Churches and Denominations; Why Hide? During the last twenty-five to thirty years I’ve noticed a trend among American churches and I’ve discussed it here before. It is churches hiding their denominational identities and using vague, often one word names that tell nothing about them. When I was growing up in a city of about 100 thousand people there were numerous churches in the city and only one had a nondescript name: the name of the city followed by “Community Church.”... Read more

What Is “Church?” Any Group that Calls Itself “Church?” Not far from where I sit there is a “Church of Cannabis.” It is a church, nobody can deny that. But in what sense is it TRULY a “church”—from a Christian theological perspective? Something that has been bothering me for years is that MOST of my students have THOUGHT (until I corrected them) that ANY group of people who call themselves “church” is really and truly “church.” After all, in our... Read more

About “Why?” By A. Van de Beek This is for those of you who plan to read Bram van de Beek’s book “Why? On Suffering, Guilt and God” with me. Many of you have reported ordering the book. I want to give you a few suggestions about reading it before we begin in May. First, please don’t read ahead; wait to read the “assigned” chapters until I announce them. Second, the book takes its time to get to the main... Read more

The Basic Difference between Lutheran Theology and Reformed Theology The basic difference between Lutheran Theology and Reformed Theology that caused Luther to say of the Reformed that they had a “different spirit” is Christology and how the different Christologies play out in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper which both Lutherans and Reformed consider a sacrament (means of grace). Luther believed and taught, even insisted, that because of the communication of attributes (communicatio idiomatum) of the incarnation, the risen and... Read more

“Reformed” and “Calvinist” Are Not Synonyms I know I have written about this subject here before, maybe more than once. But I have new readers and readers who may have forgotten what I said then. Recently I invited readers to join me in the future in a discussion of one of my favorite books: “Why? On Suffering, Guilt, and God” by Dutch Reformed theologian A. (Bram) van de Beek. I will be reading it for the fourth time! Some potential... Read more

How Dynamic Is God? This is the first installment of a series about the Christian doctrine of God. I will be focusing on one question: How dynamic is God? Let me explain the question. I was personally shocked to learn, during my theological education, that “classical Christian theism” included belief that God cannot change in any way and cannot be affected by anything outside of himself. This idea of God was and is labeled “aseity.” That is God’s self-sufficiency, independence,... Read more

Is “Power” Something a Christian Should Want? This is not an easy question to answer because “power” is such a vague and contextual concept. Here I am ONLY talking about what some Christians, mostly progressive ones, say they want—“empowerment.” (Of course they are not the only ones who want that!) But I want to discuss, and ask, whether “empowerment,” as progressive Christians mean it, is something a Christian should want. Is there anywhere in the Bible where Christ’s followers are... Read more

Angry Theologians A recent column published by Christianity Today asks “Why Are There So Many Angry Theologians?” The author is Ronni Kurtz, assistant professor of theology at Baptist-related Cedarville University. Before proceeding to read my response, read the essay. You can find it by using key words. I did. An understandable problem with Professor Kurtz’s column is the lack of identification of any angry theologian. But I don’t doubt that many theologians are angry at or about something. The question... Read more

What Is “Theology?” Here I am asking only about Christian theology, not philosophical or theologies of non-Christian religions. Here is the best brief definition of Christian theology I have read: “Theology…attempts critically to review the assertions Christians make. They are tested in light of the real actions of God. For Christians do not make their assertions at random; they are of the opinion that in making them they are doing justice to God; they believe they are correctly saying that... Read more

Christ’s Atoning Death was NOT “Divine Child Abuse” Many feminist and womanist (and other) theologians claim that traditional atonement theories, including any and all that consider Jesus’s death on the cross part of a divine plan, constitute “divine child abuse” and wrongly justify human abuse of children and women. This is simply absurd. Why? Because, Jesus was God voluntarily becoming human to, among other things, die as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. When I hear or read a... Read more