So, as anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I’ve been teaching in Christian higher education (three Christian universities) for going on 31 years now. Many times in the past, both when I was a student and when I was teaching, I wished for a way to express my opinions of what was happening around me publicly–especially the nonsense I occasionally experienced. That’s right, even Christian academics can engage in nonsense now and then. First, let me preface this by... Read more

I’m currently working on a rather lengthy chapter on evangelical theology for an edited book to be published by a major university press. Because the book is aimed at a general audience, not a specifically evangelical one, I feel a burden to explain who counts as an “evangelical theologian.” Who does “evangelical theology?” The problem, of course, is that “evangelical” has so many meanings. I have identified (in The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology and The Pocket Guide to Evangelical... Read more

Today I had lunch with five young colleagues–all in their twenties. I mentioned to them that I was going to blog about “Rev. Moon.” Only two of them expressed awareness of who he was. Jump back with me thirty years. “Rev. Moon” was all the talk–in the media, in religious circles, in Christian “anti-cult” organizations, etc. He was by all accounts a religious celebrity even if a very controversial one. He died the other day at age 92. John Steinbeck... Read more

One of my favorite Christian authors is David Bentley Hart. His The Doors of the Sea was a profound inspiration and help as I wrote Against Calvinism. He is a word master. Just reading him elevates your mind and soul. And, if you pay attention and learn, your vocabulary! (Anyone who has read him knows what I mean.) Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies (Yale, 2009) is typical Hart–not easy reading but good reading in the rare... Read more

Is Americanism the Fourth Biblical World Religion? (Partial Review of Peter Leithart’s Between Babel and the Beast) Some time ago I posted two reviews of Peter Leithart’s Defending Constantine. At the end of the second one I suggested that he publish a sequel explaining his view of empire and especially Christianity and empire. Well, perhaps that book has been published. This year (2012) Cascade Books (imprint of Wipf & Stock) has published Leithart’s contribution to its Theopolitical Visions series. Its... Read more

A friend forwarded this to me: http://www.christianpost.com/news/john-piper-on-mans-sin-and-gods-sovereignty-80617/ (Sorry, patheos’s format has changed again and I can’t find the key to make this a live link. Do it yourself.) John Piper has been at it again. But there’s nothing new in the sermon reported on there. He has been saying this and writing it for decades. According to him, God foreordains sin. He “ordains and governs” it. He stops short of saying Godcauses is. But the effect is the same: sin... Read more

(I have to preface this with “Satire Warning” because my experience is that some people are tone deaf to satire and think I’m being literal when I’m not. Maybe “parody” is a better word for this.) God is obviously blowing his fierce breath and spitting his fierce saliva at the GOP convention in Tampa, Florida. The GOP had to cancel its first day of the convention because of God’s judgment–a reminder that we are all sinners and deserving of of... Read more

On Not Throwing the Baby out with the Bathwater 1 Thessalonians 5:19-20 A few years ago I must have said “We shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” once too often because when I said it the whole class burst out laughing. That’s okay; one thing I know about myself is I’m funniest when I’m not trying to be. I confess it.  I do like that rustic saying—”Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”  It very well describes... Read more

Who Is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53? I don’t remember when or where it happened, but I remember the shock I felt when I first heard that many, perhaps most, Old Testament scholars, including many evangelical Christians, deny that Isaiah 53 refers to Jesus. It was a shock of bewilderment; why would they say that? Christians have generally, since the beginning (Acts 8) believed the Suffering Servant described there is Jesus. Why is it important? Well, the debate over... Read more

Does God Always Get His Way? I suspect that question would surprise most Christians and atheists alike. Most atheists I read seem to operate on the assumption that Western monotheism includes God’s absolute sovereignty such that whatever happens is God’s will. Most of them fall back on some version of the problem of evil to attempt to sweep away belief in God as impossible (because no one expressly questions God’s goodness). But Christians (I’ll limit my comments here to Christians... Read more