Recently in Theology Category

I've taken some heat in the comment section for using yesterday's post on "unbiblical" and a "higher view of scripture" as a thin foil for my own disregard of biblical standards. To the contrary, I was pointing to the use of the word unbiblical as a stand-in for a particularly thin hermeneutic. There are, of course, things that are unbiblical: child pornography and shampoo, for instance. Both are technically unbiblical since they are never mentioned; further, the first is morally at odds with the biblical narrative, while the second is not.

So, to repeat, "unbiblical" is not a euphemism on its face; it is a euphemism when used as a stand in for a hermeneutical argument.

Today, I thought we'd poke at the liberals a bit, since the conservatives around here seem to be on the defensive. The euphemism of today is,

fundamentalist.

Again, I'm not implying that fundamentalists do not exist. They do. But liberals and progressives often use "fundamentalist" as a cheap and easy stand-in for someone who has a more conservative biblical hermeneutic.

Scot asked a good question last week: How come people who are clearly not evangelical keep getting upset about what evangelicals do? He asks this in response to the semi-furor around Rob Bell's (seemingly off-handed) remark to a newspaper reporter about why he abjures the "Evangelical" label.

Like many others, Rob has felt disenfranchised from the term "evangelical" because of the political activity in that name, as well as the general cultural distrust of that word, detailed in the book, unChristian (and others).

What's interesting right now is watching younger Christians alternatively embrace and shun the label "evangelical," which has been happening a lot longer than people have been wrangling over "emergent/-ing."  In fact, there might be some parallels between the two.

This week, I'll be consumed by the 2009 Emergent Village Theological Conversation with Jurgen Moltmann, an event that my company, JoPa Productions, is producing.  Here's the Twitter feed of the event, so you can look on with us.

So yesterday, John Piper once again entered crazy-television-evangelist territory and blamed a small tornado that jumped over Minneapolis and toppled a steeple on Central Lutheran Church on the fact that the ELCA delegate were down the street discussing whether to welcome practicing homosexuals into the clergy. He even implies in his post that the lack of warning by the National Weather Service shows that God cooked up this twister with her his pinky at the last minute.

Of course, this is not new territory for Pastor Piper. He made similar claims to know the Divine Mind after the Minneapolis bridge collapse, the Asian tsunami, and other times. And, as might be expected, Piper has been gently questioned by Scot, excoriated by Adam, Drew, and others, and brilliantly satirized by Jenell.

No, Dr. Moltmann hasn't taken up tweeting.  But others of us have been tweeting about him in advance of his appearence at the 2009 Emergent Village Theological Conversation. If you tweet, and you've got a question you'd like us to...

This summer's conference for the Center for Biblical Equality will take place in St. Louis, July 24-26. And, scholarships are available for students.This year's conference will address the formation of gender roles. Questions to be considered include: Are gender differences...

Recently, Stanley Fish wrote about the problems with the way the liberal intelligentsia thinks about religion vs. science -- or reason vs. faith. He was, of course, slaughtered in the comment section of his NYTimes blog by, um, the liberal...

Last week, I spent time with some new friends in Canada. Most of them were church leaders in the United Church of Canada, the result of a denominational merger in 1925. The United Church is unabashedly liberal in its social...

In the past, I've used this space to challenge advocates of Reformed theology to stand up to other advocates of Reformed theology. More specifically, my worry is that all of the press is going toward a particular version of "Reformed"...

D.Min. Students Take Note:Both of the events listed below are being offered for credit at Fuller Theological Seminary. Fuller is offering 4 credits for each event, and Tony Jones will be the professor of record. The course will consist...

You may recall that Kevin DeYoung, co-author of the book, Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be), was on a panel discussion with me a few weeks ago at the Christian Book Expo in Dallas. I have...

The doods at Homebrewed Christianity have taken my conversation with Bart Ehrman about his book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know about Them). You can, of course, get it on iTunes, or...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

It just turns out that he won't debate it with me.Last fall, Rod and I agreed, at the behest of our then-editor, Patton Dodd, to hold a friendly "blogalogue" on same sex marriage.  It was in the aftermath of California's...

