Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 181

The Almost Completely Unknown Difference that Makes All the Difference….

The Almost Completely Unknown Difference that Makes All the Difference (between Christians and Culture and between Christians and Christians) We talk endlessly about differences among Christians: Catholic versus Protestant, Calvinist versus Arminian, liberal versus conservative, neo-fundamentalist versus postconservative, premillennial versus amillennial, pedobaptist versus credobaptist—to name just a few of our favorite divisions. But over the [...]

Rushing in where angels (at least in Texas) fear to tread!

So, once again we are saddened by the tragic mass shooting of innocent men, women and children. This time, apparently, from news reports, twenty children under 12. Are we becoming jaded by the frequency of the horror? I fear I am. I wish it were not so. I suspect many of us are beginning to [...]

Kudos to Courageous Columnist Kathleen Parker

Kudos to Courageous Columnist Kathleen Parker Two of my favorite female pundits are Kathleen Parker and Maureen Dowd. Both write syndicated columns for major American newspapers and speak from a woman’s perspective on contemporary social and political issues. I enjoy reading them because they are both informed, generally reliable (on the facts), rhetorically pleasing (clear, [...]

The Positive Power of Negative Thinking

The Positive Power of Negative Thinking Years ago I saw one of those one frame cartoons in a magazine like The New Yorker. Perhaps it was The New Yorker. I’ve forgotten now. It so humorously depicted my personality, at least as seen by others, that I decided to put it on my office door. It’s [...]

A Modest Proposal for an Ideal Social Order

A Modest Proposal for an Ideal Social Order What a subject! And such a task! The enormity of it is overwhelming, so all I intend to do here is give a bare bones, that is skeletal, outline of what I regard as the ideal social order. It draws on what I understand to be the [...]

A Must Read: Plantinga’s Gifford Lectures: “Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism”

A Must Read: Plantinga’s Gifford Lectures: Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, & Naturalism Recently I wrote about a long forgotten and neglected theology book that has fortunately been taken out of the “cemetery of forgotten books” and republished (Adrio König’s Here Am I!) right now I am about half way through a book [...]

Good News about a Wonderful Theological Book with a New Lease on Life

Good News! A Wonderful Theological Book Gets a New Lease on Life Recently I’ve been listening (on my ipod) to a trilogy of novels by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game and The Prisoner of Heaven). One especially interesting feature of all three is the (Zafon-created) mythical “Cemetery [...]

Racism and American Politics For almost five years now I’...

Racism and American Politics For almost five years now I’ve wondered why so much criticism of President Obama seems “over the top,” so to speak. That is, why some of it goes beyond criticism of his policies to character vilification. I have observed this from billboards to bumper stickers and from Facebook to families and [...]

Some Musings about Worship as Gift and Task

Some Musings about Worship as Gift and Task Before presenting my musings, let me issue a caveat that I always assume, but many people who visit here seem not to understand. These blog posts are my musings. I don’t regard them as carved in stone, deep theological conclusions such as I might publish in a [...]

Interview with Frank Viola

Here is a link to an interview. Frank Viola is a well-known and influential “beyond evangelical” author: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankvio...