In my own theological and spiritual journey I have not been involved in those who embrace the gospel of health and wealth, but I have read some of them, I have watched them on TV more, and now have seen an exceptional, no holds barred critical evaluation in Roger Olson, Counterfeit Christianity: The Persistence of Errors in the Church. I strongly recommend this book as a good church library book, a good book for pastors, and an excellent primer for students... Read more
St Augustine thought plenty about science and faith, and Mark Noll’s contention that we need to transcend what he calls “univocal metaphysics, harmonization, and natural theology” lead him to contend that we ought to learn to think about the science faith challenge from the angle of christology, in particular, the humanity and deity of Christ. Noll’s booklet is called “Come and See”: A Christological Invitation for Science (published by The Colossian Forum in Grand Rapids; excerpted from Jesus Christ and the Life... Read more
O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. BCP Read more
Enjoy a new set of links to blogs and news, providing you some fun for Saturday morning coffee and breakfast. Once again Kris found a number of these links and single-handedly at times seems to keep this Saturday offering on its feet. Quality time? Nope, there’s no substitute for presence, by Frank Bruni: There’s simply no real substitute for physical presence. We delude ourselves when we say otherwise, when we invoke and venerate “quality time,” a shopworn phrase with a... Read more
I have been stunned by the recent revelations of a number of Christian leaders who have fallen because of moral failure. We are talking national Christian leaders. My contention is that leaders fall not for a lack of knowledge, but for a lack of wisdom. I pray to God it was not because if the Ashley Madison breach of clients. Don’t get me wrong. I know we should not throw stones, remembering our own susceptibility to sin (Galatians 6:1). But... Read more
There are times when folks today are wearied by newness, by the next big thing, by each Sunday having to be a high, when the pastor has pull off the best sermon ever, when the musicians have to hit the right note and let it rock the whole place… when … many want to push a button and tell the church to slow down, to go quiet … when they want not to hear or experience something new but to be... Read more
Kris and I had a special day yesterday — The Heaven Promise author copies arrived at the door! I have been working on “heaven” for a number of years, and recorded thoughts from the days of Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others onwards. Read more
The final substantive section of Gary N. Fugle’s book Laying Down Arms to Heal the Creation-Evolution Divide looks at the regions of (apparent) conflict between evolutionary biology and the Christian Bible. His approach is predicated on the assumption that “we cannot comfortably argue that God created one reliable source of information in the Bible and created a second conflicting, unreliable source in nature.” And he goes on: “This means we should use Scripture to rightly interpret what we observe and... Read more
An author writes out of experience and life story. Some may pretend to be purely scientific, objective and detached but that detachment is part of that author’s experience and story. There is no detached author as there are not detached human beings. This means all theologians at some level come to the table of theology to theologize their story. Not long ago I was able in the same season to read biographies or autobiographies of three major theologians of the... Read more
Can a Christian Politician Campaign as a Christian? by Allan Bevere By the title of this post I am not asking whether a Christian can campaign for office on some kind of Christian platform. The nature of my inquiry instead is given the rough and tumble and even nasty nature of the world of politics, can a politician who embraces Christian faith run a campaign that looks Christian in character? Many years ago, a parishioner of a church I was... Read more
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