I've already blogged about this a couple times, but here's the video artifact of the panel at the Christian Book Expo.  If you've got 90 minutes to spare, you can decide for yourself about whether Scot's (and my) charges of...

After an all-to-lengthy excursion into interdisciplinary method, it's time to get back into the four core tasks of practical theology. Having been through the descriptive and empirical moments, the third moment of PT is the normative moment. It is now,...

OK, this is the final part of what was meant to be a brief tangent. But Jimmy brings up an important caveat in his comment below. My not-so-hypothetical situation of a troubled teen in the school counselor's office was sanitized...

I'd been waiting for Publisher's Weekly to file a report on the Christian Book Expo of last weekend, and now they have.  Marcia Nelson begins with this ominous lede,Stacks of unsold books and glum publishers stood for three days inside...

OK, I'll start with a concrete situation in order to illustrate the promise of "tranversal rationality." [UPDATE: This is a hypothetical situation; the "boy" is meant to represent a concrete situation or problem. Another analogy could be, for instance, all...

I've posted on that question over at Religion Dispatches.We're at a turning point, right now, because of a confluence of two events: 1) the MSM has finally figured out that 3/4s of American's are religious, and 2) the Religious Right...

Following my panel discussion, about which I will report soon, I was approached by a well-dressed guy wearing name badge that identified him on the staff with the Institute for Creation Research, an organization with which I was not familiar. ...

How does one navigate the pluralism of our world today? There's a lot at stake in this question. Currently, there are only a few options available to Christians in a globalized/pluralistic/postmodern society: liberal accomodationism, conservative retreatism, Hauerwasian sectarianism, and the...

OK, I was all brewing up a great intermezzo post with a provisional definition of PT, then I got this anonymous comment that blew me away: Practical theology is that theological discipline which is concerned with the Church's self-actualization here...

Practical Theology is a self-consciously hermeneutical enterprise. Now, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I think that all of life is, essentially, a hermeneutical endeavor. Each of us is an interpreter, of our surroundings, our...

Practical theology (PT), as a discipline, takes a great deal of interest in empirical information. In fact, there is an entire school of thinking within PT -- found mainly in the Netherlands and Germany -- that's called "Empirical Theology." Practical...

Among my most popular posts from my old blog were those on my working definition of practical theology.  As I am engaged in the section of my dissertation in which I establish my version of practical theology, I'll repost the...

Last week at the Transforming Theology confab, these terms came up again and again.  And, as usual, much frustration was expressed about the lack of meaning in these words.One debate was over the words "liberal" and "progressive." Some in the...

So, if theologians squared off on a reality show, would a brawl endue, like on America's Next Top Model?  Probably not. But Jonathan L. Walton (who, I must say, was very impressive at Claremont last week) takes up the challenges...

In my latest book, The New Christians, I cast Brad Cecil as the unheralded protaganist of the emergent movement .  In many ways, he was.  Coming from an ultra-conservative world of youth evangelism, he volunteer-pastored at a Texas mega-Bible church. ...

Here's part two of the video conversation between theologian/philosopher of science, Phillip Clayton, and me....

Phillip Clayton and I sat down on Friday night for a conversation about emergence science and emergent church.  Here's part one of the video:Thanks to videographer Ryan Parker....

Well, my time here at Claremont is just about up. I'm sitting in Mudd Auditorium, listening to the second of two public panels.  Here are my reflections, looking back on the last three days.First, I have to note that...

Starting Day 3 here at Claremont School of Theology, we're having panels about whether progressive theology can transform society.9:26am - Jack Fitzmier, who leads the American Academy of Religion, is intense and challenging.  He says that the right people...

I'm at the inaugural Transforming Theology gathering: Rekindling Theological Imagination: Transformative Thought for Progressive Action.  Today we're talking about the church.9:16am - Harvey Cox, of Harvard, is giving his 5-minute statement.  He thinks there is an epochal shift coming in...

Tonight and tomorrow night there are live, public, free events in Claremont with some of the leading progressive theologians in the world.  And tonight's event is followed by a TheoPub at which you can sit, have a beer, and talk...

