A Look Back and a Look Forward: 2015 and 2016 2015 was a year of much activity for me; I appreciate all the opportunities to speak and write—to say nothing of to be with family and friends. I look forward with eager anticipation to 2016 and the opportunities it will bring. I am going to focus on professional activities here. 2015 began with a trip to my home town of Sioux Falls, South Dakota to speak to a class at... Read more

Christianity’s Greatest Enemy Christianity’s greatest enemy is not atheism. Nor is it Islam or any other religion. Nor is it secularism. Nor is it immorality in culture. No, Christianity’s greatest enemy is—complacency. A few months ago an acquaintance struck up a conversation about my blog and mentioned that he thought I must “like stirring the pot.” Yes, I confess that I do. But not for the sake of stirring the pot itself. The point of stirring the pot, so to... Read more

Yesterday (December 29, 2015) I was driving in the Hill Country west of Austin, Texas and saw a Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Although I have never attended one, I have had students from that denomination. And I once had an acquaintance who briefly served as the dean of their seminary. What especially interests me about this denomination is its difference from other Presbyterian denominations. And I know a fair amount about Presbyterianism. Not only have a I studied it as a... Read more

Dear Beloved Grandson, Be afraid. Be very afraid. You shouldn’t have to be, but in today’s America you need to be constantly on your guard. Or maybe “afraid” isn’t the right word. Be vigilant and very careful. Especially around police. Wait. Don’t hate police; not all of them are your enemies. But given the plethora of police attacks, using deadly force, on black boys and men, be vigilant around them. And that means be vigilant whenever you are out in... Read more

Do All Atheists Deny the Same God? Recently here (December, 2015) I have discussed the controversial question whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God and the not-so-controversial question (that perhaps should be controversial) whether all Christians worship the same God. Now I’ll turn to a question I’ve never heard asked but interests me and I think should interest all thinking people. Do all atheists deny the same God? First of all, let’s carefully examine the concept of “atheism.” The... Read more

Denomination of the Week: The Church with No Name (The Truth/Two By Twos) I have had a nearly lifelong fascination with this denomination (which, like many, does not consider itself a denomination). Scholars of American religion often call this the largest single house church movement in North America although no outsider knows how large it actually is. Certainly the denomination’s members do not consider it a “secret” organization, but one of its attractions to scholars and students of American religion... Read more

Do All Christians Worship the Same God? This question is stimulated by the current (2015) controversy over evangelical Wheaton College’s (Illinois) suspension of a political science professor allegedly for saying publicly that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. (I blogged about that issue and the question at its center here recently.) The question whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God must be parsed out into two distinct questions—even after it is complicated by observance of the diversity among... Read more

Gems of Wisdom from Emil Brunner: Transcendence and Free Decision Emil Brunner (d. 1966) is one of my favorite theologians. In fact, I like him better than Karl Barth; he’s much clearer than Barth. Reading and studying Brunners Dogmatics in seminary liberated me from fundamentalism and kept me firmly grounded in Pietism (but of a “higher order”). Brunner was part of the “dialectical” movement in theology that reacted to liberal Protestantism without adopting fundamentalism. When I read him again and... Read more

Okay, what’s a blog for if not once in a while using it to complain about annoying, disturbing, troubling events? I know many readers will disagree with me and think these complaints only reflect my personal pet peeves. Of course, I don’t think so. I think we should all be troubled by them, but I know well not everyone will agree. And they’re not earth-shattering events. But they illustrate trends I find troubling and problematic for our Christianity and culture.... Read more

Here We Go Again: An Evangelical Controversy over Whether “Christians” and “Muslims” Worship the Same God About one year ago I posted my response to that controversial question here. I re-post it below this lead-in paragraph. According to Christianity Today (on line article entitled “Wheaton College Suspends Hijab-Wearing Professor after ‘Same God’ Comment, December 15, 2015) evangelical Wheaton College (Illinois) has suspended, not fired, African-American, female professor Larycia Hawkins (political science) for claiming that Muslims and Christians worship the same... Read more