Early in my Christian life I heard someone say, “The Bible was not given to increase your knowledge but to guide your conduct.” Later I came to realize that this statement was simplistic at best and erroneous at worst. The Bible is far more than a rulebook to follow. It is primarily the message of […]
Readers of the magazine Books & Culture may have relished the opportunity for an intellectual donnybrook when they saw that Philip Jenkins was reviewing a new book by Steve Bruce on secularization. After all, Jenkins's new book, The Next Christendom, whose thesis about the growth of Christianity outside the West has been widely circulated, practically […]
Baylor University professor of theology Roger Olson succeeds in providing "a very basic, relatively comprehensive, nontechnical, nonspeculative one-volume introduction to Christian belief." Anyone who is looking for a defense of his or her own particular theological tradition or narrow slice of Christian thinking will be dissatisfied with Olson's "mediating theological perspective." But those who are […]
Watt's work, the product of more than two years of field research in three Philadelphia churches-a nondenominational congregation called Oak Grove Church, the Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship, and the Philadelphia Church of Christ-proposes to provide "an ethnographic analysis" of the Christians identified in his title. "Bible-carrying Christians," the author explains, are those who carry "their own […]
April came through the coffeehouse door, bleary-eyed from an obviously late night. She muttered an order, rummaged through her purse for coins, and collapsed on the couch. “So,” she asked bluntly, “you make any New Year’s resolutions?” Tony scratched his stubbled chin—he, too, had apparently had a late night—and, not even looking up from his […]
Any evangelical- indeed, any real Christian-would probably say that life's key issue is whether someone comes into a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ. How one receives that salvation, however, has been the subject of many debates throughout church history, debates that continue today. At the center of these many debates is an assumption: […]
Throughout the Middle Ages, the Western church was discussing and debating the nature of justification. The reformers really believed that the popular (and, by the mid-sixteenth century, official) Roman Catholic position was self-salvation. By "Roman Catholic," I don't mean what's going on at your local Catholic church today. Rather, it is to the medieval position […]
Maureen O’Hara and Walter Truett Anderson have recently underscored the growing suspicion that the therapeutic industry is in bad shape. Based on her own experience as a San Diego psychotherapist, O’Hara introduces us to a few of her patients. The names have been changed. Jerry feels overwhelmed, anxious, fragmented and confused. He disagrees with people […]
Pelagius was a monk of British origin who was teaching in Rome at the beginning of the fifth century. When Rome came under barbarian attack in 410, he fled to North Africa, and from there made his way to the East, where his views stirred up controversy in Palestine. He eventually found refuge in Constantinople, […]
Dutch theologian, Dr. G. van der Leuw, once aptly observed that "whoever takes the little finger of liturgy soon discovers that he has grabbed the whole fist of theology." Evangelicals appear to have confirmed the truth of this dictum in their rediscovery of worship in recent years. In the past, we have understandably focused on […]
MR: In a recent article in the journal First Things, you defended the notion that Christians need the doctrine of purgatory. Can you briefly explain why you believe the doctrine of purgatory is necessary for Christians? JW: Well, the doctrine of purgatory addresses an issue that any theological system must face, namely, how does God […]