Sara weighs in on Original Sin: And now it's time for a woman's perspective on "original sin." Eve, the woman, fell for the snake's deceit. Eve, the woman, was a deceived transgressor, not Adam (1 Timothy 2:14). Eve, the woman,...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionWhen we last heard from our intrepid doctrine, Augustine had taken Paul's interpretation of Genesis 2-3 in Romans 5 and taken that to mean that Adam's sin conferred not only death on the entire human race, but...

Here's my response to Phillip's call:...

stormtrooper #274.52 objects to Brian's apologia for Pelagius:wow. I can't express how strongly I disagree with Brian's support for Pelagius' teachings. I find such theology to be soul-crushing, gospel-destroying, and faith-squelching. In my eyes, it truly amount to no less...

Brian does the unthinkable and defends Pelagius (against Augustine)!  Watch out, Brian, the NeoReformed stormtroopers went after Scot McKnight last week, and they'll probably come after you here! Pelagius brought up good points that are often ignored. First, he argued...

As we enter the season of Lent, here are some resources to get you thinking about alternatives to the penal substitutionary theory (yes, friends, it's a theory!) of the atonement.At Zoecarnate, Mike Morrell proposes that we look beyond liberal and...

We've got a nice thread going on free will and determinism around these parts.  Albert the Abstainer chimes in:Real free will: An ability to choose alternatives such that the possibility of an alternative action is real and not the product...

LeRon Shults announces a new book and a discussion on his blog about the book.  The book, Seeking the Identity of Jesus, gathered scholars to write about, well, Jesus' identity.  Among other things, they agreed on the following nine points:1....

I'm glad to see that my weekend quote of Dante stirred up some commentary.  Here's one, from Ben, followed by a response from me. (My apologies for Ben's masculine language.)I'm not sure how to understand Dante's use of "free will"...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionThe shadow of Augustine of Hippo looms large over the entire subsequent development of the doctrine of Original Sin.  We'll get into his authorship of the doctrine qua doctrine in a minute, but first let's remember the...

Under Original Sin: Paul, Romans 5, and the Heart of the Issue, Emergent Pillage brings up a point that has vexed me for some time.  He (I assume EP is a "he") baldly asserts that if you think that Paul...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionWell, now we get to the heart of the matter, and the passage that so many of my blogopponents have been waiting for: Romans 5.  It's in this chapter that Paul writes most specifically about the inherited...

Brian gives some excellent context to the world the Jesus was born into, and unpacks the Hebrew background to the concept of sin:There is no such thing as original sin in the book of Genesis. Judaism has no such doctrine....

KE Alexander on Original Sin:The problem with a Reformation view of original sin is that it tends to free one from responsibility for one's actions. That is not to say that our human faculties and/or affections have not been corrupted...

Occasional blogger and always philosopher, Kevin Corcoran, has written a bit about his experience on the emerging church panel at the recent Calvin Worship Symposium.  It seems that the panelists were asked about what beliefs are necessary to be a...

Yes. Theologian-Scientist-Believer Philip Clayton answers that question, and has some hard words for pastors.  He and I tend to agree that theology is latent in all human endeavors (see chapter 4, "The Theology, Stupid!")....

Dan H. brings up a point that raises a big question (which I've emboldened) in response to Original Sin: Jesus' Ambivalence:Hmm. I would agree that Jesus never articulates an Augustinian understanding of 'original sin'. But I would also agree with...

Tripp Fuller and I are recruiting YOU to ask your biggest question about God via YouTube to some of the top theologians in the world. See the list of theologians who will attempt to answer your questions.BAM!...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionFirst, let it be said that Jesus is not recorded in the gospels as saying anything that can be construed as particularly supportive of the doctrine of Original Sin.  Jesus did talk about sin, to be sure...

Philip Clayton (who is, by the way, da bomb!) tells us:...

I'll be on Todd Friel's "Wretched Radio" program today at 3pm EST to talk about my recent posts on Original Sin.  His show is on Sirius Radio and online.Call in!UPDATE: Not going on the show today.  Todd and I...

Scott M drops some historical and biblical context on Original Sin:For that matter, Ethan, I could have pointed to the very first controversy that resulted in the council of Jerusalem in Acts 15. I didn't do so because the Scripture...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionI'll take a break on substantive posts on this topic over the weekend, and launch back in by tackling Romans on Monday.  (It is interesting how many commenters on the last post were unwilling to deal with...

