As usual, my musings here are primarily about the larger evangelical community. Catholics and so-called “mainline Protestants” can listen in and exchange ideas, but my thoughts here are primarily about how we evangelicals should handle fallen leaders. It seems every year another well-known evangelical personality is exposed as having clay feet (or worse). I’m going to avoid naming names here because I have no interest in participating in the feeding frenzy that follows such exposures–and often lasts for years. Most... Read more

Review of Apostles of Reason by Molly Worthen Part Two Before reading this you should have read Part One which was posted earlier. Each installment of this three part review focuses on one of the three parts of the book. This one focuses on Part II: To Evangelize the World. In Part II Worthen continues to hit the right notes. Here is how she ends this Part and Chapter 7 “Renewing the Church Universal”: “By the final decade of the... Read more

A serious health problem (not my own) has required an interruption of my reading and reviewing of Apostles of Reason. I’ll get back to that as soon as possible. Please stay tuned… In the meantime, I’d like to reflect here briefly on the frustrations of a blogger trying (often unsuccessfully) to be clear. Let me use my recent post about “Why I Am Not a Process Theologian” as an example. Many (!) commenters have misunderstood my intention there. I thought... Read more

Review of Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism by Molly Worthen (Oxford University Press) Part One This review will appear in three parts corresponding with the three parts of the book. This first installment covers the book’s introduction and Part I: Knights Inerrant. (Feel free to skip the first nine paragraphs which are autobiographical. The review of Worthen’s book actually begins with paragraph ten.) I admit to having a weakness for books about evangelicalism. Evangelicalism is... Read more

Is American Becoming a Police State? A few months ago I was having a discussion with a group of very socially conscious, highly intelligent graduate students who read widely and deeply in social and political ethics. Somehow the question whether America could ever become a police state came up. One student perceptively asked “How would we know?” What he meant was, how would we know if we were in a police state? Do most people who live in police states... Read more

Why I Am Not a Process Theologian Lutheran theologian Robert Jenson once quipped that the only thing wrong with process theology is that it is such an attractive alternative to Christian faith. I agree. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying people who believe in process theology cannot be Christians. Lots of people are Christians whose theology is profoundly messed up. Maybe the majority of Christians’ theology is profoundly messed up! What I am saying is that insofar as... Read more

Dispelling a Delusion about the Subjunctive Mood (Why Saying I Would Not Worship God If…Is Not Insulting to God) Ever since I said here that if God were the God described by TULIP and the God of divine determinism, the author of sin and evil, I would not worship him I have been besieged by critics who suffer under the delusion that I said something about God—something demeaning to God’s glorious transcendence (etc.). The same happens when I say if... Read more

Explaining Calvinism to Calvinists (and Others) One surprising feature of the new Calvinist movement is that so many claim to be Calvinists but have not studied Calvinism thoroughly. Nothing shows that more clearly than the responses offered here to my critique of the Calvinist pastor who prays that his son be “among the elect.” Many Calvinists simply do not understand Calvinism. I, as an Arminian, understand it better than they do. And right now, here, I am not talking about... Read more

Earlier here I expressed dismay at the media hype about the election of a new pope and said that he is not “my pope.” I was not excited about the election of a new pope–as were some Protestants I know. It didn’t even particularly interest me. To me, the Roman Catholic Church is just a denomination. It’s a big one, admittedly, but it’s just a denomination and I’m not part of it. And yet, some media talking heads and pundits... Read more

Response to W. Stephen Gunter, Arminius and His Declaration of Sentiments and Keith D. Stanglin and Thomas H. McCall, Jacob Arminius: Theologian of Grace Roger E. Olson             These two books are significant contributions to what I call the “Arminian Renaissance” in contemporary theology. For centuries Arminius’s theology and Arminianism have been defined by their critics, mostly in the Reformed camp. The best thing I heard a traditional Reformed theologian say about Arminius was “He was a heretic, but he... Read more