Anita writes to ask about a couple of things I said in class last night. In brief she asks why I suggest that some who believe quite strongly in creation don’t really seem to believe in creation at all and second, why . . . Continue reading →
ethics
May Christians Take Prozac?
That’s the question WSC student Simon Jooste considers at Creed or Chaos.
"Two Kingdoms" circa 115-50?
A notable early Christian apologist didn’t get the transformationalist memo. Ep. to Diognetus (5.1-11): For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. 2 For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do . . . Continue reading →
The Return of Eugenics
In 7 July interview published in the NY Times, Justice Ginsburg makes a stunning admission: JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid . . . Continue reading →
Interview with Hart (Pt 2)
At Letters from Mississippi.
Breaking the Law of Niceness
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother (Matthew 18:15). We’ve been discussing Christian rhetoric and theological discourse on the HB. This . . . Continue reading →
Tim Keller on Homosexuality, Hell, and Human Flourishing
Robert Gagnon, at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, an astute scholar of the question of homosexuality in the NT has written a critique of some 2008 comments by Tim Keller regarding homosexuality. In response, Rachel Miller writes, For me, while Dr. Keller’s remarks on . . . Continue reading →
Challies Gets Niceness
Humans seem to be naturally drawn to niceness. Niceness is comfortable. To be nice is to be pleasant in manner, to be agreeable, to adhere to social conventions. We like to be around people who are nice at least in large part . . . Continue reading →
Would You Give Up the Means of Grace for 500 Million Dollars?
The recent Powerball lottery pay-off was 588 million dollars. This prompted the hosts of a Lincoln (Neb) sports-talk show, following Dan Patrick, to ask the following question: would you give up watching sports forever for $500,000,000? The guest to whom they asked . . . Continue reading →
Lust Isn’t Only Excessive Desire But Desire Wrongly Focused
In other words, homosexuality is lustful not just because it has to do with excessive desire. It is lustful because by participating in homosexual behavior a person dismantles one of God’s most important sexual boundaries. Even in committed homosexual relationships, then, homosexual . . . Continue reading →
Nice Idolatry (2)
In part 1 we looked at some comments forwarded to the HB by Dave. His correspondent wrote, “I have a personal relationship with Christ but my Christ is not an ass and He wants everyone to do what makes them happy including . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 18: Is It Okay To Steal (If The Minister Says It Is?)
A correspondent writes to about an Anglican minister who advised the poor, who are starving, who’ve somehow fallen through the extensive British social safety net, among his congregation, to shoplift rather than commit burglary. He asked them not to steal from small . . . Continue reading →
Why (Some) Reformed People Are Such Jerks
The Oxford American Dictionary gives this informal usage of the noun jerk: a contemptibly obnoxious person § About as soon as I left my evangelical (Southern Baptist) congregation and started associating with Reformed folk, I began to hear this question. I remember taking someone . . . Continue reading →
The Illusion Of Self Authority
I would say the source of morality is not me. I’m merely informing you of another authority that seems to have a good deal more force than I could ever command. But in the end, of course, the illusion of self-authority—which has . . . Continue reading →
The Inherent Goodness Of Work
One of the casualties of the West’s cultural shift from Christian theism to Deism, and from that to late modern subjectivism (and neo-paganism) is the death of the Christian work ethic. The act of work has been emptied of its intrinsic value. . . . Continue reading →
Of Virtues True And False: Niceness v Christian Virtue
Traditionally in Christian ethics there was said to have been seven virtues, the three theological virtues (faith, hope, and love from 1 Cor 13) and four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance). Our word virtue is derived from Latin words for strength. . . . Continue reading →
Economics, Trust, Imputation, and Worth (Updated)
Shocking as it may be, courses in medieval history and theology do not always have immediate relevance to late modern society. There is a theme in medieval history and theology, however, that does illumine what is happening to the global economy. Since . . . Continue reading →
Black Friday, Subjectivism, And Christian Liberty
On 24 November, the Roman Bishop, Francis, issued a document, Evangelium Gaudii which the Vatican classifies as an “Apostolic Exhortation.” It’s a book, a really long (217 pages) sermon. Rome is a complicated creature with seemingly endless categories of offices, canons, decrees, laws, . . . Continue reading →
Augustine On The Hermeneutics Of Love
While Augustine argues that ‘there are two things on which all interpretation of Scripture depends: the mode of ascertaining the proper meaning and the mode of making known the meaning when it is ascertained,’ it should be evident that the first step . . . Continue reading →
Law, Wisdom, And Charity: Life In A Twofold Kingdom
Under the subject line “2k” P writes, If Abraham the sojourner had no trouble making secular deals with people in Canaan, why did he refuse the offer of possessions from the king of Sodom? What would have been so wrong if the . . . Continue reading →