Reflections on Cognitive Dissonance: Hauerwas and Newsweek Recently I’ve been reading a lot of Stanley Hauerwas who Time magazine labeled America’s “best theologian.” (Hauerwas famously responded that “best” is not a theological term.) Hauerwas, of course, is renowned for emphasizing the constitutive nature of the church for Christianity. He has even been criticized for putting the church in the place of God. For him, there can be no such thing as churchless Christianity; the church is the gospel (when it... Read more

Part 6 of Response to The Gospel as Center: Chapter 6, “The Plan” by Colin S. Smith So, I continue my response to chapters in the book The Gospel as Center by members of The Gospel Coalition. Chapter 6 is by Colin S. Smith, pastor of Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Illinois. I perused the church’s web site and was unable to find anything there that clearly identified Smith or the Church as Calvinist. For those of you who do... Read more

Recently John Piper declared himself a pietistic Reformed person. See: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/marchweb-only/john-piper-racism-reconciliation.html?utm_source=ctweekly-html&utm_medium=eNews&utm_term=3050084&utm_content=122851977&utm_campaign=2012 As someone who likes to think of myself as a Pietist and even (others will have to judge to what extent this is true) an expert on Pietism, I have been asked by several people what I think of that claim. First, it’s essential to make a distinction between Pietism as a movement and pietism as an ethos. The ethos can exist where the movement no longer does or... Read more

A recent guest editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune (April 1, 2012) argues that evangelicals are inconsistent, if not hypocritical, when they tolerate divorce and remarriage but condemn homosexual relations. (I am assuming the author means by the latter monogomous and faithful homosexual relationships.) Former pastor Tim Turner closes his editorial with “Writing this certainly isn’t going to endear me to my evengelical friends, whom I love and cherish. However, it seems that despite their zeal to hold to a... Read more

For a few days I will break from responding to The Gospel as Center and resume next week. In the meantime, I will post occasional thoughts here on other topics. Stay tuned…. Read more

Part 5 of Response to The Gospel as Center, Chapter 5: “Sin and the Fall” by Reddit Andrews III Reddit Andrews is a Presbyterian pastor (PCA). This is a brief chapter—only ten pages—and covers the basics of a doctrine of sin from a Calvinist perspective. Andrews quotes Jonathan Edwards, Blaise Pascal, Herman Bavinck, John Murray and R. L. Dabney (among others). Also, of course, The Westminster Confession of Faith. For me this chapter raises to an intense pitch the question... Read more

Some have asked for my view of original sin and the connection between Adam and us. I cannot do better than recommend Bernard Ramm’s Offense to Reason: A Theology of Sin (Harper & Row, 1985). It was one of his last books and one of his best. (It’s a bad title because Ramm did not think original sin is irrational; he thought it is beyond reason’s ability to comprehend.) Ramm covers all the Christian options including Barth’s idea of saga.... Read more

Part 4: Response to The Gospel as Center: Chapter 4: Creation by Andrew M. Davis Chapter 4, simply titled “Creation” is written by Andrew M. Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church, Durham, N.C. Nothing at the church’s web site indicated that it is Calvinist except the fact that it has elders. Among Baptists, usually only churches that consider themselves “Reformed” have elders. I’m sure there are some exceptions to that, but it is a general indicator. Sidebar: Just as a... Read more

Part 3: Response to The Gospel as Center, Chapter 3: “The Gospel and Scripture” This is the third of a series of responses to the book The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming our Ministry Practices edited by D. A. Carson and Timothy Keller.  All the authors are members of The Gospel Coalition. Chapter 3, “The Gospel and Scripture: How to Read the Bible” is by Mike Bullmore, pastor of Crossway Community Church of Kenosha, Wisconsin. I approached... Read more

Part 2: Response to The Gospel as Center, Chapter 2, “Can We Know the Truth?” by Richard D. Phillips This chapter is, as the title indicates, about epistemology. I approached it wondering if there is such a thing as a “gospel epistemology.” That is, is there an epistemology intrinsically implied by the gospel? Haven’t equally God-fearing, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christians disagreed about epistemology since the beginning? Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. Which is not to say I agreed with everything in... Read more