In the mid to late 90s I began to hear traditional, mostly the Reformed with hints of Lutheranism Christian leaders begin to accuse the “new perspective” of weaknesses and in the criticism I was hearing descriptions of what “new perspective on Pau” (NPP) theologians believed — as if the NPP had a systematic theology worked out. I was not a Pauline specialist so some of the discussions were about the most recent statement by one or more NPP scholars. What... Read more
Dr. Mimi Haddad is president of Christians for Biblical Equality. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. She holds a PhD in historical theology from the University of Durham, England. She and her husband, Dale, live in the Twin Cities. Follow her on Twitter @Mimi_CBE. From Arise, by Mimi Haddad: Last spring, I received an email from Southern Baptist affiliate Campbellsville University (Campbellsville, KY) informing me of their intention to join CBE as an... Read more
A couple of weeks ago I put up a post (Just the Facts Please) on Jonathan Hill’s short book Emerging Adulthood and Faith. This book describes some of his research into the faith evolution of young adults today – trying to separate the influence of stage of life from historical and generational effects. A wise response to the apparent exodus of younger adults from the church depends on the nature of these influences. Today I would like to look at... Read more
White Heresy, Black Heresy (by Austin Fischer) There’s a lot of talk about heresy nowadays. Much of it is sloppy—ad hominem accusations carelessly slung at those who have the audacity to disagree with us. But heresy is a helpful and inevitable concept, whether we think in terms of bounded sets (this belief is “out of bounds”) or centered sets (this belief is “a long way from center”). So I was delighted by Justin Holcomb’s cover page article in October’s Christianity... Read more
The Seven: Envy “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all” –The Witch from Snow White “Love does not envy” –St. Paul I’m a very competitive person. I always have been. I love to win. I love Jesus. I’m starting to learn those two things don’t go well together. Here’s why: When I was a kid, my mom entered me into two competitions at the Saline County Fair in Arkansas. One was the competition for playing musical... Read more
When it comes to institutions aligned with evangelical progressivism it is not as easy to say “there it is” but when it comes to people, one can point directly at Jim Wallis. While I’m not convinced many Christians who seek to influence the state have an explicit teleology, an activist commitment to influence forms the heart of both the evangelical right and evangelical left. (By teleology I mean to ask this question: What will happen if they “win” the influence? Will... Read more
We now have a three-phase battle between conservative Roman Catholic NYTimes columnist vs. liberal Roman Catholic American professors. Here is the essence of each of the three skirmishes: Douthat: (He thinks he smells a rat in Pope Francis.) And right now the chief plotter is the pope himself. Francis’s purpose is simple: He favors the proposal, put forward by the church’s liberal cardinals, that would allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion without having their first marriage declared null….... Read more
The next chapter in Kyle Greenwood’s new book Scripture and Cosmology looks at the move from an ancient Near Eastern view of the cosmos to an Aristotelian view. In the fifth and fourth century BC (i.e. 400’s and 300’s) change was afoot. The typical ancient Near Eastern view of the cosmos involved a flat earth with boundaries, foundations, and a roof (firmament) overhead. The earlier Greek view was similar, but accumulating knowledge was pushing consensus toward a spherical earth. The... Read more
John Stackhouse’s Partners in Christ may be the most honest book ever written in the complementarian-egalitarian debate; it is without doubt the fairest book on the topic I’ve seen. This honesty begins with method. In essence, anyone who claims his (or her) view covers all the evidence is overcooking the claim. Notice these words of candid method: … the task of Christian theology is not to arrive at the one, timeless, seamless answer that fits everything nicely into place without strain and... Read more
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