That’s pretty much the bottom line of my post at Patheos on Jay’s new book: Most likely if you agree with Jay Bakker on the full acceptance of gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, and trans-gendered persons, then you don’t read the Bible that much. Now, before you get your undies in a bunch, take a long, deep breath. It’s true that evangelicals read the Bible a lot less than they claim to — Robert Wuthnow’s study of small group Bible studies showed... Read more
That’s the subject of my article in Immerse: A Journal of Faith, Life, and Youth Ministry. Below is a taste. You can preview the article at the Immerse website or, if you’re smart, subscribe! In standard Protestant seminaries and divinity schools, departments are regimented along the fourfold “theological encyclopedia” model of the 18th century: biblical studies, church history, systematic theology and practical theology. And in most seminaries, the hierarchy of power follows the same pattern. The biblical studies professors usually... Read more
…and St. Martin responds. Here’s a taste: St. Martin I can not help but possess a bitter/sweetness in the way our society venerates you as a Civil Rights leader and prophet. It is sweet in that venerating you is a sort of invasion of the pantheon and panopticon whiteness that continues to pervade our culture. I see the foisting of your name, some of your words, some of your ideas, and symbols as an interruption of our regularly scheduled cultural... Read more
Falsani, author, most recently, of The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, has taken to the Huffington Post to write about Jay Bakker’s new book and whether a tipping point may be on the horizon in which gays are embraced in mainstream evangelicalism: Some of my dearest friends are gay. Most of my dearest friends are Christians. And more than a few of my dearest friends are gay Christians. As an evangelical, that last part is not... Read more
“It’s not easy to say what metaphysics is.” So begins the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry on metaphysics. The Mighty Wikipedia sayeth, Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms: “What is there?” and “What is it like?” The reason I’m confronting this issue right off the bat in my series on The Possibility... Read more
I’m thrilled to announce that Doug and I have today launched the website for Social Phonics, our endeavor to train pastors, ministry leaders, and non-profit leaders in the use of social media. Please check it out. And join us at a Boot Camp or Summer Camp! Read more
See that cool ad in the right sidebar? Click on that and learn more about getting a DMin at Fuller Seminary, taught by me, and co-taught by the likes of Brian McLaren, Lauren Winner, Phyllis Tickle, and Brian McLaren Gareth Higgins. I’d love to have you join us in a three-year journey exploring Christian spirituality. And, I promise, the next post on The Possibility of Christian Universalism is coming tomorrow. Read more
There’s a battle brewing in the church in America. It’s not over gay marriage or abortion or whether to do away with ordination (much to my chagrin). No, it’s over who will capture the church market with their church community software. There are three contenders, as far as I can tell, and a whole lot of money at stake — both money that’s already been spent on development, and money to be made on future sales. The three are: The... Read more
A youth ministry prof (and my friend), Terry Linhart, weighs in on the resignation of Jay Howver from Zondervan, which means there is currently no youth ministry aquistions editor (as far as I know) at Z. What does that mean for youth ministry publishing? A huge question, which Terry raises: Though the future is bright for YS/Zondervan publishing, there is an empty space where once there was radical vibrancy. The West Coast grassroots philosophy has been absorbed into corporate efficiency... Read more
Now that the dissertation is all but done, I’m turning my time to some things that have been back-burnered. One of them is reading books I want to read, not often possible when one is on an eight-year PhD journey. So my goal this year is to read a book a month, alternating between non-fiction and fiction. I’ll be occasionally blogging about each book I read, so I’d welcome any blog readers who’d like to join me in any of... Read more
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