Theoblogy
Apparently, Paul Gauguin, in a dispute over a prostitute. Read more
Apparently, Paul Gauguin, in a dispute over a prostitute. Read more
Last week, I spent time with some new friends in Canada. Most of them were church leaders in the United Church of Canada, the result of a denominational merger in 1925. The United Church is unabashedly liberal in its social stances, for example, affirming same sex unions in 2003. Due to my positions on the atonement and same sex marriage, I’m getting less and less invitations from evangelical groups and more and more invitations from liberal groups. But, I came... Read more
For some reason, and unbeknowst to me, the “Subscribe” box vanished from this blog a few weeks ago. I asked the Bnet editors to put it back, which they did. And now I’ve discovered, thanks to some friendly tweeters, that the feed was changed! This is the third time that the feed has been changed since I moved to Bnet, and I heartily apologize for it. As far as I know, the feed is now: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/tony_jones?format=xml Of course, if you... Read more
The Dallas Morning News pioneered the Sunday “Religion” section in daily newspapers, launching it in 1994. They were quickly emulated by newspapers around the country, including my hometown newspaper, the StarTribune, which established a more politically-correct sounding “Faith and Values” section on Saturday. As someone — like over half of Americans — who takes religion seriously, I’ve enjoyed that section. About three times a month, there was an original story by the local religion beat reporter, and once-a-month they picked... Read more
It seems that the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association will not reprise the ill-fated CBE. As Marcia Nelson reports in Publishers Weekly, the ECPA is “pulling the plug” on the CBE, and hoping to clean up the quarter-million dollar debt they amassed before diving back in to direct-to-consumer events. As someone who just co-started a company that specializes in small events (100-300 persons), I’m neither surprised nor worried. There’s still a market for events, but I think the era of mega-events... Read more
In Phyllis Tickle’s latest book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why, she writes of the “centering” of Christianity. In her famous quadrilateral diagram, she demonstrates how liturgicals, social justicers, pente-charistmatics, and doctrinal evangelicals are all swirling toward the center. Many of us find it a compelling argument, and the latest data seems to reinforce her thesis. Well, this morning, I was watching Morning Joe, as I often do with my, er, morning joe. (I actually like Joe... Read more
Yesterday, Pew released a follow-up to their much ballyhooed religion survey that showed a 10 percent rise in a decade in the number of Americans that, when asked their religious affiliation, declared, “None.” The original press reports declared, and the in-depth graphics make clear, that the younger an American is, the more likely s/he is a None; Catholics leave their religion more frequently than Protestants; and most Nones, though not practicing a religion, still consider themselves spiritual and tend to... Read more
In the past, I’ve used this space to challenge advocates of Reformed theology to stand up to other advocates of Reformed theology. More specifically, my worry is that all of the press is going toward a particular version of “Reformed” that Calvin himself wouldn’t recognize — this group represented by Piper, Driscoll, MacArthur, Carson, and Mohler; they follow the hardline “TULIP” doctrine; and they are fêted by TIME Magazine, Christianity Today, and in books. But there are other Calvinisms out... Read more
Adam has convened a great conversation at Pomomusings called Plurality 2.0. My friend, Phillip Clayton posted last week. Money quote: I’m guessing that most readers of this post in fact already live in Pluralism 2.0. If you’re one of those people, interwoven identities is second-nature to you, like the air we breathe. Of course our Christian identities are not rigid and fully definable in “essentialist” fashion. All important identities weave their roots in, around, and through everything that we are.... Read more
Well, not exactly. Tad DeLay, a fan of things emergent, was a music pastor at an evangelical church plant. But he was fired for the direction his theology was taking. He performed this song, indicative of his theological musings, a week before his firing. The lyrics are below, and you can hear Tad perform it on his PureVolume site. Forgive Me Give us the passion in our souls To fix the world and call it home And not give in... Read more
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