Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 6

Is David Bentley Hart a Heretic? Review of His Christology

I have before reviewed books by theologian David Bentley Hart. Before launching into this altogether unworthy one, 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, creative […]

Mysticism: What Is It?

I recently said here, as I have often said to people, that I do not have a “mystical bone in my body.” That is simply my way of saying I’m not attracted to mysticism. But that always raises some questions because the word “mysticism” has so many meaning, especially in popular language. What do I […]

“Resonance” According to Rodney Clapp

This constitutes the final entry to our discussion of Rodney Clapp’s book Living Out of Control: Political and Personal Faith in Waning Christendom. Here I discuss Chapter Nine: Resonance. If you have read the chapter, feel free to comment. Otherwise, feel free to ask a question. Please remember our next book discussion which will be […]

Why “MAGA?”

Why “Make America Great Again?” Don’t get my question wrong. I put “MAGA” and “Make America Great Again” in quotation marks because by them I refer to the movement, not the general hope of most Americans. Why the specific contemporary movement with Donald Trump at is head? Why are so many Americans passionate about it […]

A New Book Discussion: God Looks Like Jesus

After Living Out of Control, the current book under discussion here, I will take on God Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God by Gregory A. Boyd and M. Scott Boren (Herald Press, 2025). To those who may balk at buying another book I quote Petrarch: Wear the old coat; buy the new […]

Friendship Out of Control

Here I continue my discussion of Rodney Clapp’s book Living Out of Control: Political and Personal Faith in Waning Christendom. This week’s chapter is Eight: Friendship. If you have read the chapter, feel free to comment. If not, feel free to ask a question. As often, Rodney gives us the “gist” of the chapter in […]

What Is Anti-Semitism?

Not only the reality, but also the terminology of anti-Semitism has become controversial in recent years, especially since Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. People who criticize Israel are often labeled anti-Semitic. But are they? Does criticizing the State of Israel make one anti-Semitic? Anti-Semitism is any attitude of prejudice against Jews just because they […]

Remembering Jimmy Swaggart: A Pentecostal Legacy

R.I.P. Jimmy Swaggart I grew up in “the thick” of American Pentecostalism in the 1950s to the mid-1970s. And I have kept up with American Pentecostalism and consider myself something of an expert or scholar of the movement. I love to study the lives and ministries of the great Pentecostal evangelists such as Aimee Semple […]

And Now an American Concentration Camp

Of Disdain if not Hatred According to recent news reports, the US administration is establishing a “detention center” for undocumented persons (aka “illegal immigrants”) in the Florida Everglades. It is being called “Alligator Alcatraz.” President Trump has been recorded and shown on TV saying that the detainees must learn to run zig-zag rather than straight […]

Can a Real Christian Support the Shut Down of USAID?

According to today’s edition of Time.com (July 1, 2025), the shuttering of USAID will lead to millions of deaths around the world. That claim is based on a new study published in the respected medical journal The Lancet (June 30) showing that the defunding of USAID (The United States Agency for International Development) by Trump […]