Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 155

What Will Those Who Come after Us Say about Us?

What Will Those Who Come after Us Say about Us? Today I had lunch with an esteemed colleague whose special area of scholarship is Karl Barth’s theology. We talked about how living and teaching in Germany when Hitler was coming to power and the “German Christian” movement was growing affected the Swiss theologian’s thinking. And [Read More...]

Could Jesus Have Made Mistakes? An Exercise in Controversial Christology

Could Jesus Have Made Mistakes? An Exercise in Controversial Christology I was recently asked to comment on whether Jesus could have made mistakes. Here’s the back story: A well known, controversial preacher publicly stated that there is a difference between “sin” and “mistake” and that, although Jesus did not sin, he may have made mistakes. [Read More...]

A Step in the Right Direction: A Public Policy Statement about Capital Punishment in America

A Step in the Right Direction: A Public Policy Statement about Capital Punishment in America The Constitution Project (TCP) is a highly regarded, influential “think tank” headquartered in Washington, D.C. It supports non-partisan research into public policies and practices and issues occasional policy recommendations aimed at government entities (as well as the public in general). [Read More...]

A Word about Blogging and Ending a Discussion (And Announcement of a New Topic)

At the very front of my immediately preceding post I announced an end to the discussion thread about naturalism. The reason is simply lack of time to read and respond to every post–many of which were very long and had many parts. Occasionally a discussion thread simply has to die because keeping up with it [Read More...]

Philosopher Max Horkheimer and Theologian Hans Kueng Get the Final Word

I am closing the discussion thread about naturalism with this post. Some have objected that my arguments against naturalism are rooted in fundamentalism. Nothing could be more wrong. 20th century social philosopher Max Horkheimer was not noted for being particularly religious. However, he saw the same flaw in naturalism (which he termed “positivism”) as I [Read More...]

Further Adventures in Missing the Point…

I admit to being amazed and bemused by how many naturalists (or defenders of naturalists) have once again missed the point (of my immediately preceding posts). To them I say: You are missing the point which is logic. There is no logical reason that can be given, on naturalistic beliefs alone, why a person who [Read More...]

Adventures in Missing the Point (Naturalism Revisited)

My apologies to Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren for ripping off their excellent book title. Just to be fair, I’ll put in a plug here for their book Adventures in Missing the Point. The title fits perfectly how I feel about my naturalistic interlocutors here. They simply keep missing (I am tempted to say intentionally [Read More...]

If I Were a Naturalist….

Recently I posted a three part series about the Christian worldview. I asserted that it is a much neglected worldview–both among Christians and non-Christians. I also said that public schools in America tend to secularize students by allowing many other worldviews, quasi-religious as they are, privileged status over against the Christian worldview. I argued that [Read More...]

Do Arminians and Calvinists Worship the Same God?

Do Arminians and Calvinists Worship the Same God? This question never dies. While most Christians on both sides of the divide say yes, some on both sides say no. Because I have openly admitted here that consistent Calvinism turns God into a monster and makes it difficult to tell the difference between God and the [Read More...]

A Shocking Conclusion about American Christianity

A Shocking Conclusion about American Christianity I’m not an expert in or scholar of “youth ministry,” but many of my students are either doing youth ministry or plan to. For some time now I’ve been hearing a lot about something called “Moralistic, Therapeutic Deism” (MTD for short). From 2003 to 2005 sociologist of religion Christian [Read More...]