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

Musings about Prayer: What It Is and Does Prayer is not exactly a controversial hot button issue, but maybe it should be. Not that I want it to divide people or want people to fight over it. My point is that people, and here I’m concerned mainly about Christians, should think about prayer as well as pray. Is everything called “prayer” really prayer in a biblical and theological sense? Does simply calling a practice prayer make it so? Also, can... Read more

A Few Words about Oppression So, for the last week, we’ve been talking here about feminism. I want to thank all those who have contributed in constructive ways. We need more spaces where people concerned about oppression in society can discuss their different perspectives without rancor or dismissiveness. We’ve discovered that there is no universal agreement or even consensus about exactly what that word means. Perhaps we should talk about “feminisms,” rather than “feminism” as if that is a monolithic... Read more

Please excuse the inevitable errors here; I’m using an ipad whose virtual keyboard is new to me. I hope to stimulate some constructive dialogue with these questions. I apologize in advance for any inadvertant offenses I may cause. I am reading bell hooks’ Feminist Theory (2nd ed.) and I hope to learn from it. (For those who might not know she does not capitalize her names.) So, with some fear and trepidation, here are my questions: 1) If power corrupts,... Read more