December 17, 2012

The Almost Completely Unknown Difference that Makes All the Difference (between Christians and Culture and between Christians and Christians) We talk endlessly about differences among Christians: Catholic versus Protestant, Calvinist versus Arminian, liberal versus conservative, neo-fundamentalist versus postconservative, premillennial versus amillennial, pedobaptist versus credobaptist—to name just a few of our favorite divisions. But over the past few years I have become convinced there’s one deeper difference that is largely unrecognized and runs deeper than all those others. Yet, to the... Read more

December 15, 2012

So, once again we are saddened by the tragic mass shooting of innocent men, women and children. This time, apparently, from news reports, twenty children under 12. Are we becoming jaded by the frequency of the horror? I fear I am. I wish it were not so. I suspect many of us are beginning to put these school and mall and movie theater shootings in the category of the normal. Not that we think there’s anything good about them, but... Read more

December 14, 2012

Kudos to Courageous Columnist Kathleen Parker Two of my favorite female pundits are Kathleen Parker and Maureen Dowd. Both write syndicated columns for major American newspapers and speak from a woman’s perspective on contemporary social and political issues. I enjoy reading them because they are both informed, generally reliable (on the facts), rhetorically pleasing (clear, crisp, provocative), and courageous. More often than not I agree with Dowd on political issues and disagree with her on social issues and especially gender... Read more

December 12, 2012

The Positive Power of Negative Thinking Years ago I saw one of those one frame cartoons in a magazine like The New Yorker. Perhaps it was The New Yorker. I’ve forgotten now. It so humorously depicted my personality, at least as seen by others, that I decided to put it on my office door. It’s been three for many years now—at two different universities. The cartoon is minimal. It simply shows two stereotypical monk-like figures holding signs. Anyone who knows... Read more

December 10, 2012

A Modest Proposal for an Ideal Social Order What a subject! And such a task! The enormity of it is overwhelming, so all I intend to do here is give a bare bones, that is skeletal, outline of what I regard as the ideal social order. It draws on what I understand to be the social principles of the Kingdom of God tempered by present realities. Thus, this vision assumes an “already but not yet” idea of the Kingdom. For... Read more

December 7, 2012

A Must Read: Plantinga’s Gifford Lectures: Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, & Naturalism Recently I wrote about a long forgotten and neglected theology book that has fortunately been taken out of the “cemetery of forgotten books” and republished (Adrio König’s Here Am I!) right now I am about half way through a book that should never suffer that fate (and need such a resurrection). Well known Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga delivered Gifford Lectures at St. Andrews University in... Read more

December 5, 2012

Good News! A Wonderful Theological Book Gets a New Lease on Life Recently I’ve been listening (on my ipod) to a trilogy of novels by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game and The Prisoner of Heaven). One especially interesting feature of all three is the (Zafon-created) mythical “Cemetery of Forgotten Books” that lies mostly unknown in Barcelona, Spain. Only a few initiates know of its existence. The “cemetery” is a gothic labyrinth-library that... Read more

December 1, 2012

Some Musings about Worship as Gift and Task Before presenting my musings, let me issue a caveat that I always assume, but many people who visit here seem not to understand. These blog posts are my musings. I don’t regard them as carved in stone, deep theological conclusions such as I might publish in a book or even an article for, say, Christianity Today or Christian Century. Some people who come seem to expect me to provide proof for everything... Read more

November 29, 2012

Here is a link to an interview. Frank Viola is a well-known and influential “beyond evangelical” author: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankviola/rogerolson/ Read more

November 28, 2012

When Did We Open The Pandora’s Box of Theological/Doctrinal Pluralism? Recently, as occasionally in the past, I’ve been reading a lot of liberation theology. Or perhaps it should be “liberation theologies.” I use that term somewhat loosely; not everything that usually comes under that category heading is regarded as such by its adherents. I’m not sure what better label covers all the diverse special interest theologies that claim an experience of oppression as one of, if not the major, source... Read more


Browse Our Archives