Why does a close examination of the doctrine of Original Sin matter? Because it is the "foundation" upon which much other Western doctrine is based. Scott M, take it away: Hmmm. Part of the problem may be that we have...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionLet me start with some throat-clearing.  At least one friend and not a few commenters were bothered by the fact that I wrote about my own intuition before I started reflection on the biblical passages at play. ...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionSome commenters are concerned that I'm setting up a straw man -- that is, I'm leaving the doctrine of Original Sin undefined so that I can then dispute an unformed doctrine.  So I will defer to the...

Scott M points out some of the most significant intellectual problems with the doctrine of Original Sin:There are many ways in which this peculiarly Western variation of Christian belief distorts the faith. I mentioned one, the fate of infants who...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-ConclusionWell, much to the chagrin of my biblicist commenters, I'm not going to start this series of reflections on Original Sin with the Bible, but with my own intuition.  (Don't read too much into this.  I will...

So many great comments under Original Sin: A Depraved Idea, so I'll just highlight Virgil's.  Do yourself a favor and go read the others.There is very little that is "traditional" about the doctrine of original sin, until we get to...

The Original Sin SeriesIntro-Intuition-Definition-Genesis-Jesus-Paul-Augustine-Calvin-Conclusion When I was growing up in a moderate, centrist church -- somewhere between mainline Christianity and evangelicalism -- Original Sin was a given.  I first learned about it in youth group, and we regularly talked about...

Do you like to read theology? And you've got a blog?  Then check this out from Tripp Fuller:I am helping to organize a series of conferences as part of a grant at school called Transforming Theology.  We will have a...

Geez, I had no idea.  It's actually Interfaith Heroes Month, at least according to David Crumm, late of the Detroit Free Press and now the editor of ReadTheSpirit.com.  Today he asks one of my favorite persons in the world, Sheryl...

Peter Rollins and Stephen Shields have begun a bit of a back-and-forth under the post, Ten Years of Emergent/ing.  Here's Pete's response to Stephen, and here's hoping they'll continue the conversation (here or elsewhere):Hey there Would love to chat, and...

Dan dissents regarding the post, Is Mysticism Gnostic?:Tony writes: "In my Monday post, I mused that the "secret knowledge" vibe expounded by some conservative Christians opens them to the charge of gnosticism. Some commenters mentioned that the other primary characteristic...

Darren King weighs in on the post, Are Conservatives the Real Gnostics?:Tony, I agree. And I've often thought about this in terms of how we handle parts of scripture - such as the epistles of Paul. Rather than seeing Paul...

Eric Glover continues the discussion of the Trinity:First I just want to say that I'm not arguing for or against the traditional understanding of the trinity in this post, I just merely want to engage the applicability of the aforementioned...

More than once, my Google Reader has shot me a link to a conservative blogger who's accused me of gnosticism.  Here's one from a few years ago that makes that claim, and there have been several more since.Gnosticism is a...

Wow.  There was a slew of great comments from which to choose this weekend.  The best comment string, methinks, is under The Orthodoxy of Down Syndrome.  But the top comment goes to Steve D., who commented under Is the Trinity...

I failed to bring my series of posts on the pragmatics of hell to any kind of a decent conclusion.  I was knocked out of commission for a while by a bad case of stomach flu: It was as if...

Garret asks a good question in regards to Who Decides Orthodoxy?Tony, Thanks for asking good questions and getting us to think. I deeply appreciate it. Maybe another part could be added on to your statement discussion and consensus on orthopraxis......

Several readers, when considering the Trinity, Mormonism, and orthodoxy, are wondering about the authority of Nicaea.Master Doyle:The two arguments I've heard most often to explain why Mormons aren't Christian are 1) they believe in extra-Biblical scriptures, namely the Book of...

Over at Experimental Theology, Richard Beck has responded to Keith DeRose's post, "Really Believing in Hell."Money Quote:Going back to Keith's post, my hunch is that hell is most terrifying for children in the Concrete Operations stage. In this stage children...

Yesterday I posted about the optionality of the Trinity.  A good debate ensued, which is exactly what I hoped.  And that brings me to my thought for the day: I think those of us committed to the social web will...

