My Review of the Television Drama Series “Madam Secretary” I watch only a few television series regularly. Most are, in my opinion, a total waste of time. Television is, in my opinion, by-and-large, what one television critic called “a vast wasteland” (Newton Minow, 1961) With more viewing options has come very little real improvement. I have a very low opinion of television programming in general and yet I feel the need to watch select shows to keep up with popular... Read more

  Dear blog friends: Below you will find my review of the movie “The Shack” preceded by a “viewer guide” to the movie. I wrote these for InterVarsity Press which published my book “Finding God in ‘The Shack'” in 2009. This viewer guide and review was first posted on their web site together with the information about my book. May I just say that I am very disappointed in some evangelical Christians’ responses to both the book and the movie;... Read more

Follow Up to My Blog Post about the Transgender Controversy My most recent blog post here was about the contemporary controversy over the use of locker rooms and restrooms by people transitioning from one gender or sex to another. Please do NOT read this follow up post without first reading the immediately preceding one; especially do not comment on this one without first reading that one. Normally I include in my blog posts some caveats, some disclaimers, some warnings—to avoid... Read more

Is There Any Solution to the Transgender Controversy? According to numerous news reports and other media items, many Americans are concerned about transgender persons and restrooms. Much of the controversy, however, seems based on confusion and, in my opinion, the media stories have not helped. Let’s begin with a basic distinction between “gender” and “sex.” Gender is a social construct not necessarily tied to biology or physiology. Sex is a biological and physiological category. In other words, as everyone knows,... Read more

Reality: Code or Narrative?   The following is a guest post by one of my most faithful and constructive blog discussion partners. I invited Luke to compose a guest post and this is the first one. Possibly others will follow. Please know that I will not be responding to comments regarding this post; Luke can respond to any as he wishes. However, please do not respond unless you have a question (which may or may not be answered) and/or a... Read more

My immediately preceding post here mentioned my forthcoming movie viewers guide and review of the new movie “The Shack.” They are now available for your reading pleasure (hopefully) at: https://www.ivpress.com/finding-god-in-the-shack Please copy and paste that URL into your web browser. Then, once the page appears (it may take a few seconds) go to “Related Info” and click on that. Roger Olson Read more

Finding God in “The Shack” Yesterday I viewed the new movie “The Shack” which is based on the 2007 book of the same title by William Paul Young. (If you have seen the movie you know why I chose the above image to go along with this post.) I have been looking forward to the movie with both excitement and trepidation. My main fear was that it would omit the heavy theological message of the book. It did not, although... Read more

Was Pope Francis Wrong about Islam? According to many news reports, Pope Francis made some off-the-cuff remarks to reporters about Islam. The “gist” of this informal talk—not a papal pronouncement—was that there is no such thing as “Islamic Terrorism” unless there is also such a thing as “Christian terrorism.” This conversation took place aboard the papal airplane on the pope’s way back to Rome after a special event in France in late 2016. (The precise date does not matter here.)... Read more

Can a Bridge Be Built between the Christian Political Ethics of Reinhold Niebuhr and Stanley Hauerwas? Part Two The Currie-Strickland Distinguished Lectures in Christian Ethics Howard Payne University 2017 Roger E. Olson In Part One of this two-part lecture series I explained my love for both Reinhold Niebuhr and Stanley Hauerwas and my agreement with both of their general approaches to Christian ethics. For those of you who were not there I will briefly summarize the main points of that... Read more

Preface: These two lectures–one posted today (Monday, Feb. 27, 2017) and the other to be posted later this week–were delivered at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas on Feb. 23 and 24 of this year (2017). I promised to post them here partly because some people were only able to hear one of the two lectures and they do constitute one lecture in two parts. “Can a Bridge Be Built between the Christian Political Ethics of Reinhold Niebuhr and Stanley... Read more