Interfaith Encounters
There is no universal human expression of timeless truth. Humans can neither think nor articulate their beliefs without language. And language is relational, temporal, and culture bound. Yet we also find, across all languages and cultures, that human minds seek to know Transcendence. Language is continually pushed to its limits in order to think the [Read More…]
John 18:29: So Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” 30 They answered, “If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” 31 Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.” The religious leaders replied, “We [Read More…]
In the previous blog I explored why the dispute between traditionalists and progressives regarding same-sex marriage is intractable. Now I want to focus on the specific problems in the ways in which each side justifies (primarily to itself) its belief with scripture. I’m going to start with the traditionalists. The traditionalists charge that the progressives [Read More…]
“Ever since his own day Tyndall’s translation has been blamed for being tendentious. If we are thinking of his violent marginal glosses, this is fair enough; if of his peculiar renderings (congregation for ecclesia, senior or elder for presbyters, favor for charis and the like), a little explanation seems to be needed. The business of [Read More…]
I’ve recently been engaged in reading about a movement within United Methodism to promote Christian Orthodoxy. Part of their statement of purpose is found on their website, written by Dr. Steve Rankin. It appears to me to suggest that United Methodist theology as such cannot learn anything new about God. “The mission of UMSCO, therefore, [Read More…]
American Christians become so obsessed with the supposed attacks by secularists and humanists on their privileged position in American culture that they forget there are real attacks on Christianity taking place daily. Christians need to understand that apologetics are not just an evangelistic tool, they are a justice issue. I am not talking about attacks on Christians and [Read More…]
Inside the US the attack on intelligence by Ted Cruz’ new foreign policy advisors directly hurts Muslims and the Muslim community. Yet it has a far more detrimental effect in the long term on Christians and all Americans of faith. Because once you undermine the foundations of civil discourse about religion then every religion or [Read More…]
The best way to insure human rights in a modern society is to insure that God has none except those vested in the voice and vote of individual citizens. Recently a group of Muslim scholars from across the world signed a document called the Marrakesh declaration. Based on their reading of Muhammad’s original treaty with the [Read More…]
The single most important question in interreligious dialogue today is not theological. Is anthropological. And it arises because between the different religions there are fundamentally different ways of understanding not merely what it means to be human but how humans find out what it means to be human. At a recent interfaith dialogue involving Jews, [Read More…]
The question of whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God is for all practical purposes purely theoretical. Whether or not we worship the same God we do not worship together. Muslims may visit, but usually do not join in Christian worship because Christians worship Christ, which Muslims believe is a violation of God’s Oneness. And [Read More…]
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