I appreciate Hegel’s effort to unite the disparate domains in Kant’s philosophy. To repeat a quotation I used last week, Kant’s system leaves human beings in a precarious situation: How is freedom to be instantiated or to take effect in the world of nature, if the latter is governed by causality and mechanistically determined by the laws of nature? How is the causality of the natural world reconcilable with what Kant calls ‘the causality of freedom’? How, to allude to... Read more

The Book of Hebrews presents Jesus as a faithful high priest who offered himself up as a spotless lamb of sacrifice whose blood was shed to atone for us and cleanse us of our sins. In response to this claim, some readers of this post may be asking, “OK, so what?” High priests. Lambs of sacrifice. Blood. It may prove difficult for many people today to see the need for Jesus as a faithful high priest who offers himself up... Read more

Tom Krattenmaker is an award-winning author and journalist. His most recent volume is titled Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower: Finding Answers in Jesus for Those Who Don’t Believe. Tom is a good friend with whom I enjoy robust conversations on spirituality and contemporary culture. The following interview is part of a series with Tom about the subject matter of his book. Paul Louis Metzger (PLM): Tom, your chapter “Sexploitation” is a prophetic challenge to people of all walks of life in... Read more

The history of faith and science is a tumultuous struggle on most accounts. Immanuel Kant’s philosophy reflects key elements of the struggle. In his Critique of Pure Reason, he writes of having limited or denied knowledge to make room for faith. For those who follow Kant’s lead, one could no longer make claims of factual knowledge of God. Knowledge of the factual kind was limited to the realm of physics. Kant thereby filled the metaphysical gap reserved for deity in... Read more

The news outlets over the past several months and recent days have highlighted sexual exploitation and abuse in politics, entertainment, business, and elsewhere. While not all of the headlines have been about the exploitation of women and girls, most of them have been. On International Women’s Day, we are reminded of how often women are exploited, endangered, and minimized, and of the need to highlight their infinite value as humans. Not just today, but every day, we need to elevate... Read more

Some historical treatments of Christian theology present it as if it is a series of moves that import God to fill gaps in our scientific knowledge only to retreat when the divine placeholder is no longer needed. I will leave that historiographical judgment for another time. So, please hold a place for it. For now, I simply wish to consider whether the Christian faith favors a life that is a grand escape or a great engagement. Bertrand Russell wrote in... Read more

One of my biggest spiritual problems is forgetting about what God has done for me in the past when facing trials in the present. I am not alone. Perhaps you face the same struggle. The Israelites certainly did, and the author of Hebrews wants to make sure the Christian to whom he is writing will not make the same mistake Israel did in the wilderness. And so, the writer of Hebrews goes from comparing Jesus and angels in chapters 1... Read more

The following is an interview with Dr. Kenneth P. Minkema, Executive Editor of The Works of Jonathan Edwards and of the Jonathan Edwards Center & Online Archive at Yale University, with an appointment as Research Faculty at Yale Divinity School. Paul Louis Metzger (PLM): Dr. Minkema, thank you for your willingness to be interviewed for this blog post on the Puritans and Jonathan Edwards. Let’s start with the title. On a few occasions since being here in New Haven, I’ve noted the expression... Read more

The news spread rapidly today that Billy Graham was dead. Throughout the day, I pondered the great evangelist’s life and legacy and what he has personally meant to me. I was born in the heat of the Cold War. President Kennedy was assassinated just a few months before my birth. Dr. King was assassinated a few years later. President Nixon resigned the office of the presidency due to Watergate several years after that. Throughout those years, the Vietnam War raged.... Read more

We live in uncertain times. I suppose that is always the case, but I believe we are even more aware of it these days. The Florida shooting last week took us by horrible surprise. It was a bitter, shocking reminder that we have no idea when we step out the door each day if it will be our last. I cannot imagine how the teenagers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida feel after coming so close to... Read more