Roger Olson: However, when it comes to disposition I agree with Pope Francis that mercy is a crucial indicator of the authenticity of a person’s Christianity and the only way to measure that is by a person’s words about the vulnerable. I do not believe a person can be a Christian in the truest and fullest sense and at the same time have no mercy toward the vulnerable, the disadvantaged, the outsider and stranger, or any group of human beings... Read more

One of the most common complaints about evolutionary biology is the absence of transitional fossils – the so-called missing links. This generally represents a significant misunderstanding of the nature of evolutionary change and a misunderstanding of the available evidence. We classify animals based on the current range of differences observed. Mammals are not reptiles, and there is no half mammal half reptile species alive today. There can’t be, because if such a creature existed, it would help define the forms... Read more

Amazing Dis-Grace Jason Micheli will be posting reflections on Fleming Rutledge’s new book, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ, through Lent. Jason is a United Methodist pastor in DC who blogs at www.tamedcynic.org  I remember a sermon I heard preached in Miller Chapel when I was a student at Princeton Theological Seminary. In an artful, show-don’t-tell way, the preacher for the day drew an unnerving parallel between Jesus’ death upon the cross and Matthew Shepard’s death, beaten and... Read more

David Opderbeck, law professor This semester I’m teaching a course on “Cybersecurity and National Security,” so the debate over Apple’s dispute with the FBI over the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook is particularly interesting to me. The issue raises a number of important questions about privacy, security, the technology industry, and the separation of powers, none of which, in my opinion, yield easy answers. The issue arises because of the security features built into the iPhone... Read more

By Chad Thornhill, PhD Chair of Theological Studies, Director of the MA in Christian Apologetics, Assistant Professor of Apologetics and Biblical Studies, Assistant Editor of Eruditio Ardescens  … School of Divinity Klein on Corporate Election in the NT William Klein offers one of the few works which give a sustained defense of the view known as “corporate election.” I looked in my last post at how Klein views the OT and Jewish literature and its development of the theme of divine election. Klein gives most of... Read more

Lucy Peppiatt: When I wrote Women and Worship at Corinth, I thought that Paul had written the following in 1 Cor 11:3 – Christ is the head of every man. Man is the head of woman. God is the head of Christ. I knew that there were problems with this. They are as follows: No one can really come up with the definitive once-for-all definition of kephale in this context that both conforms to one of the accepted definitions of the... Read more

I’m all for it (and add the Protestants too): (CNN)Pope Francis, who has repeatedly called for an end to the death penalty, on Sunday proposed that Catholic leaders suspend the practice for a year to mark the Holy Year of Mercy. “I make an appeal to the conscience of all rulers, so that we can achieve an international consensus for the abolition of the death penalty,” the Pope said in his Sunday address in St. Peter’s Square. “And I propose... Read more

By Austin Fischer Baptism, Eucharist and Why They’re Not “Just” Anything Just. It just so happens to be the most crippling word in the English language. That’s just the way things are. It was just one night. He was just a beggar. It’s all the arrogance and suffocating reductionism of secularism jammed into a single word. It drains the world of mystery and wonder. If ever there were a word to define a secular age, it would be just. Christians... Read more

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. BCP Read more

Burt Constable: The notion of your local library as a place where you go to borrow a book seems almost as antiquated as an actual hardcover book. Suburban residents use libraries as business offices, resource centers, movie providers, club headquarters, language centers, game parlors, tax consultants, social media hubs, classrooms, lecture halls, concert venues, coffee shops and sometimes simply shelter from the storms of life. Homeless people often hang out at libraries. Some parents treat the library as a free... Read more