Seth R., a practicing Mormon, weighs in on the Trinity and, in particular, my chosen trinitarian formulation:Tony, it's interesting in the same article where you conclude that Mormons are not Christians, you admit that you yourself are a "Social Trinitarian"...

Scot had a nice post on blurbing last week.  My own endorsement requests have dropped significantly of late.  I guess "blogger" doesn't have as much cache as "national coordinator of Emergent Village" on the back cover.In general, I agree with...

After his much debated post, The Bible & Homosexuality: Enough with the Bible Already, Adam Walker-Cleaveland is now tackling Jack Roger's book, Jesus, The Bible, and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church chapter-by-chapter.(Rogers is a polarizing figure in the...

Over the holidays, my mother was attempting to explain Mormonism to a 14-year-old boy who lives with her and my dad.  He's got a Mormon friend and he was wondering about that faith, especially because he's in confirmation class this...

My deep, deep thanks to my guest bloggers last week: Keith DeRose, Carla Barnhill, and Anthony Smith.  They may continue to post this week to run out the string on their thoughts.  And I hope to have them back in...

I'm fairly certain that most of what we attempt in the way of spiritual formation for children gets in the way of what God is doing in the way of spiritual formation for children. Thank you all for your thoughtful...

But I was reminded of the incident later when I received a letter from an American woman in her forties who had been brought up Roman Catholic. At the age of seven, she told me, two unpleasant things happened to...

To be intoxicated with God's love and justice is to be on a love lockdown   Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is...

My title is a mash-up of the titles of two well-known philosophy papers: Gregory Kavka's "The Toxin Puzzle," which I discussed earlier today here, and Saul Kripke's "A Puzzle about Belief." But my topic is all Kavka: extending Kavka's Toxin...

I am certain there will be comments about this and that some of them will insinuate I am not a very good mother. Or a very good Christian. But a conversation I had this summer has convinced me that I...

You are feeling extremely lucky. You have just been approached by an eccentric billionaire who has offered you the following deal. He places before you a vial of toxin that, if you drink it, will make you painfully ill for...

"Find God in all things" - Saint Ignatius of Loyola "the blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it,...

I'm hoping to get more substantial posts on the pragmatics of hell up soon, but for now, a--somewhat dated, and quite brief--report, based on her pastoral experience, from Marilyn McCord Adams (author of Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God...

This post will be a quick explanation of what originally got me thinking about the pragmatics of belief in traditional doctrines of hell and also of why I think it's valuable to discuss the issue....

I'm Keith DeRose. I'm a philosopher who blogs a bit on the side. Rather than giving any more introduction to myself here, I'll just send those who are interested in reading about me to my web page, where I have...

Methinks the biggest story this week is not BO's choice of Papa Rick to give the inaugural invocation.  The biggest story this week is how big this story is.  It won't go away.  I'm sure BO's people thought it might...

There's a bit of an in-house dust-up here at Bnet over Steve Waldman's extensive interview with Rick Warren (VIDEO / TRANSCRIPT). Steve's posted on it a few times, as have others around the blogosphere.But here in the friendly confines of...

Newsweek editor Jon Meacham gambled this week, and he gambled big.  In what is, by any measure and extraordinary piece of journalism, Newsweek religion editor Lisa Miller wrote a cover story that basically says, the Bible does not define marriage...

Not yet, according to Jeff Sharlet.  Sharlet was recently asked to contribute to a book on the supposed Religious Left, and he has posted the draft of his chapter at The Revealer (to which you all should subscribe).This is a...

There's a new hashtag in the Twitterverse that's attracting a lot of attention.  It's called "Twitter of Faith," the hashtag is #TOF, and the idea is that Tweeters would write out what they believe in 140 characters or less.If...

My soon-to-be-blogalogue partner, Rod Dreher, has today questioned Barack Obama's profession of Christian faith based on a snippet of a 2004 interview in which BO refers to Jesus as a "bridge between God and man."  Of course, BO is not...

I'm in Greenwich, Connecticut for the next few days, speaking at various events at Trinity Church.  Trinity is an exceptional church -- emergent by any measure -- in an area not exactly known for innovative churches.  I've known a couple...