Do Women Make Good Ministers? Confession: I grew up in a form of Christian life that had women pastors, evangelists, church planters and, of course, missionaries. The only thing women could not do in church life was, apparently, serve as denominational executives. I don’t think there was any rule against it; it just didn’t happen—except in those few denominations founded by women. Both my birth mother and stepmother were licensed ministers of the gospel. (I don’t recall whether either one... Read more

In liberal Christianity, there's a tendency to reduce the Bible to “the Christian classic” that is “inspired” insofar as it is inspiring. Read more

What Is “Fundamentalism?” I was recently asked by a friend to define “fundamentalism.” And the question comes up in almost every class I teach. I have tried to define it here before but new people come to my blog all the time and my own understanding of fundamentalism evolves. A few years ago some scholars associated with the University of Chicago (as I recall) launched “The Fundamentalism Project” and published a series of very large edited volumes about the subject.... Read more

Evangelicalism is not a movement or group but a spiritual-theological ethos. Read more

To the best of my knowledge, nobody thinks or can show that the Bible itself actually says God is “infinite.” Read more

A New Christian Dogmatics from Eerdmans I recently received from publisher Wm. B. Eerdmans a complimentary copy of Christian Dogmatics: An Introduction by two Dutch theologians Cornelis van der Kooi and Gijsbert van den Brink (2012/2017). It’s a beautifully hard cover volume encompassing 806 pages (including indexes). On the back cover and inside are glowing endorsements by Richard J. Mouw, Michael S. Horton, Charles Van Engen, and John Bolt—all well-known Reformed theologians with evangelical credentials. I have not read the... Read more

Is There “Power in the Blood?” Thoughts about the Blood of Jesus Somehow I happened to get included in the list of people who receive meditations, mini-sermons, theological musings, from a person. (I’m not going to name any names here.) The list of names includes some pretty well-known evangelical leaders. Here is a recent example of the list owner’s theological musings: “One of the problems of many modern day preachers of today is they do not preach on the blood of... Read more

The Disappearing Difference between Rhetoric and Argument Recently (during and since the 2016 U.S. presidential election) there has been a lot of “chatter” about “facts.” Someone publicly labeled a public truth claim an “alternative fact.” This neologism created a great deal of consternation, controversy, and more than a little tittering. This event, or series of events, provoked me to think about truth claims, “facts,” and reality. Long before someone uttered the phrase “alternative fact” someone else said that “perception is... Read more

Review of Greg Boyd’s Crucifixion of the Warrior God Have you ever been perplexed about the Old Testament’s “texts of terror” including especially those in which God is reported to have commanded the merciless slaughter of not only men and animals but also non-combatant women and children? If you’re still perplexed and care enough about the problems these texts present for Christian theology (and Christianity’s reputation in a skeptical world), you need to read Crucifixion of the Warrior God: Interpreting... Read more