A few comments responding to my post about the label “evangelical” and why I can’t give it up have stimulated me to think about and attempt to explain the importance of understanding people’s contexts.  I’ve often wondered why some people I admire and consider fellow postconservative evangelicals eschew that label and even sometimes criticize me and other postconservatives or progressives among evangelicals.  I’m thinking of one person in particular.  I won’t name him here.  But he is a very well... Read more

Friends and acquaintances on both the right and the left and nowhere on the theological spectrum (I don’t insist that everyone be somewhere on that spectrum) have asked me why I continue to call myself “evangelical”–given all the problems with that term today. Well, I respond, what else would I call myself?  Just Christian?  That label has just as many problems and always gets the response “What kind of Christian?”  Protestant?  Again, too vague and inclusive.  I am both of... Read more

Yesterday (May 20) I blogged about Harold Camping’s prediction that Christ would return today (May 21) and the world would end soon afterwards.  My main thrust then was against Christians such as him and Edgar Whisenant (88 Reasons Why Christ May Return in 1988) and others who ignore Matthew 24 and try to identify the day or month or even year of Christ’s return.  They Christianity a bad name. But part of the fault lies with the mass media that... Read more

According to news reports (and what I’m able to find on the internet) Christian radio host Harold Camping is once again predicting the second coming of Jesus Christ for a specific time–tomorrow, May 21, 2011.  Those old enough and with sufficient memory may remember his book 1994? in which he predicted the return of Christ (rapture) in 1994.  It didn’t happen.  That doesn’t seem to deter him from doing it again and with even greater specificity. I wonder how he... Read more

We have all heard the quote “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” by Lord Acton.  (I recently heard Martin Marty say “If power corrupts, power point corrupts absolutely.”  I began using power point this past semester anyway.  I’ll let my students decide if it corrupted me or them absolutely.) Recently I’ve been reading about the movement known as Catholic Modernism–something I intend to include in my revision of the 20th Century Theology book.  The leading theorists were Alfred Loisy,... Read more

For some reason my most recent content post “Does God always do the wisest thing?” has not migrated here yet and I cam not able to cut and paste it from my blog at the old URL.  Please go there (www.rogereolson.com) to read it.  You may either respond there or here.  As of Friday (May 21) I will only post here.  Until then I will copy posts from there to here.  I thought I had done that and for a... Read more

I’m flattered that some commenters listed one or more of my books as among their favorites.  I should not assume that anyone really cares why I wrote any of my books, but just in case someone wonders or finds it interesting… 20th Century Theology: God and the World in a Transitional Age: Stan Grenz called me and asked me to write a chapter in a book he planned to edit on modern/contemporary theology.  IVP asked him to head up this... Read more

Someone asked me to list my 10 favorite theology books.  I’m flattered that anyone cares!  But maybe only one person cares.  Oh, well.  Here goes anyway (not in any particular order)…. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics IV/1 Emil Brunner, Revelation and Reason Clark Pinnock, Flame of Love Reinhold Niebuhr, An Interpretation of Christian Ethics John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus Walter Rauschenbusch, A Theology for the Social Gospel Thomas Oden, The Transforming Power of Grace P. T. Forsyth, The Person... Read more

By “go wrong” I mean–go too conservative for its own good.  I think I have an answer to that and I’ve been telling people this for 25 years.  I’ll say it again. The turning point was the publication and subsequent furor over the book The Battle for the Bible, written by Christianity Today editor Harold Lindsell, in 1976.  Of course, the book didn’t just pop out of Lindsell’s head like Athena from Zeus.  It had a pre-history.  Lindsell and a... Read more

First, I apologize for the break in service.  My blog was down due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control.  That happens sometimes.  I appreciate your patience and willingness to come back when service is restored. Today my thoughts are about the trivializing of God in popular American religion.  If just trivializing existed only among the laity, that would be bad enough.  But it becomes dizzyingly dismaying when it appears in the pulpit! This morning I went to lunch with several of my... Read more