Introduction My intention in this series will be to speak as a voice for historic Christian orthodoxy broadly speaking (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant). However, I will do so from the perspective of someone who is a Protestant Christian, having Protestant biases and being more knowledgeable about the Protestant tradition than other Christian traditions. Read More…
5 Objections
The Background This dialogue has its origins in a recent request from my pastor for me to write out my most significant doubts concerning the truth of mainstream Christianity. I came up with the following 5 objections, written in question form, and sent a copy to the pastor. I also sent a copy to my Read More…
Review: Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner
In this series, I review what I take to be three of Neil Postman’s most influential works on education. First up (below) is Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969), to be followed in part 2 by Teaching as a Conserving Activity (1979), and finally part 3 will bring us to The End of Education (1995). Read More…
On Shoes
To walk a mile in another’s shoes is indeed a valuable pursuit, as it no doubt tells us much about the other – but it tells us far more about ourselves. For, to wear the shoes of another properly, we must first remove our own, a task which few of us ever truly accomplish. Our Read More…
Review: Scripture and the Authority of God by N.T. Wright
What It’s About In Scripture and the Authority of God, N.T. Wright explores the concept of the authority of the Bible, focusing not so much on whether or to what extent the Bible is authoritative, but on what “authority” should mean in the first place when it comes to reading, studying, and following the Bible.[1] Read More…
The Reason for Hate
In this series, I have been discussing our tendency to reduce social ethics to a simple dichotomy of love versus hate and the problems such a reductive approach can and often does cause in society. In Part 1, I argued against the seemingly popular view that love is obviously good and hate obviously bad, and Read More…
On Iron
Iron sharpens iron . . . but not always and not by default. Pieces of iron remaining still, side by side, or moving together in the same direction will not increase in sharpness, nor will pieces merely pressed against each other or struck together arbitrarily or without measure. This tends to result in dullness. The Read More…
What is Hate?
In part 1 of this series, I made the observation that in our society we tend to hold love to be a good thing and hold hate a bad thing, and that this seems to be something that many of us consider obvious or self-evident (the love-not-hate ethic). I claimed that such a view is Read More…
In Defense of Hate
If there is anything we seem sure of in our society today, it is that hate is a bad thing. Many things make this clear to me – from terms such as “hate speech” and “hate crime” that denote special categories of deplorable behavior; to slogans such as “love, not hate,” “love conquers hate,” and Read More…
On Existentialism
An existential crisis is not a temporary condition experienced by only a few or a neurosis to be somehow avoided or cured. The truth is we are all in crisis and remain so at least until death. Life itself constitutes an existential crisis, whether or not we recognize it as such. For, at least from Read More…