Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 138

A Grandfather’s Advice to His Black Teen Grandson

Dear Beloved Grandson, Be afraid. Be very afraid. You shouldn’t have to be, but in today’s America you need to be constantly on your guard. Or maybe “afraid” isn’t the right word. Be vigilant and very careful. Especially around police. Wait. Don’t hate police; not all of them are your enemies. But given the plethora [Read More...]

Calling for Total Transparency by Churches

Recently I was chatting with a Christian magazine editor and the subject of the “nones” (about which I recently blogged) came up. The question on everyone’s mind is, of course, how to attract “nones” back to church or at least how to keep millennials (many of who are perceived as abandoning church altogether) in the [Read More...]

Criteria for Recognizing a Religious Sect as a “Cult”

Note: If you are pressed for time and cannot read the whole essay below, feel free to skip to the end where I list 10 criteria. The essay describes my own history of interest in and research about “cults” and new/alternative religious groups. Developing Criteria for Recognizing a Religious Sect as a “Cult” Many religious [Read More...]

How Seriously Should We Take the Phenomenon of “The Nones?”

How Seriously Should We Take the Phenomenon of “The Nones?” According to a recent Pew-funded study of American religion, the percentage of Americans who claim to have no religious affiliation is growing. Many people are disturbed by this. Here I’d like to muse a bit about that. First, who are the “we” in the title [Read More...]

Is God “A Being” Or “Being Itself?”

I grew up thinking of God, the God of the Bible, the “Christian God,” as “a being”–at the top of a great chain of beings but with a clear gulf fixed between him and everything else down the chain. The gulf was crossable only from God’s side and had to do with the fact that [Read More...]

Invitation to Participate Here: Stories about Contemporary New Testament Churches

Recently I posted an essay here about “Living Theology” ending with some comments about my own desire to find and experience true New Testament Christianity as it was in the times of the apostles. That reveals my own bias toward ecclesiastical Restorationism. That is the belief that the “job” of the church in every age [Read More...]

“Living Theology: Knowing and Following Our Resurrected Lord” (Spiritual Warfare)

“Living Theology: Knowing and Following Our Resurrected Lord”   This is a talk I gave at the recent MissioAlliance Gathering in Alexandria, Virginia. The forum topic was “Living Theology: Knowing and Following Our Resurrected Lord.” (The theme of the Gathering this year was “Resurrection Life.”) I was one member of a panel; each member gave [Read More...]

Is God Also Our Mother?

Is God Also Our Mother? This debate over appropriate language for God has been going on for at least half a century now. Some Christians struggle with calling God “Father” for three reasons. First, some say addressing God as Father reinforces patriarchy—the idea that males have the right to rule over and dominate females (and [Read More...]

Pentecostal Pacifism: A Lost (and Denied) Tradition

Pentecostal Pacifism: A Lost (and Denied) Tradition Recently here I blogged about the supernatural and how, in my opinion, many evangelicals have neglected, if not denied, it due to a general search for respectability. Nowhere is this evangelical search for respectability more evident to me than among Pentecostals. All Pentecostal Christians pay lip service to [Read More...]

Boys and Men Suffer Sex Abuse, Too….

Boys and Men Suffer Sex Abuse, Too, But It Is Under Reported and Widely Ignored My thesis here is that many more American males are victims of sexual abuse than most people know or care about. How many people would guess that, according to a recent study, twenty percent of reported incidents of sexual abuse [Read More...]