Category Archives: Theology

Open Theism and Quantum Physics

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It is as I suspected: open theists have recruited ideas drawn from quantum physics to support their view that indeterminacy is built into the deep structure of the universe, and that the future is unknowable in all its details, even to God.

From what I had read and heard, I expected the noted scientist/theologian John Polkinghorne would take such a view, and I now find this to be the case.  Open theist Greg Boyd has an article on Scientific Support for the Open View, and quotes Polkinghorne (in Science and Providence) as saying that notions of indeterminacy in physics

…emphasize how different time is from space [and] how seriously we must take its unfolding as a process of genuine becoming.

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Feminist Biblical Interpretation

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The Bible, writes Phyllis Trible, was born and bred in a land of patriarchy, and abounds in male imagery and language.  The interpretation of the Bible, too, has largely been in the hands of men.  Only recently has any critique of this male dominance begun to emerge.

With particular reference to the Hebrew Scriptures, three approaches to the study of women may be identified:-

1.  The case against women

The first approach emphasises the case against women. …

‘Historic’ or ‘historical’ theology?

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An Amazon reviewer of J.I. Packer’s fine book Concise Theology (IVP) complains that the sub-title (‘A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs’)  is misleading, because the book does not deal with the historical development of Christian doctrine.

But Packer does not set out to write a guide to historical theology, but rather historic theology.  And that’s a rather different aim. By ‘historic Christian beliefs’, he means the ‘classic mainstream’ beliefs as set out in the Westminster Confession and similar documents.…

Donald Macleod to retire as College Principal

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Back in 1982 or thereabouts, I hired a car and drove from my home in Norwich (in the South-East of England) – to Carlisle (in the North-West of England) in order to attend a conference organised by the Banner of Truth Trust.  I particularly wanted to hear Donald Macleod speak.  I was not disappointed.  To be sure, you don’t listen to Macleod for the beauty of his voice (once referred to as a cross between a fog-horn and a set of bagpipes), but rather for his penetrating insights into the Christian faith.…

Out of the mouth of…Christopher Hitchens

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Noted atheist (anti-theist, really) Christopher Hitchens was once interviewed by Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell.

The following exchange was enlightening:-

Sewell: The religion you cite in your book [God Is Not Great] is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make any distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

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A Unitarian ‘miracle’?

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Unitarians, as far as I can tell, don’t believe in miracles.  At least, they don’t believe in the kinds of miracles recorded in the Bible, including Christ’s Virgin Birth and resurrection.

However, while spending a bit of time exploring the beliefs and practices of Unitarians, I came across a rather extraordinary statement which, if true, would certainly have to be regarded as evidence for the miraculous.

I was reading the transcript of a sermon recently preached by Unitarian minister Rev Sarah Tinker. …

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John Shelby Spong

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it will be recalled, was the German Lutheran pastor who stood up to the Nazis and was hanged for his trouble.  During his short life – he died in 1945, at the age of 39 – he wrote a number of works of considerable insight and influence.  Among these are Discipleship and Letters and Papers from Prison.

John Shelby Spong (born 1931) is the retired bishop of the Diocese of Newark, New Jersey. …

Ryle, father and son

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Many of my readers will have heard of ‘Bishop Ryle’.  They will know something of the English clergyman who served churches in East Anglia for many years, before being appointed the first Bishop of Liverpool.  J.C. Ryle was considered something of a ‘conservative’ even in his own day (he lived from 1816-1900).  He defended expounded and defended evangelical churchmanship – the vigorous Protestantism of the Reformers and the Puritans – in the face of Anglo-catholicism and ‘modernism’.…

Poor Joseph?

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St Matthew-in-the-City Church in Auckland, New Zealand, has put up a billboard depicting a dejected-looking Joseph beside Mary in bed, beneath the caption, ‘Poor Joseph.  God was a hard act to follow.’

The aim, according to the church’s vicar, Archdeacon Glynn Cardy, is to provoke debate, to ‘challenge stereotypes’ about the birth of Jesus, to lampoon the literal interpretation of the biblical stories of Jesus’ birth.

What we’re trying to do is to get people to think more about what Christmas is all about. 
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Twenty-six logical fallacies

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Levi Felton has recently posted a list of logical fallacies, which I think is quite useful in sharpening up debate and recognising flaws in the one’s arguments and those of others.  His main target is Brian MacLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy, but I think the list has more general application.  Here’s the list (mainly in Levi’s words), with a few comments (mainly in my own words):-

1.  Argument from Age.  It can be assumed that something is good, either because it is (a) old (‘the wisdom of the ages’; ‘tried and trusted’); or (b) because it is new (‘fresh’; ‘contemporary’).…