#progGOD Is Live!!!

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

Deb has posted the page for the second #progGOD Challenge. Check there for your post, and for instructions on submitting one: Why an Incarnation? In the second conversation of our #progGOD series, we invited bloggers to consider: What does the Incarnation tells us about God, human beings, creation, the Cosmos, the End Times, Heaven, Hell, salvation, or anything else…from a Progressive Christian perspective? Read their reflections and then add your own in the Comments Box below. (And stay tuned for... Read more

Why Did God Prefer Abel to Cain? [Questions That Haunt]

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

David tweeted a question into the series asking a question about one of the most troubling passages of the Bible: @jonestony speaking of god’s preferences, why did god prefer abel to cain? my baptist buddies say it was the blood, but i’m not so sure. — David Wierzbicki (@wierz) December 3, 2012 Leave your answer below and I’ll proffer an answer on Friday. Read more

Is Rob a Christian? [Questions That Haunt]

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

Rob gave us a great Question that Haunts Christianity that has generated hundreds of comments: Hey Tony. I will try to make this short… I was raised in the church, became a youth leader in my early 20s, then a worship pastor/elder, then a staff deacon at a large church. Almost three years ago, my family and I walked away, with no plans on returning to “the church.” I don’t intellectually assent to any of the things that orthodox Christians are supposed... Read more

Nancey Murphy on the Universe’s Purpose

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

One of my mentors, Nancey Murphy, weighs in on the Templeton Foundation’s new series, Does the Universe Have a Purpose? Indeed. But it is not possible to know that by looking at the natural world alone. The question of purpose is closely related to the question of whether something like the God of Western monotheistic religions can be known to exist by studying the order, goodness, and grandeur of the universe. Already around 1750 David Hume pointed out that if... Read more

Being Liked Is Overrated: Advice from a Feminist

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

Jessica Valenti used to respond to every commenter on her blog, no matter how nasty they were. She doesn’t anymore, because she realized that being liked isn’t that important: One of the questions I get asked most often from young women who are just discovering feminism is how they can maintain relationships when the people in their lives see feminism as so confrontational. How can they talk about the issues that matter to them when they are constantly seen as... Read more

Roxy on Advent

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

I’ve been working on an answer to Rob’s question about whether he’s a Christian or not. It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer — it’s personal, it affects a person, and I’m struggling with it. I’ve also had a trying day personally, so I have to put Rob’s question aside for the rest of today. Instead, I offer you some thoughts from Roxy, with whom I traveled to Sri Lanka. She’s got some beautifully honest thoughts on not sleepwalking through... Read more

Marriage Changes. Get Over It.

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

Do you think that Jerry Kill should be able to marry? Jerry Kill is the head football coach of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. And he’s an epileptic. He’s had at least three seizures since he took over the program last year, and he’s as much known in the state for that as he is for football. Probably you do think he should be allowed to marry. But less than a century ago, Coach Kill’s marriage to his spouse,... Read more

When St. Nicholas Slapped a Heretic

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

In 325, the Emperor Constantine convened the world’s Christian bishops to a conclave in Nicaea, where they debated the Arian controversy. The assembled bishops debated the ousiases of Jesus, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, etc. Well, one of the bishops, Nikolaos of Myra, got so pissed at Arius as he prattled on about how the Trinity was bunk, that he got up and slapped him! (more…) Read more

How Levinas Overcame Heidegger

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

David Sessions explains: While Heidegger’s central argument was that the meaning of Dasein is nothing more than its existence as possibility—the meaning of individual human being is its being “thrown” into a particular temporal situation—Levinas argued that we are constituted by something even more fundamental than where we find ourselves: the mysterious relation with others that begins in language. That relation places a demand upon us, outside history, that we cannot understand nor escape; it is the ground of our... Read more

Richard Mouw, Timothy Dalrymple, Same Sex Marriage, and the Common Good

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:48 pm By Tony Jones

It seems that I disagree with Tim Dalrymple on lots and lots of stuff. Nevertheless, it’s been interesting watching him publicly wrestle with the question of whether his evangelical abhorrence of gay sex should be codified in anti-same-sex-marriage laws. First, he asked, Is it time for evangelicals to stop opposing gay marriage? the question at hand is not whether we should abandon the historical Christian teaching on marriage. The question is whether we should contend for laws and regulations that give this... Read more