The Political Meaning of Christianity: Ambivalence Here I take up two more parts or sections of Chapter Four “Social Transformation.” They are “Private Property and Capitalism” and “Mass Society” (pp. 180-195). The them running throughout this book but highlighted in these two sections is ambivalence—ambivalence toward politics and all things associated with it. The Christian, for Christian reasons, ought always to have a posture of ambivalence toward politics but also toward economics and social organizations. In Private Property and Capitalism... Read more

Is American Christian Nationalism an existential threat? Guest Post by Theologian Ted Peters Ted Peters is one of America’s best known and most influential theologians. His credentials are too many and too impressive to list here. Look him up on Wikipedia. His blog is: www.patheos.com/blogs/publictheology. He has posted an interview with me (and commentary) on his blog today (May 4, 2024).   American Christian Nationalism (ACN) and White American Christian Nationalism (WACN) exist. But they are too small to become... Read more

Walter Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel A faithful follower of this blog asked me to post something about Walter Rauschenbusch which I’m glad to do. He is one of my heroes. Which is not to say I agree with everything he wrote. Rauschenbusch was the son of a German immigrant who became a Baptist in the U.S. His father taught church history at Rochester Theological Seminary which is the oldest Baptist seminary in the U.S. Walter grew up in a... Read more

Evangelical Pastor Goes Ballistic on Trump You may have already seen it. It’s all over Youtube. Pastor Loren Livingston of Central Church of God in Charlotte, North Carolina, preaches a powerful sermon against Donald Trump, MAGA politics mixed with Christianity, and the new Bible that Trump is selling that contains the US Constitution. Go to Youtube, if you haven’t already, and watch the whole sermon. This is the evangelicalism I grew up in: Pentecostal, other-worldly, spiritual to the core, ambivalent... Read more

The Political Meaning of Christianity: Revolution and … Equality/Inequality Here I am taking up for comment and discussion (among those who have read it) pages 165 to 180 of The Political Meaning of Christianity by Glenn Tinder. The sections under consideration here are of Chapter Four: Social Transformation and they are titled Revolution and Inequality and Minority Rule. First, however, a personal side note about the book. Because it is not especially easy to read, as many readers have noted... Read more

My Experiences with Liberal Churches Recently I posted a blog essay here about my nostalgia for some aspects of my fundamentalist church upbringing. But what about my experiences in liberal Protestant churches? I have, in the past, been a member of two different liberal Protestant churches. They would probably not call themselves “liberal,” but I call them that with good reasons. Immediately after seminary, just out of a Pentecostal-charismatic church, where I served as assistant pastor, I was placed in... Read more

Feeling Nostalgia for Fundamentalism I had a memory “flashback.” I suddenly, out of nowhere, remembered and felt an experience from the somewhat distant past. I was attending the annual national convention of the American Academy of Religion—a professional society of religion scholars that drew around four to five thousand attenders. I don’t remember the city-location that year, but I remember an event very clearly. Every year the AAR put on a film event. Members and paid attenders were invited to... Read more

The Political Meaning of Christianity: Social Reform Here I take up two more sections of Glenn Tinder’s book The Political Meaning of Christianity: Chapter Four, Social Transformation, sections Prophetic Hope and Social Reform and Communal Liberation and the Will of God (pp. 151-165). Among other things, Tinder asserts that, in spite of “the Christian record,” “Christianity in essence is not conservative.” (153) Here again we encounter the implied difference between what I have called “empirical Christianity” (the churches and their... Read more

Why Calvinism Cannot Be True and Is It Heresy? Of course I’ve addressed this before here and elsewhere. But, since I have posted about two thousand essays here, there is very little about which I have not written here. So, I am returning to a basic theme here—Calvinism. As everyone knows, I am an evangelical Christian theologian who is not a Calvinist. I am Arminian, as the title of this blog implies. This has caused me some difficulties over the... Read more

How Many Gods Do Christians Believe in? Titles generally require that all nouns begin with capital letters, but now I will revise the title of this blog post to correct it: “How many gods do Christians believe in?” Notice the difference. And know that here I am not talking about Mormonism or Latter Day Saints. This essay focuses exclusively on evangelical Christians who are saying we should believe in more gods than God (Yahweh). Two evangelical Christian influencers are in... Read more