From The New Theological Movement: A good example of someone’s theology overriding what the Bible says. Many will be shocked to discover that Pope St. Gregory the Great, together with all the doctors of the Church after him, expressly condemns the opinion that Our Savior, in his humanity, did not know all created truths including the day and the hour of the final judgment. This opinion, considered a heresy by the holy Pontiff (and by all the great theologians since... Read more
From the Shepherd’s Nook, by John Frye Jesus was the non-Bible Answer Man. He was asked, according to the Gospels, 183 questions and he answered only 3 of them. Usually Jesus responded to questions with his own questions. Jesus is notoriously known for telling down-to-earth stories that did not answer questions as much as provoke thinking. Jesus was not a direction-giver. Jesus was a discernment artist. He trusted people’s ability to hear his stories and reach some startling conclusions about... Read more
Any reading of the stories about Saul leads to a basic storyline: a handsome and gifted man, anointed by God as the first king of Israel, successful, odd, failure after failure, and my colleague, Claude Mariottini, proposes one reason for this man’s nightmare catastrophes — and we’ll get to it in just a moment. (We are reading his Rereading the Biblical Text.) Saul and the prophet Samuel had a rocky relationship, and clearly Samuel has more charisma and blessing from God.... Read more
This infographic by Play-i. Play-i is creating a programmable robot that teaches computer science to kids ages 5+ in a fun, accessible way. To get updates, sign up here. Read more
A new article appeared early in August – The Relation Between Intelligence and Religiosity: A Meta-Analysis and Some Proposed Explanations – published (as most articles are these days) online before print in Personality and Social Psychology Review. The authors analyzed 63 studies in the literature published over some 80 plus years (from 1928 to 2012). Because the studies analyzed are primarily western, most of the religious belief studied is Christian, although a few appear to look at Jewish individuals. The... Read more
Let us agree that one way of talking about evangelicalism is to speak to five themes: Bible, conversion, cross, evangelistic and social activism, and its focus on salvation. How did Dallas Willard fit into these major themes? This is the question Gary Black Jr asks in The Theology of Dallas Willard: Discovering Protoevangelical Faith. I cannot emphasize the value of this book enough: Dallas Willard was way ahead of the curve on many issues. Dallas left an imprint on each of... Read more
From Storyline: My recommendation for anybody writing a book? Here are 3 tips: 1. Don’t shower until you finish a chapter. Even if it takes days. Smell. Feel dirty. Poetry is heavy lifting. Nobody who reads your book will smell you so don’t worry about it. Lie to your readers. Make them think you were walking through a field smelling roses when you wrote that last chapter. Never let them know you smelled like a dog who came out of a... Read more
On Labor Day I ceased from my labors and read Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei (“The Light of Faith”), the first of Pope Francis’ encyclicals. This encyclical is sent to “the bishops, priests and deacons, men and women religious, and to the lay faithful.” Which means it is sent to most Catholics. It is an essay on faith. This encyclical, though sent by Pope Francis was originally drafted by Pope Benedict XVI, and was the third of his encyclicals on love (Caritas... Read more
From Mark Stevens: Cliff Kvidahl over at ‘Theological Musings’ has responded to a rather evocative post outlining ways in which one can spot a liberal seminary (See: Beware of the Liberals! Marcan Priority and Inspiration). I have to be honest and say I felt incredibly sad when I read “How to Spot a Liberal Seminary” According to the author, if a seminary holds to a belief that the whole Bible is anything other than the “plenary and verbally accurate” (i.e. as a whole... Read more
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