Review of Morgan Guyton, Part 2

Last updated on: April 17, 2016 at 11:05 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Chapter 7 of How Jesus Saves the World from Us, “Communion, not Correctness,” deals with the question of doctrinal orthodoxy. Morgan compares doctrine to a blues jam, in which there is a basic “orthodoxy”–a particular scale and set of chord progressions–but lots of freedom to improvise within this. Morgan illustrates his principle with examples of his own practice, following the usage of local churches even on points where he might not agree. So, for instance, he says “Our Mother and Our... Read more

Review of Morgan Guyton, How Jesus Saves the World from Us (part 1)

Last updated on: April 12, 2016 at 11:27 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Christianity does not have a good reputation among non-Christians in contemporary America and Western Europe. For that reason, a large number of Christians find it hard to describe themselves as Christians without disclaimers: “I’m not one of those Christians”–those people for whom a “Christian worldview” is identical with right-wing Republican politics, for whom Christian morality primarily means disapproving of other people’s sex lives, and for whom “salvation” means a private legal transaction with Jesus which enables one to escape hell.... Read more

Is the falsifiability of Christian claims a conclusive argument for Christianity?

Last updated on: March 21, 2016 at 1:44 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

This article argues that it is, but I think the argument is pretty much bunk. Christians do indeed make specific historical claims, but that’s only proof of Christianity if you start with the premise that religions should do that. It isn’t true that Buddhism is non-falsifiable. Buddhism claims to be a means leading to peace of mind and freedom from the inner suffering that arises from selfish desire. If you practice the Buddhist way for a period of time and... Read more

Further thoughts on Isaiah

Last updated on: March 20, 2016 at 9:42 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

I have now finished reading through Isaiah in Hebrew (I did this quite a while ago, actually, and have been making heavy work of Jeremiah so far, what with more goats to milk and the garden picking up and articles to write for Christian History). In my earlier post I wrote about the language of creation and chaos in “Second” Isaiah and how it connects to the book’s critique of Babylonian idolatry. But there’s another cluster of language that struck... Read more

Shaped by a Tangle of Stories

Last updated on: March 12, 2016 at 4:14 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

I haven’t posted for a while because I’ve been working on articles on the Reformation for the next Christian History issue, among other things. Here is a piece I wrote the other day on religion and myth for the Public Square at Patheos. Read more

James Payton, Part 2

Last updated on: January 29, 2016 at 1:46 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Chapter 7 of Payton’s Getting the Reformation Wrong focuses on the Anabaptists and other radical groups. His main point here seems to be to establish the diversity of 16th-century Anabaptism and to explain why both Catholics and mainstream Protestants found them so threatening. Payton’s emphasis on diversity is in keeping with scholarship in the past 50 years, and is certainly something non-specialists need to hear, but he carries it too far. Menno Simons and what would become mainstream Anabaptism get only... Read more

Review of James Payton, Getting the Reformation Wrong, part 1

Last updated on: January 23, 2016 at 12:46 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

James Payton’s 2010 book Getting the Reformation Wrong has a provocative title (one I would love to have used myself). Much of the book, in fact, is simply a summary of modern scholarship on the Reformation, but as the title indicates, one major reason Payton wrote the book is to address what he regards as common misunderstandings about the Reformation. Payton’s list isn’t quite the same as mine, and there are places where I disagree with his take on the Reformation... Read more

Letter of Melanchthon to Brenz, May 1531

Last updated on: January 23, 2016 at 12:19 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

I translated this letter some years ago for Dave Armstrong, who had cited parts of it from Hartmann Grisar. This led to a debate between me and Dave on whether Dave and Grisar were overstating its implications for Protestant appeals to patristic authority and the question of how respectful the Protestant Reformers were of the Church Fathers. Dave posted the letter on his site, together with responses by him to some of my criticisms of his original use of the... Read more

Isaiah, chaos, and idolatry (with a concluding peroration about Muslims)

Last updated on: January 20, 2016 at 4:57 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

I’ve been reading through the Bible in Hebrew for many years now, and I’m just over half way through. In the Jewish ordering of the canon, that means that I’m getting toward the end of Isaiah. I’ve made my way through the marvelous chapters 40-55 and am now up to chap. 60. One of the things I enjoy about reading Hebrew is the rich word play that the authors engage in, particularly in poetic texts such as Isaiah (though there’s... Read more

Progressive revelation in the OT: A response to Jonathan Huddleston

Last updated on: January 2, 2016 at 4:48 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Jonathan Huddleston, an old and dear friend of mine who is an OT scholar, has challenged the picture of OT revelation that I gave (somewhat tangentially) in my last post. Here are his comments as posted on Facebook (reproduced with his permission), followed by my response: In what was almost a tangent from his main point, Edwin took some time to portray a thumbnail sketch of the OT revelation that simply doesn’t agree with what I learned during my OT... Read more