Last week, in my “Immortality and Hope” class, I shared the clip below from Seinfeld. You remember (if you’re a 40-something like me), that episode where Kramer asks George, “Do you yearn?” Sometimes he just sits and yearns. Eschatological hope! Longing, yearning. Groping for a little more life, just out there, in front of us. Who would have thought? Eschatological hope in Seinfeld. Sort of. Read more
The Death of Death in the Death of Christ is one of the most intriguing titles in the history of theology. The 17th century Puritan theologian and writer John Owen wrote the essay by this name. He wrote it to defend the doctrine of limited atonement against universalism. Limited atonement is that distinctive Calvinist doctrine which insists that Christ’s death on the cross was only effective in its scope (and even in its intended scope) for those who have already been... Read more
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” These words of Jesus, spoken in agony while dying on the cross, are the most haunting in the Bible. Jesus Christ: the Messiah, the Son of God, the Emmanuel–the embodiment of God’s presence with the people–suffers on the cross and exclaims that God is no longer with him. God has abandoned, forsaken, him, while he suffers the deepest suffering. He had prayed for this cup to pass from him, but here... Read more
The following is a guest post by David Congdon, a scholar of New Testament theologian Rudolf Bultmann. (David’s full bio is below). Thanks to David for this post and for bringing fresh attention to Bultmann’s theology. If you’ve taken a seminary or advanced undergraduate course in modern theology sometime in the last half-century, chances are you came across this famous quote by Rudolf Bultmann: We cannot use electric lights and radios and, in the event of illness, avail ourselves of... Read more
When you go to the voting booth in November, there’s a surprising variable that could impact your vote: thinking about death. This is the finding of (among other researchers) Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, three empirical psychologists who (among other numerous other researchers) have spend decades testing and confirming the theories of anthropologist Ernest Becker. Carey Goldberg has just published an interview with Sheldon Solomon. The piece provides an excellent overview of Becker’s main thesis as well as an... Read more
The gospels include lots of stories of Jesus healing people. Some examples: unknown diseases, leprosy, blindness, deafness, incessant bleeding (“flux/issue of blood”), paralysis, epilepsy, demon-possession, and yes–death. Here’s a survey of Jesus’ healing miracles in the gospel of Matthew, including both summative statements and individual accounts: Summative: Jesus healed diseases, alleviated pain, cured epilepsy, exorcised demons, cured paralysis (4:23-24) Man with leprosy (8:1-4) Centurion’s paralyzed servant (8:5-13) Peter’s mother-in-law (sick with fever): (8:14-15) Summative: “many who were demon-possessed…drove out the spirits with... Read more
I’m running a little contest today. Thanks to Patheos and Zondervan, I’m going to give away a copy of Zondervan’s new “God’s Justice Bible” (NIV). The Bible will go to the person who offers the most intriguing (yes, that’s subjective) “social justice-y” Bible verse in the comments. The rule is: only one verse, please. Have at it! Read more
Can God do anything and everything God wants to do? Think about it for more than a few seconds, and it’s easy (for most people, probably) to conclude, “No, of course not.” God can’t change the principle of mathematics (making 10+10=30, for example), God can’t do logically contradictory things (such as making “bachelor” mean “married man,” or even better: making “The Bachelor” a television show replete with existential meaning). But can God intervene in the world, prevent evil and suffering,... Read more
I came across a nice reminder on this Caucus Tuesday. In the collaboratively authored Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, the authors develop imagery for properly understanding the “kingdom,” or the “reign of God.” The reign of God is pictured as both a gift (from God) and as a realm into which we are invited to enter: The reign of God is a realm–a space, an arena, a zone–that may be inhabited. Hence... Read more
The virgin birth of Jesus is one of the most celebrated doctrines in the New Testament. But is it believable anymore? Should it be disposed of, updated, or drastically revised? I will be doing a series of posts looking at this doctrine from historical/biblical perspectives, from the view of science, and from the perspective of other related theological themes and doctrines. In this first post, I consider the historical and biblical arguments against the validity of the virgin birth (“virginal... Read more
Unsystematic Theology
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