When I read James Cone’s God of the Oppressed eight or nine years ago, the significance of the contextuality of theology was deeply impressed upon me. While I could not feel or know the power and passion of liberation theology from the perspective of one who was oppressed, I could feel the sting of critique against my own complicity in structures of oppression and my of my own ignorance in the ways that my context blinded me to the severity... Read more
If pastors take the advice of Jason K. Allen, a Southern Baptist Seminary president, they will banish the word “opinion” from their sermon vocabulary. In a recent blog post, Allen suggests that by avoiding five words, pastors can strengthen their sermons. You can check out his post for the other four sermon-weakening words. But let’s focus on “opinion.” Here’s his rationale: Preaching is to be text-based, derived from the Word of God. Thus, by definition it is objective and authoritative,... Read more
Toward the end of Willis Jenkins’ book, The Future of Ethics, he has a gem of a discussion about poverty. What do we do about widespread impoverishment? How should “rich Christians in an age of hunger” respond? His answer might surprise you. What won’t surprise you is that, contrary to the advocates of unbridled global neo-capitalism, Jenkins’ does not agree that the answer to poverty is to create more total wealth. We cannot simply keep on growing the economy and... Read more
Gustavo Gutierrez is known as the father or founder of liberation theology. A Peruvian priest and theologian, his work, A Theology of Liberation, remains the classic expression of liberation theology. Here are two quotes from that work, pertaining to the boundary-crossing (transcending) nature of salvation and to its this-worldly and all-encompassing implications The liberation which Jesus offers is universal and integral; it transcends national boundaries, attacks the foundation of injustice and exploitation, and eliminates politico-religious confusions, without therefore being limited... Read more
Albuquerque Police are reporting that a man named Tony Torrez, 32, has confessed to the murder of a 4-year old girl, Lilly Garcia, in a horrifying road-rage incident on an interstate in New Mexico. Torrez shot into the truck Lilly’s father, Alan Garcia, was driving, hitting and killing her. Road rage incidents happen pretty regularly, it would seem, but typically end with a mutual flip of the bird (so I’ve heard) or some other relatively innocuous conclusion. This morning, I... Read more
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) by no means speaks authoritatively for all evangelicals. No one speaks authoritatively for all evangelicals. But the NAE does represent one of the few strong voices for evangelicals on ethical and public policy concerns and does attempt to speak on behalf of and lobby for evangelical concerns. So it’s notable that the NAE has recently announced a change of perspective on capital punishment to include an explicit voice of concern against the problems increasingly... Read more
Despite the many who still deny the reality of climate change and who undermine the seriousness of the threat to our future, the news is spreading: We are at a very precarious moment in our ecological life. From the standpoint of Ethics (Christian and otherwise), the question emerges: What is required to address the many and serious problems that confront us in this global, pluralistic world–but a world in which we all have a stake in our ecological health and... Read more
Lot’s of folks have analyzed, dissected, and speculated on the appeal of Donald Trump. We keep hearing that he’s going to slide away into the dust heap of presidential-candidate-has-been, those blips on the radar that pop up once in awhile and grab the headlines, only to fade away as a distant memory of a “strange cultural moment.” It’s often been said that Trump is this year’s Herman Cain, but Trump has been hanging around much longer than Cain ever did.... Read more
Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and still the most prominent of Southern Baptist leaders, is known for his paradoxically refined brashness and genteel dogmatism. He’s been in and out of headlines due to his quasi-evolving statements about homosexuality. I say “quasi” because any evolution he has actually evidenced on the matter is barely worth mentioning; or at least, if he has evolved, it has resulted in no practical payoff for LGBTQ people. Back in 2011, Mohler... Read more
My review of Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion has just been published on The Table. The image the editors chose is worth a click-through, even if you’d rather not bother with the essay. Haidt applies the rigorous methods of moral psychology to understanding the nature of religious, political, and ethical conflicts. He is not just a theorist, but has done the empirical work, too, which makes his book rich on multiple... Read more
Unsystematic Theology
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In