There was a humorous moment in Sunday school this week when, in a discussion of the Baptist principle of “soul freedom”, someone read from the American Baptist identity statement. In this statement which, when printed out runs about 3 pages, and is clearly longer than the Nicene Creed, we encountered the phrase “We accept no humanly devised confession or creed as binding.” And that seemed to cover the “creed” that was being read from – a creed that negates the... Read more

New Humanist draws attention to a poll in the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph indicating that Jesus was the top dead person that those surveyed would like to meet if they had the chance, chosen by 1/3 of those polled. No one seems to have noticed that, for conservative Christians at the very least, and for many moderate to liberal Christians as well, Jesus is not considered a dead person! I find myself wondering how many of those who answered... Read more

Two blogs today revisited the television show LOST, including mention of some of its religious themes and overtones. Since I have (as always) been pondering its mysteries, I thought I would join in the conversation. The show has, from the very first episode, been gearing up to explore a mythology in which two sides are playing a game. In the finale of last season, we finally got to meet the players, and their clothing symbolized what we were led to... Read more

Beholding His GloryA sermon by James F. McGrathPreached at Crooked Creek Baptist Church, IndianapolisJune 7th 2009 The Gospel of John has been compared to a magic pool in which small children can wade up to their ankles, while at the same time large elephants can dive right into it. Its language is plain and familiar: light and darkness, love, world, Word – and of course glory, which will be a focus in today’s sermon. Yet if we dig beneath the... Read more

Neil Godfrey, on his blog Vridar, has engaged some of what I’ve written about Joseph of Arimathea in The Burial of Jesus. I may try to continue the interaction at some point (particularly having just discussed a book that challenges the classic criteria of authenticity), but for the moment, I just wanted to draw attention to his post and invite readers to pay a visit over there! Read more

The long-awaited humorous recap of the season finale of LOST is now available. Enjoy! lost untangled finale season5by lyly_ford Read more

Dale Allison’s recent book The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus is simply fantastic. It refuses to separate unnecessarily matters of history and faith, yet neither does it run them together in ways that are inappropriate. It refuses to simply take for granted the assumptions of either conservatives or liberals, challenging many of our basic assumptions about history and historical methodology as well. I highly recommend it. Allison begins by reviewing the history of Christian thinkers’ awareness of discrepancies and... Read more

“The primary questions people pose—Why the universe? Does God exist?—are important, sure, but they are not bedrock fundamental. “Why anything at all?” is the ultimate question.” — Robert Lawrence Kuhn, “Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?” Religion and Science Today Read more

As a Liberal Christian who has been a vocal opponent of young-earth creationists, cdesign proponentsists and other pseudoscientific movements both on my blog and in the classroom, I can only respond to Jason Rosenhouse’s recent post on the incompatibility of science and religion as follows: “Huh?!” The point of emphasizing the compatibility of religious beliefs and science doesn’t have anything to do with Liberal Christians, except to the extent that Liberal Christians are usually people who already embrace the findings... Read more