And Now…More about Trump’s Vile Comments about Other Countries I rarely compose an entire post responding to commenters, but this time I feel a prophetic compulsion to do so. First, many of you who jumped to defend Trump in response to my most recent blog post (about his calling certain other countries than the U.S. “sh*thole countries”) often missed my point entirely. It was not aimed at Trump’s presidency as a whole or even his politics or policies. And it... Read more

Jesus was a citizen of a “sh*thole country” if there ever was one. Read more

Too many Christians have given up the traditional concept that God created everything outside himself “ex nihilo”—“out of nothing.” Read more

This is a trend growing exponentially—local congregations being “led” (that is, looking to) a Christian speaker (pastor, evangelist) far away who hardly knows they exist. Read more

2018 marks the 25th anniversary of one of the most horrific tragedies in recent American history. Read more

Why Become Roman Catholic? A Response to Christian Smith and Others Don’t get me wrong; I have great respect for sociologist Christian Smith and many others who have converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. The history of this goes back a long way; I can remember when Gordon College English professor Thomas Howard converted. Then came Peter Kreeft and many, many others. I have had excellent, bright, very evangelical students who have converted to the Church of Rome—from so-called mainline... Read more

One thing my study of the history of Christian thought has taught me is never to predict the future of Christianity. Read more

America itself should now be viewed as a mission field. Read more

Is There a Valid “Ethics of Distress?” Thoughts about Philosopher-Theologian Paul Ricoeur I am often amazed at how swiftly extremely creative and influential intellectuals and their works are forgotten. Who talks or writes about Paul Ricoeur (d. 2005) anymore? And yet, during the 1970s (and before and after) he was widely considered by Europeans and North Americans especially one of the foremost Christian thinkers. He was one of those rare intellectuals who inhabited a borderland between philosophy and theology and... Read more

Against Creedalism: Why I am a “Confessing Christian” but not a Creedal Christian My immediately preceding blog post (“Can Authentic Christianity Exist without Cognitive Truth Claims [Doctrines]?”) argued that authentic Christian unity cannot exist without shared cognitive truth claims (doctrines). I did not go into detail about which cognitive truth claims are necessary for true Christian unity because I have done that here several times before. My only purpose there was to argue that experience of God is not enough... Read more