Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 71

Can You Be a Baptist and a Hindu (or a Buddhist)?

Can You Be a Baptist and Hindu (or Buddhist)? Now, before someone jumps to the wrong conclusion…I am NOT saying that Kamala Harris (Joe Biden’s chosen running mate) claims to be both Baptist and Hindu. However, I have heard people SAY that she is both Baptist and Hindu—as if that were possible (and some have […]

Why I Have a Problem with the Phrase “Practical Theology”

Why I Have a Problem with the Phrase “Practical Theology” Most seminaries in America have a department or unit of the curriculum (and professors who teach those courses) called “practical theology.” There are Christian scholars who specializes in “practical theology”—who write books that fit into that category and who speak and inform professors, students, pastors […]

Our Feet Are Set on Slippery Places: Reflections on the Political Divide in America

Our Feet Are Set on Slippery Places: Reflections on the Political Divide in America What more is there to say about this subject? Numerous commentators have weighed in on it. And yet, we don’t seem to be making any progress toward greater civility. The divide is growing wider and deeper and people on both sides […]

Second (or Third) Thoughts about Situation Ethics (Part 2)

Second (or Third) Thoughts about Situation Ethics (Part 2) Before reading this be sure to read Part 1. (Any response to this Part 2 that indicates you have not read Part 1 will not be approved.) So was Joseph Fletcher’s “situation ethics” a “new morality?” He even he admitted that most of what he was […]

Second (or Third) Thoughts about “Situation Ethics” (Part One)

Second (or Third) Thoughts about Situation Ethics (Part One) I recently completed a second or third reading of the famous or infamous 1960s book Situation Ethics: The New Morality by American Protestant theologian and ethicist Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991). It was first published in 1966 and was widely lumped together with other radical theological proposals published […]

Why an Income Tax is the Only Fair Tax

Why an Income Tax Is the Only Fair Tax *I write here as a Christian ethicist, but I think what I argue does not depend on Christianity* When I was a kid growing up in the capital city of a state in the Upper Midwest of the U.S. my parents had to pay a “personal […]

A Really Good REFORMED Systematic Theology

A Really Good Reformed Systematic Theology I’m sure many people will think it ironic that I, Roger Olson, an outspoken Arminian, recommend the same systematic theology/dogmatics as does Michael Horton! The relatively new, one volume systematic theology/dogmatics is Christian Dogmatics: An Introduction by two Dutch theologians: Cornelis van der Kooi and Gijsbert van den Brink […]

Something Interesting about Many Comments Here (And a Question)

Something Interesting…about Many Comments Here…and a Question… Some of my recent blog essays (“musings”) here have been about history. For example, I wrote about how Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and what role Christians played in that. I also wrote about the beginning obvious signs of totalitarianism in certain South American countries. These […]

How Would It Begin? The Early Signs of Totalitarianism

How Would It Begin? The Early Signs of Totalitarianism One day some nonviolent protesters against police brutality are walking together down a city center street near their encampment. They have not broken any federal laws but are suspected of being anarchists. The state, county and local police have not issued warrants for their arrest or […]

A Little Known Footnote to Evangelical History: Love of Jews

A Little Known Footnote to Evangelical History: Love of Jews Wikimedia Commons Anti-Semitism is the word used for hatred of Jews, whether explicit or implicit, even unconscious. I once knew a man, a Presbyterian elder, who vehemently denied that he was anti-Semitic but expressed the opinion that the Jews of Europe “brought it on themselves”—referring […]