Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 157

Faith and Reason: Is Christianity Irrational?

Faith and Reason: Is Christianity Irrational? It’s common for especially evangelical Christians and secularists to criticize “reasonable faith” as an oxymoron. In this case we see strange bedfellows—agreeing from entirely different premises and worldviews. Some evangelical Christians (and, of course, other kinds of Christians) run from any suggestion that Christianity ought to be reasonable—in the [Read More...]

Another Reformed Pastor-Theologian Affirms “Subsequence” of Spirit-baptism (R. T. Kendall)

Another Reformed Pastor-Theologian Affirms “Subsequence” of Spirit-baptism (R. T. Kendall) Recently I talked here about unexpected common ground between John Piper, a five point Calvinist, and me—subsequence of “Spirit-baptism” or “infilling of the Holy Spirit” to conversion. A colleague mentioned that I should look at R. T. Kendall, recently retired pastor of London’s famous Westminster [Read More...]

A Theologian’s Reflections on the Movie “Heaven Is for Real”

A Theologian’s Reflections on the Movie “Heaven Is for Real” Either serendipitously or providentially, this coming week my Christian Theology class is studying personal, individual life after death—”heaven” and “hell.” After that they/we will study corporate, cosmic eschatology—the future of creation. So, seeing that this week, before class, the movie version of the best-selling book [Read More...]

A Favorite Theologian Revisited: Emil Brunner (Review of Alister McGrath’s Book: Part Two)

A Favorite Theologian Revisited: Emil Brunner (Review of Alister McGrath’s Book: Part Two) This is a continuation of a recent blog post about theologian Emil Brunner under the guise of being a review of Alister McGrath’s recently published Emil Brunner: A Reappraisal (Wiley Blackwell, 2014). I mean that tongue-in-cheek because I’m aware, as you may [Read More...]

One Area Where John Piper and I Agree: Subsequence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

I grew up Pentecostal and have now been Baptist for, oh, about forty years. The other day I was talking with students (mostly Baptists) about the doctrine and experience of the “second blessing” that grew out of the ministry of John Wesley. Wesley himself never equated entire sanctification (“Christian perfection”) with Spirit baptism/infilling of the [Read More...]

Some Emil Brunner Sayings (from Dogmatics, Vol. I)

Some Emil Brunner Sayings (Quotations Mainly from Dogmatics) These quotes are from Dogmatics I: The Christian Doctrine of God (London: Lutterworth, 1949): “The Dogmatic Theologian who does not find that his work drives him to pray frequently and urgently from his heart: ‘God be merciful to me a sinner,’ is scarcely fit for his job.” [Read More...]

Favorite Theologian Revisited: Emil Brunner (Review of Alister McGrath’s Book: Part One)

A Favorite Theologian Revisited: Emil Brunner (Review of Alister McGrath’s Book: Part One) My heart leaped when I saw the announcement of Alister McGrath’s new book Emil Brunner: A Reappraisal (Wiley Blackwell, 2014). Then my heart sank when I saw the price: $83.79 on Amazon! And it’s only 246 pages. (The Kindle version is less [Read More...]

So What’s Left for Theology to Do? Some Musings about Theology’s Future

My previous post was about my perception that there is nothing new in theology; every idea has been proposed and explored. (Of course, I’m not counting totally crackpot ideas, but even those seem to be recycled.) Theology has always had four main tasks. The first two are critical. First, theology examines teachings labeled “Christian” to [Read More...]

What’s New in Theology? (Some Musings about Novelty–Or Not)

What’s New in Theology? (Some Musings about Novelty—Or Not) One of the curses of getting older and having been in a discipline or profession for many years is having “seen it all before.” Sometimes, after about forty years studying and teaching theology, I feel the truth of that saying “Been there; done that; got the [Read More...]

Christian Ethics and Capital Punishment: Some Thoughts about Reasons and Arguments

Some Thoughts on Christianity and Capital Punishment 1. The conversations among Christians (and of Christians to the state) become confused because issues are not properly disentangled from each other: * In a context of separation of church and state what does Christian ethics have to do with     the secular state? Can Christians dictate to [Read More...]