Today, after a brief hiatus, we conclude Denis Lamoureux’s series of brief slideshows on his popular book I Love Jesus & I Accept Evolution. The previous slidshow is here, and all slideshows previous to that can be found here. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this series, as I know many of you have too, and I’m sorry to see it end. Today’s post covers chapter 7 of his book and is entitled “Putting Origins in Perspective.” That chapter comprises 7 wrap up points,... Read more
Ours is the generation of parents who hover over our children to help insulate them from failure and insure their “success” in life. But, as the previous generation’s parents will tell us, good parenting isn’t about plugging in the right coordinates to insure children arrive at the right spot, or protecting them from failure and pain that come with growth, or arranging their environment so that it all works out for them. Good parenting is preparing children to figure things... Read more
Today is July 4th, and, being independent of oppressive British rule, I chose today, as a free man, to bring to your attention an informative, learned, but utterly readable book published this spring (IVP) and edited by Scot McKnight and by my colleague at Eastern University, Joe Modica: Jesus Is Lord, Caesar Is Not: Evaluating Empire in New Testament Studies. This book assembles essays from 10 scholars for the purpose of describing and evaluating “empire criticism.” The essays address those parts... Read more
I just learned that The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins has won the gold medal for the 2012 ForeWord Review Book of the Year Award in Religion (Adult Nonfiction). This is a great honor, and reflects months of hard work I put in to bribing judges and hacking the voting system. If I am correct, I believe the next step is to make the book into a major motion picture featuring Justin Bieber... Read more
Over at Respectful Conversation, Harold Heie is continuing his series “American Evangelicalism: Present Conditions, Future Possibilities.” This month’s topic is “Evangelicalism and the Modern Study of Scripture.” My contribution to this topic is “Historical Criticism and Evangelicalism: An Uneasy Relationship. The purpose of this post is to offer a constructive description of the nature of this uneasy relationship. Here are three snippets. Scripture’s function in evangelicalism is to lay down the basic map of Christian thought and practice, what we... Read more
Before there was a New Testament, the Bible of the first Christians (the writers of the New Testament and the early Church) was a Greek translation of the Old Testament. The general term used to designate that translation is “Septuagint.” Think about that: the Old Testament of the New Testament writers and of the early Church was a translation–and an imperfect one at that. You’d think, at key moment of God’s self-disclosure, the gospel of Jesus Christ, God would have worked... Read more
This question came to mind a few weeks ago as I was sitting in church, thinking more highly of myself than I should. This isn’t a new question, by any means, but it’s still a deeply meaningful and relevant question for me. Upon what does God look more favorably: loving others, even those who may believe differently, or prioritizing right thinking about God? Now, you veterans of this sort of question are no doubt rolling your eyes right now, wondering... Read more
Today we have an interview with Dr. Christopher M. Hays (DPhil, University of Oxford), who, along with Christopher B. Ansberry, has edited Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism. Hays and Ansberry have brought together a dozen evangelical scholars to tackle some of the more vexing challenges of historical criticism—such as Adam, unfulfilled prophecy, the historical Jesus—and analyze their impact on Christian beliefs. A common theme in evangelicalism is that the conclusions of historical criticism dissolves the foundations of faith. Avoiding the... Read more
Today’s post is an interview with Ed Cyzewski (MDiv, Biblical Theological Seminary), author of Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life (NavPress). This book is an introduction to contextual theology, i.e., to “help the reader understand, shape, and live out practical Christian theology in the postmodern context” (from the book’s webpage), rather than seeing honest questions as a threat and quick answers as a necessity. Cyzewski works as a freelance writer in Ohio. He blogs at www.inamirrordimly.com, has authored several other books, and is currently working... Read more
Adjunct, underemployed, and otheremployed professors have it tough. You’ve put in a lot of years into studying and want all your effort–and family sacrifices–to mean something. You make far less than you are worth, and it’s demoralizing and scary. (For earlier posts on this general topic, see here, here, here, here, and here.) But…. You also have something that many of the “conventionally-employed” do not have: You have a far greater degree of freedom of thought and expression because you... Read more
Peter Enns
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In