Here I continue my discussion of Greg Boyd’s latest book God Who Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God with Chapter 4: Literary Crucifixes. If you have read the chapter, feel free to comment. If not, fee free to ask a question. Here Greg is laying out in one chapter the argument of his two volume work entitled The Crucifixion of the Warrior God. With regard to the Old Testament texts of terror he says “Since God works... Read more

After the 2016 presidential election I invited a Christian friend to write a guest post here about why he voted for Trump. Below is his response. I do not know whether he voted for Trump again in 2024, but suspect he did and for the same reasons. I could be wrong. But I have been accused by some of only posting anti-Trump comments here. Obviously they, the critics, have not read my blog long enough to have read this eloquent... Read more

Here I begin a new book discussion. My friend Gregory Boyd wrote A God Who Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God (Herald Press) with M. Scott Boren in 2024. I has just been published in 2025. I know Greg personally, but I don’t know Boren. I will therefore use Greg’s first name as we are former colleagues and still friends. The book’s Introduction reveals some very personal information about Greg’s past. I am proud that he is... Read more

I have before reviewed books by theologian David Bentley Hart. Before launching into this altogether unworthy one (review), I want to thank The University of Notre Dame Press for sending me Advanced Uncorrected Page Proofs of The Light of Tabor: Toward a Monistic Christology (forthcoming, 2025). Hart is by most accounts a very astute, erudite, creative thinker, even if, by some accounts, a controversial one. He is Christian. It has been reported that he affiliates somehow with the Eastern Orthodox... Read more

I recently said here, as I have often said to people, that I do not have a “mystical bone in my body.” That is simply my way of saying I’m not attracted to mysticism. But that always raises some questions because the word “mysticism” has so many meaning, especially in popular language. What do I mean by it? First, it’s important for me to say that I am a religion scholar; I hold a Ph.D in religious studies from a... Read more

This constitutes the final entry to our discussion of Rodney Clapp’s book Living Out of Control: Political and Personal Faith in Waning Christendom. Here I discuss Chapter Nine: Resonance. If you have read the chapter, feel free to comment. Otherwise, feel free to ask a question. Please remember our next book discussion which will be of Gregory A. Boyd’s book A God Who Looks Like Jesus (Herald Press). It’s brief, easy to read, and inexpensive. Please order it and read... Read more

Why “Make America Great Again?” Don’t get my question wrong. I put “MAGA” and “Make America Great Again” in quotation marks because by them I refer to the movement, not the general hope of most Americans. Why the specific contemporary movement with Donald Trump at is head? Why are so many Americans passionate about it and so invested in it? I have read and watched/listened to many attempted explanations. Most of them have part of the truth. Few capture all... Read more

After Living Out of Control, the current book under discussion here, I will take on God Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God by Gregory A. Boyd and M. Scott Boren (Herald Press, 2025). To those who may balk at buying another book I quote Petrarch: Wear the old coat; buy the new book. This is one that should stimulate theological thought and discussion. It’s not academic or scholarly, but, of course, the authors are scholars. Jonathan Merritt... Read more

Here I continue my discussion of Rodney Clapp’s book Living Out of Control: Political and Personal Faith in Waning Christendom. This week’s chapter is Eight: Friendship. If you have read the chapter, feel free to comment. If not, feel free to ask a question. As often, Rodney gives us the “gist” of the chapter in the penultimate paragraph—with a sentence after that. Here is the gist: “I thank God for friends inside and outside the church who largely agree with... Read more

Not only the reality, but also the terminology of anti-Semitism has become controversial in recent years, especially since Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. People who criticize Israel are often labeled anti-Semitic. But are they? Does criticizing the State of Israel make one anti-Semitic? Anti-Semitism is any attitude of prejudice against Jews just because they are Jews. (Yes, I know “Semite” can also refer to Arabs, but that is irrelevant here.) To be sure, it also includes actions that are... Read more