Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 135

How a Theologian’s Insight about Symbols Relates to the Present Kerfuffle about the Confederate Flag

How a Theologian’s Insight about Symbols Relates to the Present Kerfuffle about the Confederate Flag For those of you not living in the United States I’ll briefly summarize a contemporary controversy stirring deep emotions especially in the Southern states. A few weeks ago an emotionally disturbed young man with racist beliefs allegedly entered an African-American [Read More...]

Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey…

Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey (Or How I Survived Spiritual Abuse but Still Bear the Scars) Part Four (Final) Having now told my story of spiritual abuse at the hands of trusted spiritual mentors, I will reflect on it theologically and practically. That is, I will [Read More...]

Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey…Part Three

Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey (Or How I Survived Spiritual Abuse but Still Bear the Scars) Part Three Again…some readers may wonder why I am telling this story here and now? One reason is that nothing communicates truth better than stories. That’s why Jesus told parables [Read More...]

Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey…

Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey (Or How I Survived Spiritual Abuse but Still Bear the Scars) Part Two So why am I telling this story of my spiritual journey, including being part of what I now look back on as a cult, here and now? Over [Read More...]

Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey…

Did I Belong to a Cult? The Story (in Brief) of My Spiritual Journey (Or How I Survived Spiritual Abuse but Still Bear the Scars) One of the subjects I touch on here frequently (and one of my reasons for having this blog) is “cults.” We don’t hear as much about the issue as some [Read More...]

Announcing My Newest Book: Counterfeit Christianity…

Announcing My Newest Book: Counterfeit Christianity: The Persistence of Errors in the Church A couple years ago I was approached by a requisitions editor at Abingdon Press (the United Methodist Publishing House) to write a book about heresies. I never knew the publisher’s exact motive, but I suspect it is part of a general concern [Read More...]

A Major Problem I See with American Culture Today

A Major Problem I See with American Culture Today We (America) claim to be a pluralistic society; we celebrate “otherness.” Of course there are individuals and subcultures that strongly oppose pluralism and want to impose their worldview, form of life, on everyone. In fact, that is exactly the problem I see and here decry. We [Read More...]

Reconsidering My Statements about Pope Francis

Reconsidering My Statement about Pope Francis When the cardinals of the Catholic Church elected a pope to replace retiring Benedict XVI I said here that I was uninterested and didn’t care. The reason was simple: Not that I have anything in particular against Catholics or the Catholic Church but that, as a Baptist, the pope [Read More...]

Stretching the Evangelical Tent Right and Not Left

Stretching the Evangelical Tent Right and Not Left I’ve long advocated a “big tent” view of “evangelical Christianity”—here and in my published writings. My tendency has long been to accept as authentically evangelical any Christian who claims to be evangelical and who fits the basic profile generally accepted by evangelical historians of the movement: George [Read More...]

An Oldie But Goodie: Nationalism Distinguished from Patriotism

I rarely repeat posts here, but I think this old one (2011) is worth posting again. I’ve become increasingly concerned that many American Christians (and perhaps especially evangelicals) confuse patriotism with nationalism to the extent that idolatry lurks close by. Patriotism is love for one’s country without blinders about its flaws and defects.  Patriotism seeks [Read More...]