In chapter 3 of his helpful 1996 book Truth & Power: The Place of Scripture in the Christian Life, J. I. Packer takes a few paragraphs to evaluate the effect of Karl Barth's theology on biblical interpretation in the twentieth century. "Barth's work over half a century has certainly renewed in some quarters a sense that we must go to the Bible for God's message," Packer says. ...
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On the Governor
Governor Mike Huckabee ran an impressive campaign for President of the United States. He did more with less and showed good humor doing it. He was often the most effective communicator in the Republican field and he has an impressive record with over a decade as a conservative Republican governor in a Democratic leaning state.
Governor Huckabee is a stalwa...
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This Thanksgiving morning fear may replace well-fed and complacent gratitude in many homes. Times are tough and seem to be getting tougher.
What is going to happen next?
Our economic experts give us mixed answers, for economics, the "dismal science," is inexact. Everybody has his own way of knowing when economic times are getting dark. Some economists watch the Wal-Mart p...
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Professors are people with full-time jobs teaching students, researching subjects, and publishing their findings. Why would they add to this schedule something that is not a part of their job description: blogging?
The question is not merely, ahem, academic. There are plenty of professors who have been blogging for as long as there have been blogs. And they have a lot of...
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God does not need a presidential proclamation of thanksgiving, but the nation does.
Thanksgiving reminds us that our success is not all in our hands. Our leaders, even the ones who mean well, do not control all events. Best reason and best experience shows that cosmic history is complicated.
The events that impact a nation are ultimately in God's hands. Because God loves...
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To regain an electoral majority the Republican Party must:
Sentence One: Increase the number of Christian white single voters.
Sentence Two: Increase the number of Christian nonwhite voters to at least 2004 levels.
White voters are in decline. Married voters are in decline. There is a small drop in Christian voters, but Christians remain an overwhelming majority (80...
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Mitt Romney reminded me today why I voted for him.
He loves Detroit as only a child of the auto industry can. He loves Detroit enough to know that being allowed to fail is the price of being allowed to succeed. No tax payer money should go directly to the auto industry.
Read the editorial here.
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Kathleen Parker, a conservative columnist for the Washington Post, appears to generally be a decent sort. Her columns have a punchy writing style I wish I could master, though they have never been particularly "intellectual." Her only academic appointment appears to be at the Buckley School of Public Speaking
. . . possessor of a web site that has provided me minutes of fun. ...
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Featured Essay
As of right now (November 16, 2008) my house is permeated by the smell of smoke. With all of the windows closed and the air filter running it is still impossible to filter out the smoke smell. Smoke is one of those smells that you never get used to. It continually sets off alarms in your head. You can forget about it for minute or two, but it is like a car alarm that re...
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The Old Testament acknowledges the existence of economic, not racial, slavery in the ancient world and attempts to regulate it. The New Testament undermines the economic viability of slavery by calling for slaves to be treated as "brothers," but does not call for immediate abolition.
Why not?
The Bible attacks slavery and many other social injustices indirectly. The mai...
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The existence of beauty suggests that a God exists and that He is good. It is not a sufficient proof for the existence of God by itself, but a confirmation of His existence to those with other reasons and personal experiences that suggest His reality.
From Plato to C.S. Lewis, creation as a whole has been viewed as marvelously elegant.
The harmonious plan of the cosmos a...
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Opposing a call to compassion feels like kicking a puppy with a broken paw, but it isn't. A call to compassion is not actually compassion.
Armstrong, who has never met a religious idea so complex that she could not over simplify it in a best seller, has issued a call for religion to be recaptured from "fundamentalism."
A charitable soul can overlook the irony of a call t...
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