progress.

Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded

So I’m back to gearing up for PhD exams, and that means reading. Lots of reading. The book I just finished was Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded. I confess I’d never even heard of this book until it appeared on my reading list, but I must be in good company. Only one library near me carried it, and the copy they had was a torn paperback.

What a far cry from 1740, the year Pamela was published. Back then it was Samuel Richardson’s first novel, and it was a smash hit. In fact many consider Richardson the father of the English novel, and Pamela the first modern novel. Huh.

The story was written originally as an example to the lower classes of excellent letter-writing technique, so the entire plot unfolds through letters. Richardson also intended his story as a conduct book. Oh, and I should mention that, though it was a best seller, Pamela was widely mocked. Henry Fielding (Tom Jones) even wrote a parody of it titled Shamela.

So what’s the plot? As told through Pamela’s point of view—expressed through writing to her parents or in her journal—the story unfolds of Pamela's response to her master, Mr. B, making unwanted sexual advances. She rejects him continuously, so he goes so far as to kidnap her to try to change her mind. Still, as the title suggests, eventually her virtue wins him over, and he proposes an equitable marriage. Can you imagine how nasty this must have seemed 250 years ago?

It may sound like a quirky read, but I actually really liked this book. Especially the second half—the part where she’s no longer held hostage. In it I learned a lot about eighteenth-century class structure, vocabulary, manners, and values. And hey, no matter what people thought of his story, the author really could write.

What now? I rewind an additional 1,700 years and explore the world of ancient Rome. Next stop: Robert Graves’s Claudius, the God.

Girlfriend Studies

Today AusJenny and Pam feature my suggestions for creative ways to have "girlfriend" Bible studies.

Insight for Engaging the Culture

There's an interview with me today posted over at Carla's Cafe'.

I've included an excerpt below, and you can hop over to Carla's place for the rest. While there, register for the free book drawing.

Question: The focus of Frappé with Philippians is the life of Paul and the early church. What kind of historical research did you do and did you learn any surprising facts as you compiled your information?

Answer: I think it's enormously important to understand the world in which Paul was writing. Let's take the view of women, for example. The Jews were the most conservative. The Greeks were better, though greatly influenced by Aristotle's low view of women. And the Roman women had the most freedom--even owning property and supervising gymnasiums. Knowing a city's predominant citizenship helps us understand Paul's letters on such issues.

My PhD work relates a lot to the Greek pantheon and Greek and Roman history. The historical backgrounds for the Bible books are essential, and fortunately they interest me. 


I also love getting a sense of the geography, if I can. I had the advantage this summer of taking a clipper to follow the journeys of Paul. Some of our stops included Corinth, Troas, Neapolis, Philippi, and Athens. 


One sentence out of the mouth of a guide in Corinth really stuck with me, as she provided a key to understanding the cities we visited. She mentioned that while American visitors seem generally uninterested in talk of gods and goddesses, knowing which member of the Greek pantheon a city worshiped is essential to understanding that city's mentality. The more I thought about this, the more sense it made: 


ATHENS. Athena was the goddess of wisdom, so citizens of Athens wanted their city to reflect culture, religion, and philosophy. And sure enough, in Acts 17 we find Stoic and Epicurean philosophers hanging out at the Areopagus (Mars Hill). Paul affirms them for being religious, and rather than dissing their many false gods, he zeroes in on their altar to the unknown God and tells them about this Almighty one who was not made with hands--one who is never far from any of us.

CORINTH. Corinth was the home of Aphrodite, goddess of love (and not the agape version). Behind the city ruins stands a towering hill at the top of which sat Aphrodite's temple. One could not walk down the street without being conscious of its prominence. Might that explain why the Corinthians had so many issues with sexual immorality, and why Paul tells them that it's good for a man not to touch a woman (1 Cor. 7:1)? For the sake of the kingdom, he encourages them to consider embracing sexual abstinence rather than marrying. How fitting that in a city that prides itself on being a center of love, Paul pens the beautiful definition of true love--known to us as the love chapter (1 Cor. 13). 


EPHESUS. Ephesus was home to the virgin Artemis who loved her virgin status and was immune to Aphrodite's love arrows. Among other things, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt. If you take a close look at the Artemis statues from the first and second centuries, you find her legs covered with numerous animals and flanked by a couple of deer. Now, usually we think of women as gatherers and men as hunters. And the fact that Artemis was a hunter suggests she had a less-than-feminine persona. In Ephesus we find stone work with the Amazon story (these women were way independent!), and guides tell visitors that the city was founded by an Amazon queen. The Book of Ephesians was probably intended for more than one city (like Laodicea), so we don't find much that points to a specific city's mentality in that book. But we do find 1 Timothy directed to Paul's protégé in Ephesus, and in it we find an emphasis on widows, women teaching false doctrines, and the need to marry and have children.

When reading the New Testament, I think it's important to find out something of its geography and certainly what member of the Greek pantheon each book's readers were up against. How its authors approached the cities' demons can provide insight for us into engaging a culture that's in love with worldly wisdom, immorality, and a low view of family.