One of the most baffling things about the postmodern drift in Reformed and evangelical circles is the idea that certainty is entirely and completely dependent on foundationalism. And, if foundationalism goes, then there goes our ability to know anything for certain. Now foundationalism is the philosophical view that certitude must be based on certain “basic” …
More Shroud Stuff
Since the Shroud of Turin web site went up last week, the response has been really remarkable, with lots of interest and respect from all around the world. But some of our local critics have been beside themselves, and have behaved like a nine-year-old boy throwing rocks at a train . . . ten minutes …
A Critical Spirit
“And when folks don’t want your religion the way it is, then change it! If totalizing metanarratives don’t cut it, then give them partializing mininarratives. If they don’t want to hear that Jesus died for sinners, then we are called, in a postmodern milieu, to tell them that He didn’t. Those who have a problem …
The Ice Cream Shop of Truth
“This book actually does provide us with a veritable Baskins & Robbins of apologetic methods. We have the standard old Arminian vanilla supplied by Craig, and the more reformational Rocky Road supplied by James Sire. But both these gentlemen, for all their strengths, are unduly attached to the traditional flavors, with their undue dependence upon …
The Good Girl of Evangelicalism
“This leaves our writers free to accomodate their theology to the contemporary horizon without becoming complete secularists. Unbelieving scholars can get their hands in our ecclesiastical blouse, but no farther! ‘Let us seek a way to revise classical theism in a dynamic direction without falling into process theology'” (Contours of Post Maturity, p. 50).
Milk and Bread
My father was a graduate of the Naval Academy, class of 1950. After doing his stint in the Korean War, he eventually resigned his commission to go into Christian literature work with Officers’ Christian Union (now Officers’ Christian Fellowship). After he left the Navy, we wound up in Tacoma Park, Maryland for a short time …
Looking for My Feet
Manfully, I continue to work through The Next Reformation by Carl Raschke. In the course of my reading this morning, I came across this. “The philosophical quest for unfailing presuppositions is not Christian; it is outright paganism” (p. 113, emphasis his). Presuppositions are not something you go off and hunt for, like the Holy Grail. …
Anti-Americanism
I am currently enjoying the book Anti-Americanism by Jean-Francois Revel. On a number of levels, the book is a shrewd diagnosis of the various emotional European pathologies that masquerade as insightful analysis of the United States. Revel is not addressing those who, for various reasons, want to critique America (which is not only fine, but …
Wait Up Guys!
“‘Modern theology has witnessed a remarkable reexamination of the nature and attributes of God’ (p. 91). And whatever modernity does, even if it involves turning into postmodernity, we simply must imitate. And of course, modern theology does down the road pretty fast, giving our fat little evangelical thighs quite a workout keeping up! We need …
Primer on Eschatology 3
26. What are some of the features of postmillennialism? We have already talked about preterism: Many of the prophecies of the Bible which premillennialists consider unfulfilled, postmillennialists believe have already been fulfilled. This includes Old and New Testaments both. We determine what has been fulfilled by the teaching of the New Testament. Psalm 2 provides …