A Rare, Good Television “Sitcom”: “Grinder” (Fox TV) Holds Up a Mirror that Should Make Us Ashamed (Or at Least Embarrassed) Yes, I know, someone will tell me I watch too much television. My only defenses? First, I still accomplish quite a lot! (Try arguing with me about that and I’ll show you my curriculum vitae.) Second, it helps me keep in touch with popular culture. Students watch television. Just the other evening, in a class on “modern theology,” a... Read more

Getting to the Bottom of Thinking: There Is No “View from Nowhere” (And an Illustration from Differing Beliefs about God) When I encounter disagreement about which I care, I attempt to “dig down” to rock bottom presuppositions and work up from there. Often, disagreements over philosophical-theological issues have to do with presuppositions. Many years ago I began to think about philosophical-theological (and I might add social-political and ethical) disagreements in terms of governing, even driving, presuppositions. One of my own... Read more

“Should A Christian Ever Act As If God Does Not Exist? (With A View toward Faith-Learning Integration)” Samford University Holley-Hull Lecture October 8, 2015 Roger E. Olson About two years ago I became acquainted with sociologist of religion Peter Berger who is a distinguished visiting professor at Baylor University. Of course I have known of Berger for many years and was actually a bit surprised when he called me and invited me to lunch. He was on campus teaching a... Read more

Why I Still Call Myself “Evangelical” In Spite of Everything or Evangelicalism Is Dead; Long Live Evangelicalism Roger E. Olson Prelude: This is the talk I would have given had I been invited to speak at the 2001 conference “Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail” which I attended at Beeson Divinity School. It’s a bit updated, but essentially the same as what I would have said there and then. I gave it in chapel/convocation at Samford University as part of the... Read more

I delivered this talk at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama as part of the annual Holley-Hull Lecture Series on Wednesday, October 7. (The other lectures were at Samford University.)   A Relational View of God’s Sovereignty Roger E. Olson My office phone rang and I answered it. A stern voice said “Is this Roger Olson?” who which I confessed. The man introduced himself as pastor of Baptist church in the state, implying that he was a constituent of... Read more

Outrageous “Justification” of Shooting of Black Child in Cleveland, Ohio According to an Associated Press news report by Mitch Stacy (Sunday, October 11, 2015) two consultants to the Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Prosecutor’s office have declared the November, 2014 shooting of twelve year old African-American boy Tamir Rice by a “rookie patrolman” “justified.” I saw the video of this shooting on network television news—several times. I’m sure if you search for it on the internet you can see it for yourself.... Read more

This is a talk I gave to a group of outstanding students at Samford University October 7 (2015)–part of the Holley-Hull Lecture series I delivered there that week. I will post other lectures of the series over the next week. Why (High) Calvinism Is Impossible In one of his sermons against Calvinism, Methodist founder John Wesley famously remarked about the Calvinist interpretation of Romans 9 that “Whatever it means, it cannot mean that.” I think many people, especially committed Calvinists,... Read more

This week (October 6-9, 2015) I’ve had the privilege of delivering the annual Holly-Hull Lectures at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Several people asked me about receiving copies of my lectures and I promised to put those here. I’ll do that over the next week–one at a time. Others may find them interesting as well. I spoke about God’s “relational sovereignty,” what I mean when I call myself “evangelical,” and faith-learning integration. I also spoke to a small group of... Read more

One of the most famous questions ever asked in public of a public person was U.S. Army counsel Joseph Welch’s question to Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954 during McCarthy’s anti-communist witch hunt in Congress. In total disgust Welch asked McCarthy “At long last, Senator, have you no sense of decency?” This was an example of what I call public shaming for ethical misconduct that does not violate the law. Sometimes I wonder if we need more of that. Too often,... Read more

Discussion of Scot McKnight’s Kingdom Conspiracy: Returning to the Radical Mission of the Local Church Part Four A week and some days ago I invited you to read Kingdom Conspiracy (Brazos Press, 2014) along with me and participate in a discussion of it here. Hopefully you have obtained the book by now and are prepared to participate as you wish. I am offering my thoughts about the book in several response posts over a few weeks. This is Part Four... Read more