Christianity is changing. Of course it has always been changing – I read once that christianity owes a lot of its success to its adaptability to circumstances and culture. But like most other things, it seems to be changing faster these days. So is it good or bad?
I recently wrote about how academics in christian universities and colleges in the USA are finding their professional conclusions coming into conflict with the faith statements of their colleges. But this is an issue that to some degree affects all christians. How should we respond when secular learning seems to contradict traditional christian belief?
It seems inevitable that there will be a tension for christians between academic knowledge and faith. But sometimes the tension becomes very personal in its impacts, and feelings are high on both sides. These issues have come to a head a number of times in recent years at universities and colleges in the USA.
In comments to my last post, Ryan has asked some good questions. They deserve a post of their own. (I have altered the order of some of the questions to group them.)
This is the twelfth in a series of posts on Understanding the Bible in the 21st century. This post: the very difficult question of how a christian should view the Old Testament.
This is the eleventh in a series of posts on Understanding the Bible in the 21st century. So far, the matters we have been discussing seem, to me at least, to be fairly clear and straightforward. They have been based on clear statements in the Bible (or lack of them) and the clear views of […]
This is the tenth in a series of posts on Understanding the Bible in the 21st century. We have seen that the Bible claims to be an authoritative scripture which reveals God. We have also seen that it doesn’t seem to claim to be inerrant or the very words of God himself. So what can […]
This is the ninth in a series of posts on Understanding the Bible in the 21st century. Christians generally believe the Bible, and believe in the Bible, but what should we believe about the Bible? Probably the strongest claim christians make about the Bible is that it is inerrant – it contains no errors. There […]
This is the eighth in a series of posts on Understanding the Bible in the 21st century. We have looked at what Jesus, the Bible and the Bible authors say about the Bible and how they used their scriptures. Now it is time to see what we can conclude about the Bible, and whether some […]
I have looked at six topics so far in this series on Understanding the Bible in the 21st century. Before I move on to draw some conclusions, I want to sum up what I have learnt so far.