Where do you find Roman Catholic theology? Now, before we go too far, let me make this point: Evangelicals tend to define themselves and therefore everyone else by their doctrinal statement. (This has given rise, in part, to the emerging church movement’s nervousness about doctrinal statements.) RCism is not defined by its theology, even if it has a theology. But, if you are looking for it, where do you find that theology? |inline Read more
“So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin” (Rom 7:25). Earlier the “mind” was the “inmost self” (7:22), so when speaking of “mind” we are dealing most probably with the Eikonic nature of humans, and with the “flesh” the cracked Eikonic nature of humans. |inline Read more
I got an e-mail from Dan Kimball when Kris and I were at Marko and Jeannie Oestreicher’s home in Rancho San Diego. He included for laughs evidence that he was reading Embracing Grace, so I thought I’d document the evidence for the public. Dan’s a big part of the emerging movement in the USA and especially in California. |inline Read more
Here’s the question I propose to you regarding Noll and Nystrom’s book, Is the Reformation Over?: How significant are ecumenical dialogues for (1) the RC Church as a whole and (2) for lay level understandings of the RC faith? Here’s another way of putting it: If the local Dean at St Mary of the Lake Seminary and I got a group of Catholic theologians and evangelical theologians together to discuss our views of the sacraments and learned to say things... Read more
Here are Paul’s central theses in 7:14-20: (1) the Torah is spiritual, but (2) the “I” is fleshly. When the “I” tries to do what it wants and can’t, that proves that the “I” is under the control of “sin” and the “flesh.” Is this what Luther called the bondage of the will or is this Israel’s dilemma under the Torah? |inline Read more
Last Friday, after getting a phone call the day before from Spencer Burke to see if we could stop by his home on Newport Beach on our way down to San Diego, we found our way down a few busy LA freeways to Newport Beach. We spent about 4 hours with him hearing his vision for what I would call a “post-emerging church.” |inline Read more
Noll and Nystrom, in their Is the Reformation Over?, chp 3, see the shifts that occurred in the 1950s to concern four, yea five, things: changes within the Catholic Church, in world Christianity, in American politics and society, in the exercise of personal agency, and within evangelicalism. A word about each. |inline Read more
Romans 7:12 ends with the Torah being holy and just and good. So, Paul now has to ask, Did that which is good become that which is sinful? Nope. That misunderstands things, Paul argues. The problem is the abounding reality of sin, not the Torah. So Rom 7:13 and some reflections based on NT Wright’s commentary on Romans. |inline Read more
Kris and I were in California last Thursday through Saturday, and I want to record some thoughts here about our days there. We were guests of Robin Dugall, director of Youth Leadership Institute which is held annually at Azusa Pacific University in the summer. I’ve spoken to plenty of college groups, but this group impressed me deeply with the thought that the Church has a fine, young generation presently poised to assume leadership. |inline Read more
A major shift is afoot. It is a substantial, however incomplete, rapprochement with Roman Catholicism on key issues. What issues? Justification? Yes. Really? Yes. And others? Yes, others too. What has happened in the theological world since the 1950s when it comes to Protestant and Roman Catholic theological understanding is nothing short of amazing to those of us who have lived through all of it or most of it. Now before I say anything else, let me add this: it... Read more
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