Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 5

“Authentic Christian”

Am I an “Authentic Christian?” (Why I Question It) Some people get very upset when I question the authenticity of their “Christianity.” I understand that, but I also don’t. It confuses me because I am not sure that I am authentically Christian. Let me explain. I’ll begin by referring to two very old Christian (church) […]

Cross-Tinted Glasses?

Here I take up Chapter 3 of God Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God by Gregory A. Boyd (“Greg”) and M. Scott Boren (Herald Press). If you have read the chapter, feel free to comment. If not, only ask a question. Chapter 3 is entitled Cross-Tinted Glasses. In the previous chapter Greg […]

Greg Boyd on the “Center of the Center”

Here I continue discussion of Greg Boyd’s and Scott Boren’s book God Who Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God (Herald Press, 2025). If you have read Chapter 2, The Center of the Center, you may comment on it. If not, only ask a question. Here, in this chapter, Greg wants to go […]

A Big Mistake Trump Just Made

Recently US President Donald Trump made a major blunder that affects everyone in the US if not the world. He fired the director of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics because her (or the bureau’s board’s) report on jobs did not satisfy him. He claimed it was “rigged” but gave no evidence. I have long […]

Southern Baptist Ironies

I have never been to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, but I have known professors there and I have had colleagues who graduated from there. And at least one pastor who graduated from SBTS. I’ve had communications with the president of SBTS, Al Mohler, a leader in the so-called “fundamentalist take over” of the Southern Baptist […]

God Who Looks Like Jesus: The One Eternal Word

I skipped Chapters 1, 2, and 3 and jumped from the Introduction to Chapter 4: Literary Crucifixes. Thanks to whomever pointed it out to me. Now I will back up and begin discussing the accidentally skipped chapters of God Who Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God by Gregory Boyd (Greg) and M. […]

God Looks Like Jesus: Literary Crucifixes?

Here I continue my discussion of Greg Boyd’s latest book God Who Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God with Chapter 4: Literary Crucifixes. If you have read the chapter, feel free to comment. If not, fee free to ask a question. Here Greg is laying out in one chapter the argument of […]

Why He Voted for Trump

After the 2016 presidential election I invited a Christian friend to write a guest post here about why he voted for Trump. Below is his response. I do not know whether he voted for Trump again in 2024, but suspect he did and for the same reasons. I could be wrong. But I have been […]

A God Who Looks Like Jesus: Introduction

Here I begin a new book discussion. My friend Gregory Boyd wrote A God Who Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God (Herald Press) with M. Scott Boren in 2024. I has just been published in 2025. I know Greg personally, but I don’t know Boren. I will therefore use Greg’s first name […]

David Bentley Hart’s Christology

I have before reviewed books by theologian David Bentley Hart. Before launching into this altogether unworthy one (review), I want to thank The University of Notre Dame Press for sending me Advanced Uncorrected Page Proofs of The Light of Tabor: Toward a Monistic Christology (forthcoming, 2025). Hart is by most accounts a very astute, erudite, […]