I first met David Steinmetz in April 1995, more than twenty years ago. I was not quite 21; he was nearly 59. (It is sobering to realize that I am now, at 41, closer to the age he was then than to the age I was then.) Craig Farmer, who taught church history at my alma mater, Milligan College, had strongly encouraged me to attend grad school at Duke to study with Steinmetz. I had read several of his books... Read more
When I got out of graduate school,I applied to a Christian college,Where I found it was the golden ruleTo integrate faith and knowledge.Worldviews that did with this conflict,I poked ’em full of holes, sir;And my concern was very strictTo save my students’ souls, sir. Refrain: And to this rule I shall agreeUntil I am a wraith, sir;That whoever shall give a job to me,I’ll sign their statement of faith, sir.When tenure time was coming round,My prospects seemed uncertain.So I took... Read more
I was invited to participate in a panel of responses to Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to the U.S. Here it is. The title I would have chosen if they had asked would have been “Pope Francis and the alternative to empire,” or, if I’d been feeling particularly punchy, “Pope Francis confronts the Empire.” Read more
I hadn’t planned to write a formal blog post about Kim Davis. I’ve gotten involved in several conversations about her on FB recently, mostly playing devil’s advocate, and I thought probably that was enough–or even too much. But then my beloved wife Jennifer complained that she didn’t have anyone writing about Davis on the Patheos Faith and Work Channel, and I agreed to write a blog post here and have her repost it over there. So, with some misgivings, here... Read more
The BBC/PBS miniseries Wolf Hall is six hours of some of the most absorbing television (or just storytelling generally) I’ve ever seen. I have not yet read the books by Hilary Mantel on which the show is based, but now I certainly intend to. The series does a splendid job of dramatizing the tense and devious politics of the Henrician court, and its central character, Thomas Cromwell, is splendidly acted (by Mark Rylance) and a riveting fictional portrait. Emphasis on... Read more
This summer, I wrote a series of blogs on my experiences at the “Acton Institute” and my reflections afterwards. You can read them on the Patheos “Mission:Work” blog here (this takes you to the last post, which has links to all the others). Read more
One of the strongest Catholic arguments against Protestantism is the challenge, “how do you explain the canon of the New Testament on sola scriptura principles?” At the same time, Catholics often throw away their advantage by silly overstatement. It is nonsense to say, for instance, that “there was no Bible for 300 years,” and it is not self-evident that the Church that canonized the Bible was simply identical to the contemporary “Roman Catholic Church,” or that accepting the canon automatically... Read more
When I began this series, I made it clear that I approached Boyd’s theology with a very different attitude to its two major components. I was quite willing to be persuaded of his “warfare theology,” which appealed to many intuitions I already had about major themes in Scripture. But I very much wanted to find a way to take warfare theology and leave open theism. So where do I stand now? With regard to open theism, Boyd has further confirmed... Read more
I did not originally intend this as an open letter, but my wife urged me to publish it on the grounds that some of what I say here about issues in contemporary evangelical higher education is worth saying publicly. And I tend to trust her judgment on that sort of thing. Background for those who don’t already know: recently a tenured theology professor at Northwest Nazarene, Tom Oord, was suddenly laid off, allegedly for budgetary reasons. Since the president of... Read more
Boyd’s “warfare theology” is a comprehensive account of how God relates to the world in providence and salvation, from creation to the final consummation. Having looked at parts of this theology over the previous several posts, we’re now in a position to examine how it all comes together. And in doing so, I want to highlight several parts of Boyd’s theology that don’t come under the previous headings, particularly his eschatology (which is one of my favorite parts of his... Read more
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