How Essential is Doctrine to Christianity? Historically speaking, doctrine has always, until recently, been an essential part of Christianity. “Doctrine” here refers to official or semi-official beliefs held and taught by churches, especially to their members and constituents. Historically speaking, Christians have been people who believed conceptually, cognitively, and not only emotionally or in terms of affections and actions. What did we believe conceptually, cognitively? No matter what the denomination or tradition, even in the case of so-called “independent” churches,... Read more

A Radical Suggestion for Christian Educational Institutions During my forty years teaching religious studies and theology at four universities, three of them specifically Christian, I have been much involved with accreditation. If you are not familiar with “accreditation” I will briefly explain here. A college, university, professional school in the United States normally seeks and acquires accreditation from at least one leading accrediting society or association. These are not government entities, but normally they are influenced by the U.S. Department... Read more

Sing a New Song? I love satire, including Christian satire. I used to devour every issue of The Wittenburg Door (intentionally misspelled). Now I’ve moved on to Babylon Bee. Both are great Christian satire publications. Not that I agree with everything in them. But I think we evangelical Christians (and others) need jokers (jesters) among us to make us stop and re-think trends, fads and downright bad stuff happening among us. As you long-time followers of my blog know, I... Read more

What Is Gravity? A Theologian Learns about Physics Recently, here, some commenters have argued that a theologian has no right to talk about things outside his or her own field of knowledge—such as science. That’s nonsense. Theology is about everything. That is not to say, of course, that a theologian knows everything. That’s also nonsense. However, over the centuries theologians have studied many realms of reality in connection to our belief in God. I studied theology under German theologian Wolfhart... Read more

Maverick Scientists and a Spiritual Worldview Recently here I recommended that my readers listen to an episode of “Science Friday” featuring a physicist who openly called himself (several times) a “materialist” and said that all that exists are things made up of atoms and molecules. I objected that this is metaphysics, not science as such. The two get confused often. I also recommended that my readers watch a Youtube video by scientist Rupert Sheldrake about “morphic resonance” that contradicted certain... Read more

The Mind and the Brain: “Morphic Resonance” and Other Thoughts Here I recently blogged about “dogmas of science” and recommended that my readers listen to an episode of “Science Friday” (PBS) and watch a Youtube video of a TED Talk by scientist Rupert Sheldrake about what he considers certain unquestionable “dogmas of science.” I then went on to talk about what Rupert Sheldrake calls “morphic resonance,” especially the idea that the mind extends outside the brain. I have often had... Read more

Is Materialism a “Dogma” of Science? (Yes) Have you ever had the experience of staring at someone who doesn’t even know you’re near, perhaps in a crowded room, and have them turn and look back at you? I have. Numerous times. I carried out this personal experiment especially in airports and I have taken notice whether anyone in front of the people might be doing something that signals them they are being stared at by me. Rarely, if ever, was... Read more

Trump against “Evangelical Leaders” I hate to say I told you so, but I also enjoy it. A few years ago I wrote here, and The Hill picked it up, that IF his evangelical supporters do not support Trump whole heartedly and without qualifications on everything that matters to him, he will turn against them. See on Youtube “Trump lashes out at evangelical Christian leaders” (CNN). You must watch the video because Anderson Cooper and his commentators (who seem to... Read more

“What Is Fundamentalism?” For most of my life now, I have been intensely interested in the concept “fundamentalism.” I grew up in a rather conservative, evangelical, Pentecostal denomination and church. We were very moderately Pentecostal and from the top of the denomination down we considered ourselves evangelicals. Our denomination was a charter member of the National Association of Evangelicals. As I grew older and went through a great deal of education in religious studies and theology, I considered whether we... Read more

What Does Prayer Do? *Note: If you choose to comment, make sure your comment is relatively brief (no more than 100 words), on topic, addressed to me, civil and respectful (not hostile or argumentative), and devoid of pictures or links.* This is the third blog post in a series about prayer. I have already established that prayer is “conversation with God” that can, of course, take many forms but is never entirely “wordless.” Over the years of my life among... Read more