Some folks spend lots of energy poring over the previous year and committing themselves to improvement or to turning over a new leaf and so they make New Year’s Resolutions. I’d like to make a mild case why not to, but it’s mostly fun and I’d be glad to hear you chirp up with your arguments against New Year’s resolutions. 1. You won’t keep them so don’t bother. 2. It smacks of moralism or legalism or self-absorbed righteousness or some... Read more
When it comes down to the bottom argument in Robin Parry’s (aka, Gregory Macdonald’s) book The Evangelical Universalist we find an argument about God’s love. So far we’ve seen his case rest squarely on the impermanence of one’s state as a result of death and, perhaps even more logically crucial, on the inescapable love of God. Do we underestimate God’s love? He argues, with JI Packer, that God’s love is seen in how God acts in the Bible. Parry argues that we... Read more
The coverage of the Copenhagen meeting and the recent debacle over the “climate gate” e-mails has raised a number of different questions for many people. See here for one of the multitude of reports. The questions range from the reality of anthropogenic global warming to the strength and reliability of the evidence for evolution. After all, some ask, if there was conspiracy over the climate data why should we trust scientists on evolution – could this be conspiracy as well?... Read more
Robin Parry’s major focus, in his book The Evangelical Universalist , is a biblical case for universalism. He has a take on the Old Testament and then turns to macroscopic themes in the New Testament. Here are his themes: Jesus fulfills Israel’s calling in his own person. Jesus’ death climaxes Israel’s exile. Jesus’ resurrection climaxes Israel’s return from exile. Jesus is the Second Adam. Jesus reverses Adam’s curse in his death and resurrection and enables the restoration of humanity (Adamic humanity). This... Read more
Scot headed for warmer climes – we headed north. (more…) Read more
The white paper written by Tim Keller for the November workshop “In Search of a Theology of Celebration” is posted on the BioLogos web site: Creation, Evolution, and Christian Laypeople (or direct link). In his paper Keller gives what he finds to be the three most common problems posed by laypeople in the church on the questions of science and faith … 1. Biblical authority; 2. Biology and philosophy – Evolution as biological process (EBP) versus evolution as the Grand... Read more
Robin Parry’s major focus, in his book The Evangelical Universalist , is a biblical case for universalism, and that means one eventually has to take a good hard look at the Old Testament. Which he does. After sketching some suggestive Adam-Israel parallels, making Adam a type of Israel in the Land, Parry (aka, Gregory Macdonald) makes the very important observation that God’s covenant with Abram/Abraham had within it the (great) commission of being a blessing to the nations. Israel was to be... Read more
For a long time I’ve thought we needed a sensitive, historically-nuanced study of how Jesus interacted — at the gospeling level — with his contemporaries. But the book I had in mind couldn’t be in search of the “method” of Jesus or the “program” of Jesus, and the reason I say this is because Jesus didn’t have a “method” or a “program.” And neither did he have a technique. So the book would have to be sensitive to the variety... Read more
The white paper written by Tim Keller for the November workshop “In Search of a Theology of Celebration” is posted on the BioLogos web site: Creation, Evolution, and Christian Laypeople (or direct link). In his paper Keller gives what he finds to be the three most common problems posed by laypeople in the church on the questions of science and faith. 1. Biblical authority. With three subquestions – “What does that mean for the idea that the Bible has final... Read more
Robin Parry’s major focus, in his book The Evangelical Universalist , is a biblical case for (evangelical belief in) universalism (not the same as pluralism). He begins by looking at a major test case: Colossians (esp 1:15-20). Here’s the text and one has to stand back to see the grandeur of the redemptive designs here: 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, 1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all... Read more
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