“The Legacy of the Reformation in Contemporary Evangelicalism” (Address at Symposium “The Living Reformation: 500 Years of Martin Luther” at Brigham Young University, September 15, 2017) Roger E. Olson Someone, somewhere, at some time, decided that the Protestant Reformation began on October 31, 1517 when German monk Martin Luther nailed “95 Theses”—propositions for public debate—to a church door in Wittenberg, Saxony. Throughout Christendom Protestant Christians celebrate the Sunday closest to October 31 as “Reformation Day” and sing Luther’s great... Read more

“Arminianism Is Grace-centered Christian Theology” Roger E. Olson The Martin McCullough Lecture First Baptist Church of Murfreesboro, Tennessee September 10, 2017 The first Baptists, led by English Independent, Separatist, Congregationalist pastors John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, beginning around 1610, were later known as “General Baptists.” This was to contrast them with a different tribe of early Baptists known as “Particular Baptists” who arose in England around 1640. Eventually these two British tribes of Baptists wrote two different statements of faith.... Read more

A (Seemingly) Very Rare but Interesting Mental/Emotional Disorder: A Case Study for Medical Ethics Recently I became aware of a mental/emotional/personality disorder in which a person claims he or she cannot be happy or fulfilled without a limb amputation. And the desire for the limb amputation has no other cause or reason. To read about it use key words (using an internet search engine) such as: apotemnophilia (a word being dropped by psychologists), body integrity disorder and even paraphilia. Apparently,... Read more

A Good New Biography of Karl Barth Reviewed and a Question for So-Called “Evangelical Calvinists” Mark Galli is a good friend (I’m not saying he would say the same about me) and a brilliant and influential contemporary evangelical theologian and editor. He is the Editor in Chief of Christianity Today—the flagship publication of evangelicalism in America. He has written many books including Jesus Mean and Wild which I especially liked. We don’t always agree; I happened not to agree with... Read more

And Now the Hidden Fascists and Conservative Extremists Come out of the Closet: What Christian Leaders Need to Do Kudos to Southern Baptist Russell Moore (president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission) for his uncompromising condemnations of white supremacy (in a recent column in the Washington Post). (I still think he owes me an apology for inventing a quote about open theism and attributing it to me in the Baptist Press in 2002, but to dwell on... Read more

Every college and university campus in America has some organizations for helping girls who already are, overall, succeeding much better than boys in education and forging ahead of boys and men in many areas of business. Read more

Back to the Original Topic: Arminianism: Is There A “Middle Ground” between It and Calvinism? One of the main reasons I founded this blog was to clarify and promote Arminian theology. Arminianism, the theology with which I was raised and from which I have never departed, was under attack—by my fellow evangelical Christians. That is not what bothered me—at least not the main thing that bothered me enough to found this blog. What bothered me then and still annoys me... Read more

Jesus was Jewish. Paul was Jewish. The Jews are God’s chosen people. That’s it; it’s as simple as that Read more

Was Søren Kierkegaard a Poet, a Prophet, a Philosopher, or What? (Thoughts Sparked by a New Biography of the “Melancholy Dane”) I was recently in Grand Rapids, Michigan and spent some time at one of my publishers—Zondervan (a division of HarperCollins). (I recorded a video course based on my most recent book Essentials of Christian Thought which is published by Zondervan.) During lunch with friend Stan Gundry, chief editor of Zondervan, he gave me a copy of a new Zondervan... Read more

Few Americans in 2017 understand how close we—America and the Soviet Union—came to nuclear war during that early 1960s crisis. Many people believed it was inevitable. Read more