Was Dietrich Bonhoeffer a Would-Be Assassin? We’re in the middle of another Dietrich Bonhoeffer renaissance. A new wave of interest in the German theologian is being lifted by new biographies and examinations of his theology. Everyone seems to want to claim Bonhoeffer for their own causes. This was the case, of course, in the 1960s when radical theologians such as John Robinson and Harvey Cox attempted to appropriate him for secular theologies. And it has happened every few years since.... Read more

The Ethics of Football This may be one of the most controversial blog posts I’ve written yet. Who in their right mind takes on football in America today? Especially while living in the most pro-football state in America? And yet, that is exactly what an ethicist should do—challenge sacred cows. No, not kill them, but challenge them. Attempt to get people to think reflectively, critically, about them. And certainly football is one of America’s most precious sacred cows. So why... Read more

During my career as a Christian theologian I have several times been accused of being either liberal or on the way to being liberal. The accusers clearly meant liberal as in “liberal theology”–not liberal politically (which I am). John Piper told me to my face that he perceived me as “on a liberal trajectory.” (I immediately pictured myself being shot out of a cannon like the stuntmen in the old circuses!) Most recently Gerald McDermott has claimed that I and... Read more

Case Studies in “Re-forming Orthodoxy” Of course, following one definition of “orthodoxy” nobody should “re-form” it. That definition is simply “right thinking” or “theological correctness.” If you’re convinced a doctrine is true and correct, then you wouldn’t want to re-form it. However, there are other definitions of “orthodoxy.” A common one is “what ought to be believed.” Closely linked with that is “established doctrine.” Every denomination has some idea, whether written or not, of what members ought to believe—established doctrine.... Read more

A Final Word (Hopefully) about the McDermott Article and My Alleged “Meliorism” If you have not read my two previous (and recent) blog posts about theologian Gerald McDermott’s article “The Emerging Divide in Evangelical Theology” (Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 56:2 [June 2013]) this third one will not make much sense to you. I urge you to read those first, if not the article itself. Since the second post, I have received many e-mails about the article and about... Read more

  A few months ago I posted some comments here about pitfalls in international adoptions. Here is a case study in three web sites. Even if you aren’t already interested in this issue, please take a look. Feel free to spread these links far and wide. http://www.speakoutaboutgivinghoperescuemission.blogspot.com/p/welcome.html https://rally.org/adoptivefamiliesneedhelp/donate http://speakoutaboutgivinghoperescuemission.blogspot.com/2013/09/witness-story-2-troy-and-tara-livesay.html Read more

Donald Bloesch was one of the most highly respected evangelical theologians for forty years. He was born in 1928 and died in 2010. He wrote numerous books–all considered within the mainstream of American evangelical thought (except perhaps by fundamentalists). True, he studied with Karl Barth and was influenced by him, but he was always irenically critical of Barth–especially his “objectivism” of salvation (that left personal decision out of the equation) and his tendency to divide the Word of God from... Read more

What Should a Pastor Say to a Group of Boys? A friend who is youth pastor at a “mainline” Protestant church has invited me to speak with the boys of his youth group. Fortunately, the youth pastor sees the precarious situation of boys in our contemporary American society as it really is—precarious and pernicious. He wants me, as an academic theologian with strong interest in helping boys in our society gain a sure footing, to, what I would call, “conscienticize”... Read more

Another Round in the Old “Evolution vs. Creation” Debate I live in the great state of Texas. Every year, and sometimes throughout a year, controversy erupts over public school textbooks. Here’s the back story. Texas is so large and its public schools are so populated that textbook publishers do not want to alienate the Texas state agency that approves textbooks. So, indirectly, anyway, Texas has the ability to sway national textbooks’ contents. For several years the board that examines public... Read more

My Response to “The Emerging Divide in Evangelical Theology” by Gerald McDermott (Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 56:2 [June, 2013]) This is the second time Professor McDermott has criticized me and other (what I call) postconservative evangelical theologians in print (that I know of). The first time was about a year ago in (I think) First Things. The substance of this article is the same as that one. McDermott is Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion at Roanoke College in Salem,... Read more