Comments for Roger E. Olson

Comment on A report on some recent conversations about Calvinism by rogereolson

rogereolson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:20:26 +0000

Very true. These don’t use the label “Arminian,” but they are baptist denominations that include that perspective. Many of their churches have Calvinist pastors, so one has to ask: Baptist General Conference (WorldConverge), North American Baptist Conference, Conservative Baptists of America, Southern Baptist, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, American Baptists, USA (have some liberal churches as well). The Arminian Baptist denominations are General Baptist Convention and Free Will Baptists. Most Mennonite and Brethren churches are also baptist and Arminian. Most Evangelical Free churches are baptistic and at least favor Arminianism although many are now leaning toward Calvinism under the influence of professors at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Comment on Who Is (or Might Be) an Arminian? by rogereolson

rogereolson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:13:54 +0000

Both are good if a little on the conservative side.

Comment on Who Is (or Might Be) an Arminian? by rogereolson

rogereolson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:11:44 +0000

I think your question is in reference to the difference between semi-Pelagianism and Arminianism. Yes, the difference is prevenient grace. Arminians stand with Calvinists on that. The difference is that Arminians believe prevenient grace is resistible and Calvinists believe (for the elect) it is irresistible. Semi-Pelagians believe the only grace of God before saving grace is a general or common grace that is not supernatural.

Comment on Stanley Hauerwas, America and war (and a question about flags in churches) by rogereolson

rogereolson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:05:19 +0000

Good point. But maybe we could have done more to pressure Mubarak to be less tyrannical?

Comment on Stanley Hauerwas, America and war (and a question about flags in churches) by rogereolson

rogereolson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:04:16 +0000

Well, Jesus did command “Resist not evil.” By the way, I’m half German so let’s say “Nazis” when we mean those Germans we fought in WW2. As for language, here’s a good story about German. I had breakfast with Pannenberg a few years ago in St. Paul. He opened up and talked about his personal life more than usual. He told me he had been offered a chair of theology at either Yale or Harvard (I don’t remember which now) but turned it down because, as he said, there are theological ideas that simply cannot be expressed well in English. He said Tillich was a great theologian until he moved to America and wrote in English. Ironically, Tillich liked to say that there are English words like “predicament” that have no exact translation in German and are very important to theology. Maybe we should all be bi-lingual. Well, maybe that’s why most Ph.D. programs in theology require German. The Bible was written in German, wasn’t it?

Comment on Some Lenten meditations for baptists by rogereolson

rogereolson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:00:13 +0000

Thanks for that Ulster perspective and words of appreciation. As I’m sure you know, here in the U.S. we also have all kinds of Baptists. We even have a denomination called the Pentecostal Free Will Baptists. There’s also a small group of Baptists in the Appalachian Mountains sociologists call the “No-Hellers.” They are fundamentalist Baptists who don’t believe in hell. Really. Go figure. Then there are the Primitive Baptists and the Spiritual Baptists (the latter have seances as part of their worship services!).

Comment on Who Is (or Might Be) an Arminian? by rogereolson

rogereolson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:55:34 +0000

It just seems historically odd, to say the least, to refer to a Catholic as an “Arminian.” It would be like calling a Catholic a “Calvinist.” Within Catholic history and theology there have been movements parallel to these Protestant categories. So, just to keep things relatively clean, I think it would be best to talk about Catholic synergism as the analog to Protestant Arminianism. Kissing cousins? Yes. But I think there is enough difference between Protestant theology and Catholic theology that anything closer (e.g., siblings) would be a confusion of categories.

Comment on A report on some recent conversations about Calvinism by Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:52:52 +0000

It can be tricky to find a church if you’re a conservative Arminian. Baptists churchs can work, but a lot of them are very influenced by Calvinism these days and it’s hard to tell that when you’re first visiting a church.

Comment on A report on some recent conversations about Calvinism by Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:50:14 +0000

Brian Abasciano’s essays on the Society of Evangelical Arminian’s website is also good. I would also recommend Oden. I found the book God’s Strategy in Human History to be helpful as well.

Comment on Who Is (or Might Be) an Arminian? by EricMichaelSay

EricMichaelSay — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:42:44 +0000

I appear to fit comfortably into the Arminian mold, although I will admit that I feel a desire to study Open Theism to find where my beliefs fall in that regard. My primary interest is with regard to foreknowledge and the will of God, versus soteriology.

That said, I truly want to thank you Mr Olson for helping me to begin to label myself and the people around me. Rather than fumble around in the dark and take offense to the other (confusing) voices around me, I can now confidently identify why certain opinions offend me, and offer them the grace needed to continue in conversation. It is quite a relief to assume nothing about someone and discover ‘something’, rather than assume complete agreement with someone and discover disagreement.