Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 128

A Call for American Evangelical Leaders to Confront Evangelicalism’s Lunatic Fringe

A Call for American Evangelical Leaders to Confront Evangelicalism’s Lunatic Fringe Every religious movement that grows sufficiently large has a lunatic fringe; extremists attach themselves to religious (and other) movements to gain respectability and a “voice”—to influence the movement and others through it. Then, inevitably, critics of the movement accuse it of fostering lunatics and [Read More...]

An Extended Footnote/Addendum to My Review of Oord’s “The Uncontrolling Love of God”…

An Extended Footnote/Addendum to My Review of Oord’s The Uncontrolling Love of God… In that review, posted here on November 28, 2015, I mentioned an evangelical Wesleyan philosopher who, I believe, settled the “problem” of God and gratuitous evil within a frame of reference of free will theism (belief in libertarian freedom). I suggested that [Read More...]

Does Love Ever Coerce? My Response to “The Uncontrolling Love of God” by Thomas Jay Oord

Does Love Ever Coerce? My Response to The Uncontrolling Love of God by Thomas Jay Oord The book’s whole title and publication information is: The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence by Thomas Jay Oord (InterVarsity Press, 2015). I title this post “My Response” because in the book Oord specifically [Read More...]

A National Registry for Adherents of a Certain World Religion?

A National Registry of People of a Certain World Religion? *Nothing contained in this post should be interpreted as expressing the ideas of anyone other than this blogger’s. This blogger here, as always, speaks only for himself, not for any institution, organization or person(s) with which he may be affiliated.* According to some news reports [Read More...]

Thanksgiving Thoughts

Thanksgiving Thoughts In the United States this Thursday, November 26 (2015) is a holiday called “Thanksgiving Day.” I won’t bore with the history except to say it commemorates the survival of the English settlers, usually called “Pilgrims,” of Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts in 1620. After a harrowing voyage from the “old world” to “New England,” they [Read More...]

My Response to “An Assemblies of God Response to Reformed Theology”

My Response to “An Assemblies of God Response to Reformed Theology” The Assemblies of God denomination is one of the largest, if not the largest, evangelical Christian denomination that is historically-theologically primarily, if not exclusively, Arminian in theology. I grew up Pentecostal but not “AG.” However, the Pentecostal group I belonged to as a child, [Read More...]

Alister McGrath’s Parchman Lectures at Baylor’s Truett Seminary (November, 2015)

Alister McGrath’s Parchman Lectures at Baylor’s Truett Seminary (November, 2015) As I recently announced here, British evangelical theologian-philosopher-scientist Alister McGrath delivered the annual Parchman Lectures at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary the week of November 16-20, 2015. McGrath is, in this blogger’s opinion, one of the most important voices in contemporary Christian theology and philosophy. (If [Read More...]

An Evangelical Superstar Scholar: Alister McGrath

An Evangelical Superstar Scholar: Alister McGrath This week (November 17-18) I am privileged to meet, hear, and interact with British evangelical superstar theologian-philosopher-scientist Alister McGrath (b. 1953). Here is his brief description according to Wikipedia: “Alister Edgar McGrath is a Northern Irish theologian, priest, intellectual historian, scientist, and Christian apologist. He currently holds the Andreas [Read More...]

Where Calvinists, Lutherans, Arminians (and Some Catholics) Agree

Where Calvinists, Lutherans, Arminians (and Some Catholics) Agree The subject is “salvation” from beginning to end–from the first stirrings of desire for communion with God to glorification in heaven and everything spiritually good in between. About what do Calvinists, Lutherans, Arminians and at least some (maybe all right-thinking) Catholics agree? It’s all gift. We disagree [Read More...]

Is “Following Jesus” Enough?

This week I was visiting Messiah College in Pennsylvania and speaking at its annual Sider Institute conference. The Sider Institute is devoted to the study of Pietism and Anabaptism–two of three “ingredients” in the Brethren in Christ denomination with which Messiah College is affiliated. I spoke to the conference attendees about “In Defense of Denominations” [Read More...]