One day, when I was a young christian, I had a surprising thought. As soon as I thought it, I knew it couldn’t be true. But this untrue thought set me on a path of discovery that I am still on today. This path has enriched my understanding of Jesus and changed the way I […]
This post is very much a personal reflection about a journey I am still on. For years I didn’t think much about the Old Testament. I read it sometimes, looked up passages occasionally, appreciated Isaiah and Ezekiel. But I didn’t really spend much time considering what I thought about it. After all, I am a […]
I’ve been reading a few books on the Old Testament lately. Paradoxically, this is probably the one I most disagreed with, yet also the one I gained the most from.
Last year I posted about how christians are gradually becoming more accepting of the theory of evolution. As part of that post, I reviewed the work of Denis Lamoureux, Associate Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Alberta in Canada, based on some online slideshow teachings he has produced. I have now read […]
When I was a young christian (a few decades ago now!), evangelical churches tended to focus on evangelism, and some viewed justice and social action with suspicion. Things have changed since then, with most christians and churches supportive of social welfare and overseas aid programs. There is still a tendency to see these programs as […]
I’ve blogged about Peter Enns’ book Inspiration and Incarnation, and about his first topic, The Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Literature. Now I want to look at his second topic. There are variations in teaching within the Old Testament. What do these tell us about God and his revelation to us?
Understanding the Old Testament isn’t always easy. As well as Genesis-evolution, there are many apparent inconsistencies, within the Old Testament, and between the Old and New Testaments. And those who have read a little about ancient Middle East archaeology, history and literature may have noted similarities between Biblical accounts of creation, the flood and the […]
CS Lewis, christian, author, apologist and academic, died 50 years ago last week, and many assessments of his life and work have been made in commemoration. I think he was, arguably, the most influential christian in the western world in the last century. And, definitely, he has been the most influential writer and teacher in […]
Dave Tomlinson is a British christian who has always pushed the envelope: a leader in the UK house church movement in the 1980s, founder of the Holy Joes “church” in a pub and author of The Post-Evangelical in the 1990s, and now Church of England vicar at St Lukes in London and author of How […]
Last post I blogged about atheists at US universities, many of whom grew up in ‘fundamentalist’ churches. This post, we look at conservative christians who went through a period of examining their faith, but chose to continue to believe in Jesus, albeit their beliefs about God changed somewhat.