Category Archives: theological

Death and chatter

News of G______’s death brought to mind the death of my father, my mother in law, recently my aunt, and how many others that I’ve been with as pastor. Each one is different, the rituals bring pattern to the chaos. … Continue reading

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What is Identity and What Will Be Its End

Identity is an interesting thing. Jordan Peterson makes the observation that it is indeed a public thing, but like reputation it is publicly constructed more than individually asserted. Our current POTUS surely has an opinion as to what his reputation … Continue reading

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How the “Christians United” Statement by post-evangelicals furthers the Confessional Conversation we need to have

Last month the Nashville statement was released causing a flurry of mostly the same conversation about the church and LGBTQ issues. A few statements arose from it but probably the most important one that I’ve seen so far is the … Continue reading

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Helping Sensible People Believe the Crazy Stuff Christians Profess

Tim Keller and Pete Enns Any reader of my blog has a clue of how much I owe to Tim Keller, but only a clue. I follow his sermons, lectures, and books very closely. I’ve gained immensely from him. My … Continue reading

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Mutual of Oprah’s Wild Kingdom and the Limits of the Buffered Self

Mutual of Oprah’s Wild Kingdom I’ve watched some of Oprah’s miniseries. The production values are very high. The presentation is beautiful and winsome. Care is clearly taken to allow the diverse religions and spiritualities to have their own voice The … Continue reading

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The “God is a Moral Monster” Objection Stated

I find this objection to Christianity to be increasingly common among Christian defectors. I thought it might be worth while exploring it further. As you’ll see later in this series, I don’t really thing it is as much an argument … Continue reading

Posted in Culture commentary, philosophical reflection, theological, Understanding the Bible | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Glory in the Creation Story of Isaiah 5

One of My Favorite Creation Stories While the Genesis stories get all of the attention one of my favorite creation stories is found in Isaiah 5:1-7. You might say “that isn’t a creation story” but I think it is. It … Continue reading

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The “Good” I Don’t Need God For (and the Uncomfortable Good I Do)

Good without God In the theist-atheist debates one of the flash points is morality. Theists like to tell atheists that their morality is foundationless without God. That’s a debatable point in the theoretical and philosophical but I must conceded is … Continue reading

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My Calvinism

The Christian Reformed Church Given the rise of emergent Calvinism the word has become (again) a hot potato. I’m not a Calvin scholar so for a more academic treatment I’ll defer to a real Calvin scholar like Richard Muller who … Continue reading

Posted in How to become a Christian, theological | Tagged , | 2 Comments

From “hurt people hurt people” to “Graced people grace people”

Religion and Mental Illness Read this interesting interview on Sam Harris’ blog where the interviewer was connecting religion with mental illness. I do think there is sound anthropological evidence that the first “priests”, the shamans of Siberia, were probably psychological … Continue reading

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