Nothing has been more characteristic of current post-millennialism than its emphasis on the kingship of the ascended Christ; nothing fires the Postmil vision more than that reality. Yet it is just this reality that post-millennialism affectively compromises and, in part, even denies. . . . Continue reading →
Modern Theology
H. Richard Niebuhr On Evangelical Theology In the 21st Century?
A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross. H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America (New York: Harper & Row, 1959 [1937]) 193. (HT: Dustin Burge) . . . Continue reading →
Understanding Our Liquid, Therapeutic Age
Perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of this present age is the sheer speed with which unquestioned orthodoxies—for example, the nature of marriage, or the tight connection between biology and gender, or the vital importance of free speech to a free . . . Continue reading →
Theology And The University In Nineteenth-Century Germany
The history of modern German theology is dominated by two figures, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) and G. F. W. Hegel (1770–1831) but there is more to the story. If Schleiermacher and Hegel formed the skeleton, a series of lesser-known figures and institutions formed . . . Continue reading →
The Oxford Dictionaries’ Word Of 2016: “Post-Truth”
The BBC reports that the word of the year for 2016 the compound “post-truth.” Oddly, however, there is no entry in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for “post-truth.” It does not occur in my computer’s Oxford American Dictionary. Nevertheless, apparently, in some . . . Continue reading →
Muller: What I Haven’t Learned From Karl Barth
By Richard A. Muller Reformed Journal 37 (1987): 16–18. During the past year numerous celebrations were held, testimonials given, and articles written—all for the sake of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Karl Barth and recognizing his contribution to theology . . . Continue reading →
Modernity: The Story Without Its Author
If there is little mystery about where the West got its faith in a narratable world, neither is there much mystery about how the West has lost this faith. The entire project of the Enlightenment was to maintain realist faith while declaring . . . Continue reading →
Pervasive Unbelief In The PCUSA
All this is true. But it really does not apply to the situation in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The point is that that Church is very largely dominated by unbelief. It does not merely harbor unbelief here and there. No, . . . Continue reading →
Is Everyone Saved?
There is a Modernist creed. It is a short creed but it is highly influential and it is the default view of many Americans who think of themselves as Christians. That creed says 1) Humans are basically good and getting better; 2) . . . Continue reading →
A New Program for Hired Hands
In the fundamentalist-modernist controversy in the early part of the 20th century, one of the more difficult aspects was the question of whether the “modernists” really believed the faith any longer. The suspicion among conservatives was that in some, perhaps many cases, . . . Continue reading →
“At Least He Gets Jesus”
Questions About N T Wright
Or maybe not. For years people have said to me, “Well, Wright isn’t very good on justification but he’s solid on the resurrection and the deity of Christ.” The implication of this argument is that Wright is a well-placed, influential member of . . . Continue reading →
Something for the "Missional" Movement to Consider
Wes Bredenhof has a provocative post regarding the influence of Harry Boer (a theologian in the CRC who attacked aspects of the doctrine of predestination as unbiblical) on some contemporary ideas of “mission.” He writes, “In Boer’s view, mission is not so . . . Continue reading →