A Movie Illustration of What’s Wrong with Calvinism Spoiler alert! If you intend to watch “Ruby Sparks” (a 2012 movie now on DVD) and you don’t want to know how it ends, stop reading now. I make no claim to being a movie critic. I know nothing about production values and often like movies critics hate. This one is probably not a very good movie—in terms of what critics like. It’s sappy, maudlin, unbelievable, etc. Nevertheless, my wife and I... Read more

Two questions will immediately arise, or at least arise upon close reflection, in the minds of thinking Christians. First, can creatures satisfy God? That is, can we, mere “worm”s that we are, add something to God’s own bliss and enjoyment of himself? Second, is “glorification,” something all Christians believe is at least an eschatological reality for sinners saved by God’s grace and mercy, at all possible in this life—before the resurrection and new heaven and new earth? Related to the... Read more

Picking up where the previous post left off: So what’s the alternative? What is “Christian humanism?” Let me begin with Scripture. Psalm 8—the biblical charter of Christian humanism. Speaking to God the Psalmist cries When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God,... Read more

A Christian Humanist Manifesto: God Is Most Satisfied with Us when We Are Most Glorified by Him Roger E. Olson             Few words provoke such a negative reaction among conservative Christians as “humanism.” Few single words so well summarize secular culture and its anthropocentrism as “humanism.” In the popular imagination, anyway, “humanism” evokes the impression of what media talking heads call “the indomitable human spirit” and conservative Christians call “man-centeredness.” By itself, however, without adjectival qualifications, “humanism” simply means belief... Read more

Is Open Theism a Type of Arminianism? One of the reasons I started this blog was to provide a place to talk about Arminian issues, issues related to Arminian theology. (There is no “Arminian movement” as such, so all talk about Arminianism is about theology.) One of those questions is whether open theism, “openness of God” theology, is a version of Arminianism. Does it belong under the umbrella category “Arminian theology” or is it a “stand alone” theology vis-à-vis Arminianism?... Read more

Proof of Heaven? Recently I read the new book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander, M.D. (Simon & Schuster, 2012). Alexander’s story was told in Newsweek magazine and also on the television show 20/20. A spate of books purporting to provide “eyewitness” accounts of heaven have been published lately. One extremely popular one was Heaven Is for Real—the story of a small boy’s journey to heaven during an illness in which he apparently died.... Read more

Very frequently I receive e-mails from individuals (and some have asked here) for help finding a church. Often what they mean is–a denomination. I can hardly help them find a church in a geographical area I’m not familiar with (without spending a lot of time on the project). So I find it helpful to mention denominations to them–ones that I have reason to believe exist in their area. So, here I am going to do what I have never done... Read more

Okay, that would be a stretch! I’m not claiming that Barth was an Arminian in any classical or historical sense of Arminianism. He was a member, minister and theologian of the Swiss Reformed Church. Much of his theology resonates well with classical Reformed theology. However, in places, he broke decisively with especially “high federal Calvinism” (especially Beza and those who followed him). I’ve been reading a lot of Barth’s Church Dogmatics lately. I’ve read most of CD before, but for... Read more

Some Random and Curmudgeonly Thoughts about October 31 Every October 31 I have the same thoughts: “Why does American society make so much of Halloween?” and “We need a new Reformation.” This evening children are streaming to the front door, ringing the doorbell and saying something vaguely resembling “trick or treat,” if anything, and holding up their sacks, plastic pumpkin containers, and pillow covers for candy. I don’t begrudge them their holiday; I enjoyed it as a kid and I... Read more

What about Those Old Testament “Texts of Terror?” Review of a (Relatively) New Book by Philip Jenkins I just finished reading Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can’t Ignore the Bible’s Violent Verses by my colleague Philip Jenkins (Harper One, 2011). Philip is one of the most prolific Christian scholars these days. And he writes on a broad variety of issues related to contemporary Christianity. Of course, he’s best known for The Next Christendom—a ground breaking book about Christianity in... Read more