For My Brazilian Readers: Portuguese Translations of My Books Some of my best students have been from Brazil, the world’s largest Portuguese-speaking country (and also one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing democracies and economies). Many North Americans think of Brazil as a Catholic country, but Protestant churches are growing there. The Assemblies of God has over 12 million members in Brazil—four times the number in the United States. Several of my books have been published by Brazilian publishers in... Read more

Kudos to the Church of the Nazarene for Resisting Pressure to Expand “Inerrancy” I have not heard news from the June (2013) annual convention of the Church of the Nazarene that specifically answers the question regarding the disposition of the proposed amendment to its statement of faith. I have scoured the internet looking for such, but have not found it. I’m assuming the amendment was defeated, but I am prepared to stand corrected. The amendment was proposed by a group... Read more

Postmodern “Violence”: A Case Study in Stretching a Word to the Breaking Point For the past few years I’ve been reading a lot of postmodern philosophy—focusing especially on its implications for Christianity. I taught a course on “Postmodernity and Christianity” and included a section on postmodern theology in my forthcoming book The Journey of Modern Theology: From Reconstruction to Deconstruction (InterVarsity Press). And I have participated in a book discussion group that reads primarily books related to postmodern thought and... Read more

The Old Testament and Contemporary Christian Ethics The background issue here, of this post, is the problem I see of appealing to the Old Testament, especially the Pentateuch and historical books, to establish Christian ethics. One does not have to deny the divine inspiration of the entire Old Testament to argue that it cannot serve as a basis for contemporary Christian ethics. Jesus himself offered corrections to Old Testament ethics (e.g., divorce). Early Christians, after the apostolic age (and some... Read more

Thanks to all of you who contributed civil comments, pro and con, responding to my immediately preceding post about capital punishment as heresy. One commenter wrote:     ” I may be on a different wavelength from many here, but I’d just like to point out that if we’re going to appeal to the authority of the God of the Old Testament to support capital punishment, then logically we are going to have to support capital punishment for far more... Read more

The Heresy of Capital Punishment Every ethicist chooses one particular social issue on which to focus—at least for a time. Unfortunately, in my opinion, too few have focused on capital punishment for a sufficiently sustained time, giving it sufficient attention during that time, to bring about a sea change in public opinion. Still, to this day, the majority of Americans favor capital punishment for certain crimes—in spite of or perhaps because of the almost overwhelming negative judgment about it on... Read more

Strange (but Real) Baptists: An Exercise in Diversity Americans are woefully ignorant about religion. Most claim to be religious or spiritual in some sense but they know little to nothing about various religious groups that are all around them. Very few people understand Baptists. Okay, maybe that’s expecting too much. “Understanding Baptists” may take a lifetime. I’m not sure I can claim that! But what I mean is very few people realize how diverse Baptists are. There is no one... Read more

Okay, I know some of you will think “Olson, it’s time to move on!” Perhaps. But this is my blog and a place for my musings; skip this post if you’re just tired of this subject. I promise to turn to something else soon. I propose that evangelical and Baptist theologians and church leaders sign a consensus statement to attempt to bring peace and light into an otherwise too polemical atmosphere. The framers and signers will include: Five Point Calvinists,... Read more

This is to those of you who have responded critically or plan to–arguing that my objection to portions of the statement “Truth, Trust, and Testimony in a Time of Tension” as possibly disingenuous (please re-read my post for the main example) is wrong. Please! Respond to my questions! (These were in my post and I was hoping for and expecting people who support the statement to respond.) 1) Do you think it would be fully ingenuous (candid, frank, simple, fully... Read more

Disingenuous Calvinists? Recently I blogged about the Southern Baptist statement “Truth, Trust, and Testimony in a Time of Tension.” I provided a link to it, but some have told me they could not access it using that link. So, I suggest you simply “Google” it by that title and “SBCLife” (The Journal of the Southern Baptist Convention). That has worked for me. The entire statement is there if you click on the title of the statement when you get to... Read more