It is an unfortunate fact that the institutional autonomy of the different academic disciplines makes the modern research university an almost perfect hothouse for the generation of vast intellectual enterprises whose worth as engines for the discovery of truth is principally in the eyes of their own practitioners. http://www.torahmusings.com/2014/05/open-orthodoxy/ Read more

The assertion that 97% of scientists believe that climate change is a man-made, urgent problem is a fiction. The so-called consensus comes from a handful of surveys and abstract-counting exercises that have been contradicted by more reliable research. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303480304579578462813553136 Read more

Gerald McDermott has been prosecuting a case against a certain version of evangelical theology over the past few years (see here and here). His fundamental point is the need to recover the Great Tradition within Evangelicalism and thus to read scripture in and through the lens of the church spread out through time. To fail to read scripture in this way, according to McDermott, is to hold to nuda scriptura in which the interpretation of scripture is reduced to the... Read more

After joining a controversial lobby group critical of climate change, meteorologist Lennart Bengtsson claims he was shunned by colleagues, leading him to quit. Some scientists complain pressure to conform to consensus opinion has become a serious hindrance in the field. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/climate-scientists-mixed-over-controversy-surrounding-respected-researcher-a-971033.html#ref=rss Read more

I think the Israeli PM has more truth on his side than the pope, on this question. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/26/uk-pope-holyland-jesus-idUKKBN0E618X20140526 Read more

This is one of the most remarkable videos you will ever see. It is a speech in England by a gutsy young Palestinian woman from Bethlehem. It is like nothing you have ever seen or heard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzCAqXrBGtU Read more

Some people would like me and the millions of Americans who continue to believe that marriage is what societies have believed it to be throughout human history — a male-female union — to get with the program and accept the inevitable. We’re clearly, they tell us, on the Wrong Side of History. But we should avoid the temptation to prognosticate about the future in lieu of working to shape that future. We are citizens in a self-governing society, not pundits... Read more

Melanie Phillips The pope’s imminent visit to Israel will rightly attract much attention; but 2 largely untold stories about global Christianity have the capacity to shake the world order. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/As-I-See-It-Israels-new-Christian-friends-353115 Read more

“Christian Zionism: Is it bad theology? Is it unethical?” Speaker: Yours truly When: 6:30 PM, Sunday, May 25 Where: St John Lutheran, 4608 Brambleton Ave., Roanoke, VA Read more

The University of Notre Dame is unwilling to bear an “uncompromising witness,” as Pope Francis challenged it to do, to the moral truths of marriage and sexuality. This is a subtle but certain pastoral failure on the university’s part. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2014/05/13197/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&utm_campaign=4240749299-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-4240749299-84107317 Read more