Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 83

What Is This Blog For? An Answer by Roger Olson

What This Blog Is For: From Roger Olson Some people who comment here seem not to understand the purpose of this blog. So this is for you—if you are at all ignorant of or confused about the purpose of this blog and why I do not approve all comments. I started this blog off the […]

The New American Evangelical Liturgy

The New American Evangelical Liturgy Over the years I have had the blessing and curse of visiting numerous (very broadly defined) evangelical Christian churches in the United States. I have spoken in many and simply visited many unnoticed. They were of many different denominations spanning the entire spectrum of historic, classical evangelicalism: Pentecostal, fundamentalist, “Third […]

Where Is America Going?

Where Is America Going? Why Is There Not More Outrage? Today (when I write this) is July 4, otherwise known as “Independence Day” in the United States. People are celebrating the country’s open rebellion against its monarch—something most conservative Christians in the U.S. think would be wrong based on Romans 13—except for us. We are […]

The Humpty Dumpty Synderome

The Humpty Dumpty Syndrome In recent discussion here—going back to my post about the problems I see in unlimited pluralism—some people have disagreed with my opinion, expressed in my previous post “On Taking Satanists Seriously,” that I/we should not take their speech acts, performative utterances, self-chosen labels, seriously insofar as they claim that we should […]

On Taking Satanists Seriously

On Taking Satanists Seriously Before reading this you must look back at the immediately preceding blog post where I talked about problems with unlimited pluralism. There I gave the example of a U.S. court ordering an Alaska government entity to allow a self-identified Satanist, member of a Temple of Satan, to take her turn giving […]

Is Unlimited Pluralism Really a Good Idea?

Is Unlimited Pluralism Really a Good Idea? Two things came to my attention via the print media at the same time. One was an opinion essay published in my local newspaper. It was syndicated. In other words, my local newspaper picked it up from some other news source and re-published it. The author was a […]

My Response to John Piper Regarding “The Heart of the Calvinist-Arminian Divide”

My Response to John Piper Regarding “The Heart of the Calvinist-Arminian Divide” Before reading this you should read and/or watch/listen to John Piper’s June 24, 2019 explanation of his perspective on the “heart of the Calvinist-Arminian Divide.” (You can locate it by using a search engine to find “John Piper” and “The Heart of the […]

Is Paradox Something Good in Christian Doctrine?

Is Paradox Something Good in Christian Doctrine? A friend recently forwarded to me a sermon series announcement. It is about a planned series of sermons by his pastor. The church is a mainline Protestant congregation, the largest congregation in the state, and is quite evangelical and even quasi-charismatic (in style of worship). The “paradoxes” the […]

Why Compatibilism is Unbiblical

Why Compatibilism is Unbiblical and an Example of Philosophy Undermining Scripture First, what is “compatibilism?” Put most simply it is the view of free will that says it is compatible with determinism. In other words, with compatibilism one can believe in both free will and determinism (the belief that everything that happens including human decisions […]

Revisioning Masculinity: Toward a Good Masculinism

Revisioning Masculinity: Toward a Good Masculinism One hears of “feminism,” but what might “masculinism” be? And can it be conceived as something good? I propose the development of a good masculinism based on the good characteristics commonly associated with boys and men. Masculinism is not in competition with feminism; the two can work together and […]