Theoblogy
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Some of my favorite commenters (like Annie) have accused me of “straw man” arguments this past week. I disagree. That would mean that I had overinflated the arguments of my theological opponents and then popped their balloons. But, in fact, I have used actual blog posts and quotes — their very serious charges of heresy about me — in my responses. Anyone who has actually dealt, face-to-face, with persons like John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Justin Taylor, and Kevin DeYoung knows... Read more
No. I simply deny it pride of place. Here’s what I wrote in October, 2006 about my lunch with John Piper: One thing that won’t surprise anyone who knows about these things: John Piper basically equates a penal substitutionary understanding of the atonement with the gospel. I am unwilling to do that. I don’t disparage that theory of the atonement (see my recent endorsement on the back of the 20th Anniversary Edition of Stott’s The Cross of Christ), but I... Read more
So, I wrote a couple of posts over the weekend — “Why Jesus Died” and “Why Jesus Rose” — that affirmed a traditional and orthodox understanding of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But because I don’t afford the penal substitutionary theory the status of crushing all other atonement theories, I’ve become the scourge of the Reformed blogosphere. But first, remind yourself that the Reformation started because Martin Luther questioned the powers-that-be, and his movement really got traction when... Read more
I’ll be interviewing Bart Ehrman tomorrow for Bnet regarding his latest book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know about Them). If you’ve got a question you think I should ask, leave a comment. Read more
Leave it to Rick to finish his countdown of emergent music by naming a band that no one has ever heard of as the official band of emergent Christianity. OK, I suppose that some people have heard of Arcade Fire. But not me. Now I’ll have to buy their music. Here’s Rick: An indictment of the American religious condition and Western culture that is only saved through personal responsibility for the needed changes based in community and hope for the... Read more
I’m on no quest to reject the penal substitutionary theory of the atonement (PSA). (I merely intend to dethrone it.) 🙂 In fact, that’s the understanding of Jesus’ death that was taught to me in my youth group as a kid, and similarly in the college ministry that excommunicated me. But, in all honesty, PSA never sat quite right with me. For one, it didn’t seem to jibe with the chesed of God in the Hebrew Scriptures. And it really... Read more
It’s Good Friday, the day that we Christians “celebrate” — actually, commemorate — Jesus’ crucifixion. For the last several years, in my little corner of Christianity, there’s been lots of talk about the atonement — that is, about what exactly happened, cosmically speaking, when Jesus died. In fact, the nature of the atonement has become the bête noire of emergent Christians and the cause célèbre of the resurgent Reformers. I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a real, historic human... Read more
Then consider DART Stations of the Cross. “Holy Railin'” in the Oak Cliff Advocate. Read more
For the third year in a row, I’ve spent the past few days in Waco, TX at Baylor University. As a yankee, I hear all sorts of stereotypes about things and places Southern. But, with the exception of some rather rude treatment by a Baylor professor at the Wheaton Theology Conference a couple years ago, I have been hospitably received by all of the Baylorites I’ve met. Mandatory college chapel services are, without question, the most difficult speaking gigs that... Read more
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