Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 69

Why I Do Not Think of God as “Infinite”

Why I Do Not Think of God as “Infinite” Many people, many Christians included, think that God must be, by definition, infinite. There are, however, many different meanings of “infinite.” The word itself implies to most people, educated and uneducated alike, some idea of limitlessness. It leads the mind onto a path of “perfect being […]

How I Tried on Fundamentalist Christianity and Found It Didn’t Fit

How I Tried on Fundamentalist Christianity and Found It Didn’t Fit If you’re reading this, you need to look back at my immediately preceding post about how I tried on liberal Christianity and found that it didn’t fit—assuming you didn’t already read that one. When I say that I “tried on” fundamentalist Christianity I don’t […]

How I Tried on Liberal Christianity and Why It Didn’t Fit

How I Tried on Liberal Christianity and Why It Didn’t Fit You know the experience. You see a sweater (or other piece of clothing) at a store and you like it a lot and you really want to own it. It’s not exactly your size, but you convince yourself maybe it will shrink or stretch […]

What Should “Church” Be Like? Answering the Question

What Should “Church” Be Like? Answering the Question My immediately preceding post here was a diatribe against what I call the “new paradigm” churches in America—mostly non-descript, unaffiliated, white, mostly suburban (attended mostly by white suburbanites even if the building stands in the city’s urban center), mostly seeker-sensitive, usually concerned with getting large numbers of […]

Something Seriously Wrong with Much of American Christianity

Something Seriously Wrong with Much of American Christianity Where to begin and where to go and where to end—in explaining all the things wrong with contemporary American Christianity? I don’t know. What I do know is that just about everyone will have a different answer. So this is just my answer for today. Recently I […]

The Answer to “Whose Business Is It Anyway?” (About Moral and Immoral Behaviors)

The Answer to “Whose Business Is It Anyway?” (About Moral and Immoral Behaviors) Whenever the question of the morality or ethical correctness of something legal arises someone in the crowd will say “Whose business is that”—so long as the behavior being examined is legal and does not have a negative impact on that person. But, […]

A Question for Atheists and Those Inclined to It: About Incest

A Question for Atheists and Those Inclined to It I’m not trying to pick on anyone in particular. Anyone who has followed my blog very long knows that, from time to time, I raise questions about the rationality of atheism and about its consequences for ethics and morality. So please don’t think this is aimed […]

A Test of the Authenticity of Your Christianity

A Test of the Authenticity of Your Christianity Recently here I reviewed David Bentley Hart’s book That All Shall Be Saved. The book very strongly promotes belief in universal salvation with hell being temporary and eventually emptied. God guarantees it. He has to because of his goodness. So Hart argues. I disagreed. (Sidebar: In my […]

Should Sons (or Daughters) Succeed Parents as Religious Leaders?

Should Sons (or Daughters) Succeed Parents as Religious Leaders? Well, of course there can be no definite answer this this question—either “yes” or “no.” However, in light of history, past and present, it seems highly doubtful that automatic succession of a religious leader by his or her son or daughter is a good thing. I […]

Review of “That All Shall Be Saved” by David Bentley Hart

Review of That All Shall Be Saved by David Bentley Hart I don’t think I have ever read a book quite like this one. It’s “one of a kind” (which is really a shortened version of “the only one of its kind”). How so? It’s extremely erudite, even ostentatiously so, challenging to the mind, very […]