Is Americanism the Fourth Biblical World Religion? (Partial Review of Peter Leithart’s Between Babel and the Beast) Some time ago I posted two reviews of Peter Leithart’s Defending Constantine. At the end of the second one I suggested that he publish a sequel explaining his view of empire and especially Christianity and empire. Well, perhaps that book has been published. This year (2012) Cascade Books (imprint of Wipf & Stock) has published Leithart’s contribution to its … [Read more...]

A friend forwarded this to me: http://www.christianpost.com/news/john-piper-on-mans-sin-and-gods-sovereignty-80617/ (Sorry, patheos's format has changed again and I can't find the key to make this a live link. Do it yourself.) John Piper has been at it again. But there's nothing new in the sermon reported on there. He has been saying this and writing it for decades. According to him, God foreordains sin. He "ordains and governs" it. He stops short of saying Godcauses is. But the effect is the … [Read more...]

(I have to preface this with "Satire Warning" because my experience is that some people are tone deaf to satire and think I'm being literal when I'm not. Maybe "parody" is a better word for this.) God is obviously blowing his fierce breath and spitting his fierce saliva at the GOP convention in Tampa, Florida. The GOP had to cancel its first day of the convention because of God's judgment--a reminder that we are all sinners and deserving of of whatever we get. Obviously, God is judging … [Read more...]

On Not Throwing the Baby out with the Bathwater 1 Thessalonians 5:19-20 A few years ago I must have said "We shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater" once too often because when I said it the whole class burst out laughing. That's okay; one thing I know about myself is I'm funniest when I'm not trying to be. I confess it.  I do like that rustic saying—"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."  It very well describes a struggle I've been involved in for many years.  In … [Read more...]

Who Is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53? I don’t remember when or where it happened, but I remember the shock I felt when I first heard that many, perhaps most, Old Testament scholars, including many evangelical Christians, deny that Isaiah 53 refers to Jesus. It was a shock of bewilderment; why would they say that? Christians have generally, since the beginning (Acts 8) believed the Suffering Servant described there is Jesus. Why is it important? Well, the debate over the atonement … [Read more...]

Does God Always Get His Way? I suspect that question would surprise most Christians and atheists alike. Most atheists I read seem to operate on the assumption that Western monotheism includes God’s absolute sovereignty such that whatever happens is God’s will. Most of them fall back on some version of the problem of evil to attempt to sweep away belief in God as impossible (because no one expressly questions God’s goodness). But Christians (I’ll limit my comments here to Christians … [Read more...]

Evangelical philosopher Jerry Walls is posting a series of talks on Calvinism on youtube. You can see them simply by typing "Jerry Walls" into the search box at www.youtube.com. The first two of the three part series are there under the title "What's Wrong with Calvinism." Of course, I agree with him entirely. As a philosopher, his focus tends to be on logic, pointing out how inconsistent Calvinism is. … [Read more...]

Clark Pinnock and the Postconservative Turn in Evangelical Theology Roger E. Olson             Evangelical theology has gone through several paradigm shifts and has fragmented into different paradigms.  Sometimes it’s difficult to tell what they all share in common beyond calling themselves “evangelical.”  However, I will work with the Noll-Bebbington proposal that evangelicalism is marked by biblicism, conversionism, crucicentrism and activism without going into detail … [Read more...]

Needed: A New “Progressive Orthodoxy” for the 21st Century: Part Three (Final) of Series about Horace Bushnell In the first two installments of this three part series I talked about what Gary Dorrien calls Bushnell’s “liberal-leaning experiment in progressive orthodoxy” with special focus on the 19th century theologian’s theological method. Here I want to suggest some ways in which Bushnell’s progressive orthodoxy can be helpful today. As in Bushnell’s time and place (New … [Read more...]

Remembering the “Progessive Orthodoxy” of Horace Bushnell Part Two Bushnell was self-consciously a mediating theologian. He stood against the stream of New England Unitarianism and the accommodating liberalism while at the same time resisting the rigid orthodoxy and incipient fundamentalism of neo-Puritanism and the Princeton Theology (Alexander and Hodge). He strongly defended belief in the supernatural, including Jesus’ miracles (although he felt no need to defend every biblical … [Read more...]