I said a few days ago that I was going to say something about why I accept N.T. Wright’s assertion that he holds to penal substitution. This will be brief, and may not be adequate for those with questions, but here it is. It is a methodological issue. I am uncomfortable with assertions of what …
Judas the Christian
In his treatment of my chapter on whether or not Judas was a Christian, Greenbaggins does a good job catching the distinctions I was seeking to make. He hears my qualifications, and is willing to believe them. He says that he has no real problem with the chapter, and had just a few quibble/questions. One …
Living Like a Trinitarian
I recently told a class of tenth-graders that what our culture needed was a return to trinitarian bubble-gum commercials. They were a little nonplussed, and so I hastened to explain. Individuals with one set of ultimate commitments have the capacity to live in alien soil, that is, a culture with a different set of commitments. …
A Few More Links
I realized that I forgot to put the link to Bishop Wright’s article. Here it is now. And, for good measure, here are some other responses. There is this one, and David Field, mentioned in my post yesterday, says this. I want to draw particular attention to the grace evident in David’s last paragraph — …
Irrelevant Details
I had seen on Richard Dawkins’ blog that he was going to be on the O’Reilly Factor, which he in fact was. He and Bill skirmished, as could have been predicted, and I only want to say one thing about it. O’Reilly brought up Stalin and Hitler, good job, and Dawkins pointed out that both …
Some Edifying Gossip
N.T. Wright has recently responded here to a new book, Pierced for Our Transgressions, and gives it a few whacks. Among other things, he says that it is “hopelessly sub-biblical” (largely on the basis of omissions and what he sees as failures of contextualization). HT: Mark Horne and Justin Taylor. What happened was this. A …
Soft Power, Aye
“‘Soft power’ is wielded by soft cultures, usually because they lack the will to maintain hard power. Can you remain a soft power for long? Maybe a generation or two. But a soft culture will, by its very nature, be unlikely to find the strength to stand up to a sustained assault by blunter, cruder …
His Canterburyness
“The last Archbishop of Canterbury but one, Dr. Ramsey, appeared not to realize this when, to my amazement, at the end of a performance of Godspell, he rose to his feet and shouted: ‘Long live God,’ which, as I reflected at the time, was like shouting, ‘Carry on eternity’ or ‘keep going infinity.’ The incident …
Warring With Peace
“When we eat and drink at His table, with a servant’s heart, we are not attending a gloomy memorial, sitting in the dark, feeding on a dry cracker. We are engaged, by the mercy and grace of God, in the extension of Christ’s kingdom. We are conquering the world through sitting down in the peace …
Let Us Hope So
“It is with the saints here as it is with the boughs of trees in a storm. You shall see the boughs beat upon one another, as if they would beat one another pieces, as if armies were fighting; but this is but while the wind, while the tempest lasts. Stay awhile and you shall …