Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 176

Do “Religionists” and “Secularists” Share the Same Goal?

Do “Religionists” and “Secularists” Share the Same Goal? Tom Krattenmaker is a Portland-based writer specializing in religion in public life and a member of USA TODAY’s board of contributors. His column “Secularists, Meet the Religionists” appeared in USA TODAY March 22. A large, bold print side bar appears to be the article’s subtitle: “You may [...]

What’s Wrong with Calvinism?

This is a talk I gave recently at City on a Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. (City on a Hill is a mostly Russian evangelical church. It’s leaders are concerned about infiltration of aggressive Calvinism into their and other Russian evangelical churches whose tradition is Arminianism. I want to thank Russell Korets and the other [...]

Evangelicalism Is Dead! Long Live Evangelicalism! (Part Two)

Here is the second half of my presentation on “The Future of Evangelicalism” at George Fox Evangelical Seminary on March 11: Part 2: The Evangelical Ethos and Postconservative Evangelicalism             When I talk about “evangelicalism” as a present and future reality, I mean the evangelical ethos. The evangelical movement, as a cohesive coalition, is dead. [...]

Evangelicalism Is Dead! Long Live Evangelicalism!

Here is the first part of my talk at George Fox Evangelical Seminary (March 11, 2013). The second part will come next (in a day or two). (I posted both talks a week ago, but the formatting made it virtually unreadable for most people.) The Future of Evangelicalism George Fox Seminary March 11, 2013 Roger [...]

Our God Is An…Ethical (!) God

I was recently graciously granted on of the highest honors a university can bestow on a professor–an endowed, named “chair” (professorship). In my case it is the Foy Valentine Chair of Christian Ethics–named after a champion of equality and crusader for civil rights. I’m honored by this, and thankful to my dean and provost for [...]

Why Did the U.S. Demonize Hugo Chavez?

Yesterday I was sitting in a coffee shop in a largely Hispanic neighborhood and picked up a Hispanic newspaper. (It was written in both English and Spanish and published in the U.S.) I read a lengthy column about Hugo Chavez. The gist of the column was that the U.S. wrongly demonized the late Venezuelan leader. [...]

“We Have A Pope!” (Who Cares?)

Okay, I care–in the sense that I am interested. However, I have lived long enough to know that it’s impossible to predict what a newly elected pope will do. It’s like Supreme Court justices. Everybody gets all in a dizzy tizzy about every newly appointed justice–claiming he or she will do such-and-such. Generally speaking, it [...]

A Mea Culpa, Apology, and Attempt at Explanation (Re: My Barth’s Universalism Post)

Dear Blog Friends and Followers, A few friends have chided me to making over blown claims for my Barth’s universalism essay and its preceding “head’s up” post. I apologize for implying (which was not really my intention) that no one had ever expressed my view as well as I did. (I explicitly said my view [...]

My Talk about “The Future of Evangelicalism” at George Fox Evangelical Seminary

Yesterday (Monday, March 11)  I spoke at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Portland. Rachel Held Evans also spoke. Our common assigned subject was “The Future of Evangelicalism.” (She did a much better job that I did!) Because I ran out of time, I promised to post the complete talk to my blog. For reasons of [...]

Response to Critics (of My Essay on Barth’s Universalism)

So, as I predicted, some have criticized my essay (immediately preceding post on Barth’s universalism) for being “unoriginal.” I thought I said that I wasn’t trying to be original. I was trying to make Barth’s view accessible to the masses of people interested in Barth who will never read a journal article by Hunsinger, et [...]