Some Memories of Stanley J. Grenz and His Theological Journey   My friend and co-author Stan Grenz died almost ten years ago. He was only fifty-five years old and in the prime of his career as a teacher and profession as a Christian theologian. He had published over twenty-five books and scores of articles. He was working on a multi-volume theology with the overarching title of The Matrix of Christian Theology. During the last decade of his life Stan had... Read more

Two Forthcoming Books about Pietism     Reclaiming Pietism: Retrieving an Evangelical Tradition by Roger E. Olson and Christian T. Collins Winn will be published in January by Eerdmans. The Pietist Vision of Christian Higher Education: Forming Whole and Holy Persons edited by Christopher Gehrz will be published in January by InterVarsity Press. See Amazon.com for details.   These two books emerge out of a decades-long project at Bethel University in Minnesota where I taught (1984-1999) and where Christian and... Read more

Some time ago here I mentioned my favorite Christian philosopher: Keith Ward. It isn’t that I agree with everything he says. He’s my favorite because he is basically orthodox and writes so clearly–for those of us not trained in (for example) modal logic. (I’m not suggesting he doesn’t know or use modal logic; I only mean many of his books are free of technical apparatus and yet profoundly insightful and challenging.) Lately I’ve been reading his book God: A Guide... Read more

Thoughts about the Role of Experience in Theology: Part Two (With Special Reference to Friedrich Schleiermacher and Stanley J. Grenz)   Paraphrasing Kant, theology without experience is empty; experience without theology is blind. Empty of what? What would theology without experience (if that were even possible) be empty of? Transforming power and relevance. That spiritual experience without theology is blind is less controversial—especially among conservative theologians. I have defended that thesis here before. The background to this two-part series is... Read more

Thoughts about the Role of Experience in Theology: Part One   I have long thought that experience does and should play a role in Christian theology, but I have also long known that’s controversial, especially among conservative Christian theologians, and that it’s difficult to define. That is, it’s difficult to pin down exactly what role experience plays and how much of a role it should play in theological reflection and especially doctrinal formulation. I think pure objectivity is a myth;... Read more

Remembering and Honoring Evangelical Theologian Stanley J. Grenz (and Responding to Conservative Evangelical Criticisms of His Theology)   I have returned from the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature where about ten thousand religion scholars convened in sunny San Diego, California. I was invited to read a paper in one session of the Evangelical Theology Group, a program unit of the AAR, about the theology of Stanley Grenz. Stan was my close friend and co-author.... Read more

Whenever I write about Calvinism, someone who considers himself a Calvinist accuses me of setting up and striking down a “strawman.” And others claim what I say about Calvinism does not apply to them. What to do? When I write about Calvinism, unless I say otherwise, I mean consistent, historical, classical Calvinism AS SET FORTH BY Calvin,  Owen, Edwards, Hodge, Boettner, Sproul and Piper and AS EXPRESSED in the Canons of Dort and the Westminster Confession of Faith. What I... Read more

The Ultimate Horror Story: Reflections on Stephen King’s New Novel Revival (Spoiler Alert)   I rarely read a Stephen King novel or any similar novel of the “horror” genre. They’re just not my “thing.” I’ve read a few of that genre that I thought were good, such as Ray Bradbury’s classic Something Wicked This Way Comes, but, for the most part, I don’t enjoy them. (The Bradbury novel, by the way, like many of his other books, contains deep philosophical... Read more

This is a follow-up to my immediately preceding post which contained my response to Peter Berger’s argument that Christians (and others) ought to internalize pluralism including secularity–alongside their Christian faith. In other words, Berger argues, Christians (and others) ought to act “as if God does not exist” in certain spheres of life because of modern pluralism. Both in the book (The Many Altars of Modernity) and in his talk Berger illustrated this claim by saying that an airline pilot flies... Read more

Below you will find my response to Peter Berger’s recently published book The Many Altars of Modernity: Toward a Paradigm for Religion in a Pluralist Age (DeGruyter, 2014). I read this response at a special event at Baylor University on Tuesday, November 18. Berger was there by Skype. (He was unable to travel to the event as originally planned due to health problems.) He spoke about his book and the research that led to it for about fifty minutes. The... Read more