FUNCTIONAL FAITH

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Terms

Read the essays, take the quiz, join the letter, leave whenever you like. Here is the fuller version of that.

Terms of use — Functional Faith

What this site is

Functional Faith is a biblical scholarship and reflection website operated by Oliver T. Shepherd (a pen name). The content — articles, commentary, reading plans, and the Pioneer Reading — represents the author's own scholarly and theological views. It is offered freely for your personal reflection and study.

What this site is not

Nothing on this site constitutes spiritual direction, pastoral counselling, or professional theological advice. The writing here is one person's honest engagement with the text. Take what helps and leave the rest.

Bible translations

This site displays several Bible translations for scholarly comparison. Each translation is used under its applicable licence:

  • Berean Standard Bible (BSB) — public domain
  • King James Version (KJV) — public domain outside the United Kingdom
  • Goodspeed New Testament — displayed as published, no modifications applied
  • Translation for Translators (T4T) — CC BY-SA 4.0, Ellis W. Deibler Jr.
  • SBL Greek New Testament — CC BY 4.0, Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software

Full licence details appear in the sources section of each scripture page.

The Pioneer Reading

The Pioneer Reading — scholarly renderings of key passages produced by the Functional Faith Translation Project — is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA). You may share and quote it freely for non-commercial purposes with attribution. Commercial use requires permission — ask through the contact form.

AI-generated content

Some commentary on scripture pages is generated with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic). All AI-generated commentary is reviewed before publication and marked as such. It represents the theological position of Functional Faith and should be evaluated accordingly.

Your content

This site does not currently accept user-submitted content.

Limitation of liability

Functional Faith is provided as-is. We make no warranties about the accuracy of theological interpretation — these are genuinely contested questions and we say so. We are not liable for decisions you make based on content read here.

Intellectual property

The original writing, site design, and Pioneer Reading on this site are copyright © 2026 Functional Faith. You may quote articles with attribution. You may not reproduce substantial portions without permission — ask through the contact form.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Australia.

Contact

Write to us through the contact form. Fill in your name, if you want to give it, your email, and what you need. The note comes to us. The address is not on this page.

Last updated: September 2026