CNN.com has a list of bizarre college course titles, and this has got to my favorite — and I’m going to be at Belmont in two weeks. Hope to meet the teacher. 3. “Oh, Look, a Chicken!” Embracing Distraction as a Way of Knowing Belmont University Not only does it have an amazing name, “Oh, [Read More…]
Archives for August 2011
Beloit College Mind-Set 2011
Aug 31, 2011 @ 11:04 by 8 Comments
Every year Beloit College produces a list that characterizes the incoming first year student class. Always lots of fun, and I wonder what you see when you read this? Here we go: Andre the Giant, River Phoenix, Frank Zappa, Arthur Ashe, and the Commodore 64 have always been dead. Their classmates could include Taylor Momsen, [Read More…]
Good News about the World 1
Aug 31, 2011 @ 5:29 by 11 Comments
“The good news about bad news is that there is not nearly as much of it as you might think. The bad news about good news is that good news doesn’t tend to sell.” So John Ortberg, in the Foreword to Brad Wright’s new, important book (Upside: Surprising Good News About the State of Our [Read More…]
Thoughts on Spiritual “Gifts”
Aug 31, 2011 @ 0:03 by 35 Comments
A friend and I got into an online conversation about spiritual gifts, the “Network” came up, I read through it and checked its chart on myself, and it didn’t change my mind. Before I tell you what I think, one more background point: I came of age as a Christian in the hey-day of spiritual [Read More…]
Mona Charen on VP Joe Biden
Aug 30, 2011 @ 13:31 by 24 Comments
Wow, Mona Charen gives VP Joe Biden a lecture — on the basics: This was not a gaffe. This was a disgrace. In a speech at Sichuan University, Vice President Joe Biden said, “Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I’m not second-guessing — of one child per family.” But, he continued, [Read More…]
Immortality is a Divine Gift (RJS)
Aug 30, 2011 @ 5:09 by 76 Comments
Death is natural – immortality is a divine gift. This isn’t true because of the fall – it was true from the beginning of creation. This statement will seem off-base, and seriously in error for some. It will seem completely reasonable to others. I would like to open this idea up for conversation in the [Read More…]
Beyond Bumper Sticker Ethics 1
Aug 30, 2011 @ 0:10 by 11 Comments
Steve Wilkens, at Azusa Pacific, is one of those professors who can write textbooks for students that can also be used in churches. His newest book, Beyond Bumper Sticker Ethics: An Introduction to Theories of Right and Wrong, is an excellent introduction to ethical theory. Here is what a good introduction does: first, it knows [Read More…]
From Intelligent Design to Atheism
Aug 29, 2011 @ 11:03 by 69 Comments
One of the architects of intelligent design is Michael Behe, a Roman Catholic. His son, Leo, was homeschooled and/but has since become an atheist, and here is an interview with Leo Behe about his journey. For me, this is not a comment at all on the viability or non-viability of intelligent design but instead the [Read More…]
On Biblicism
Aug 29, 2011 @ 5:00 by 59 Comments
Christian Smith’s book criticizing biblicism, Bible Made Impossible, The: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture, has created a baffling conversation. I’ve read reviews by Bob Gundry, Peter Leithart, and Kevin DeYoung and … well, how to put it? None of these reviews engages the issue at hand. None of them thinks [Read More…]
Women and Reading Passages Honestly
Aug 29, 2011 @ 0:02 by 116 Comments
From Arise…David C. Cramer is a doctoral student in Religion at Baylor University with an emphasis in theological ethics. His article, “Creating a Culture of Equality as Witness to the Truth: A Philosophical Response to Gender Difference,” was a finalist for the student paper competition at the 2009 CBE conference in St. Louis and was [Read More…]
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