Here is the show from last night. Dr. Beckwith talked about the issue of abortion. The first half was concerning the history of the issue in the United States and where the issue currently stands. In the second half I ask Dr. Beckwith some difficult questions about how we know when life begins.

During the question answer session Dr. Beckwith answers some objections and then challenges some leaders in the emerging church to understand that the issue of abortion is the most important social issue today.

Defending Life: The best book on the abortion issue that I have ever seen. As hard as it is to read, everyone needs to read this book sometime.

 

 Converse with Scholars: Defending Life - Francis Beckwith on Abortion [86:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1283)

There is still time to enroll. The Theology Program online Summer semester begins June 3. Enroll today.

Support Reclaiming the Mind Ministries as we make theology accessible. Donate today.

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

**Note: on the chart, “antropocentric” should be ”anthropocentric” and “fundementalism” should be “fundamentalism.” 

Well, I am almost done teaching my Wed night sessions on all things emerging and I created some more visualizations that I thought I would share. Please note that these visuals are representative primarily of the western Protestant church in America and are not meant to be all inclusive with regards to the greater Christian tradition. 

In this particular group of charts I believe that the center, as represented by what I am calling “Historic Evangelicalism,” is the “safest” place to be (not sure if that is the best way to put it). Evangelicalism arose as a movement out of and in response to Fundamentalism in the 1940s. Fundamentalism represents static movement (if there is such a thing). Neo-Fundamentalism represents those evangelicals that have a tendency to gravitate back toward fundamentalism to some degree. This gravitation toward fundamentalism by much of Evangelicalism is one of the reasons why many people are no longer willing to identify with Evangelicalism. It is out of this situation, in response to Evangelicalisms fading identity, that the Emerging church has risen.

You can click on each chart to get a larger version.

The Evangelicalism of the 1940s was a progressive movement. It was progressive in two ways 1) It was a movement of cultural engagement. 2) It was a movement that recognized the need for and valued theological diversity (at least to some degree). The Emerging church is progressive in the same way.

 

This may be somewhat of a caricature, I understand. Please take it relative to this assessment, but there is some truth behind it and value in looking at it this way. Speaking to Fundamentalists and some Evangelicals, the charge would be made that they focus on Scripture to such a degree that the message becomes more important than the messenger. As James Sawyer once put it, “We have the Father, Son, and Holy Bible.” Being “Theocentric” has less regard for the identity of Christianity as a Christ centered religion and more of an inclusivistic tendency to speak about God in general terms.

Continue Reading »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

What is orthodoxy? Can someone be a Christian and unorthodox at the same time? Are some issues of orthodoxy more important than others? Is there an overlap between orthodoxy (right teaching) and orthopraxy (right living)?

This is the beginning of a series that Michael Patton will do alone since Rhome and Greg are not orthodox enough to join.

**iTunes users: Give Theology Unplugged a review on iTunes.

 

 Theology Unplugged - What is Orthodoxy? (Part 1) [29:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3109)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Using and interesting, but all too common, hermeneutical method that Reclaiming the Mind Ministries does not endorse, my good friend and theologian Samson Covatch at Submerging Influence posted this video. Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Conversation involve questions. The asking of questions is either meant to illicit and answer or to provoke thought that provides an answer, even if the answer is a tentative “I don’t know.” I often tell my students that it is better to have an informed “I don’t know” than a forced make-ready answer.

When it comes to Christ, when it comes to following Christ, when it comes to who Christ is and what he did, there are some questions that need to be asked. The answers to these questions will and do divide. The division regards differences in beliefs, convictions, or knowledge concerning the object.

Christ asked Peter a very divisive question: “Who do you say that I am?” Others had differing opinions. Some said Elijah. Others John the Baptist. The contrastive de tells us that Christ was asking what Peter thought in contrast to what the others thought. “You are the Christ, the son of the living God,” he answered (Matt. 16:16). With this answer Peter contrasted his beliefs about Christ with all the others who gave different options. Peter believed he was right and the others wrong.

This was an early confession, a creed, a statement of faith that was in response to a question. It was not from the lips of Christ, but one of his followers. Peter was the first to put his theology into a creed. This creed not only separated him from other contemporaries, but has separated Christianity as a confession of faith from all other alternatives since. “Who do you say that I am?”

But this was not the end. As I will attempt to demonstrate, there was a progressive development of a creedal belief in the New Testament that distinguished Christianity as a distinct system of belief. Continue Reading »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

You’ve heard it thousands of times: “Don’t worry; everything will work out just fine.” It’s the eternal optimism that is borne not in the crucible of reality but in the wishful thinking of the American dream, of Hollywood make-believe, or of a naïve Pollyanna outlook. All of us know it isn’t completely true—we know of children who were cut down by cancer or drunk drivers, of drug addicts who came from good homes, of family men who lost their jobs, of soldiers who returned from battle with one less limb—or in a body bag. We know of countless tragedies and needless suffering, yet we repeat the myth to our children without blinking an eye: “Don’t worry; everything will work out just fine.”

This Pollyanna view of life is not a modern invention. It’s as old as Alexander the Great. Even St. Paul uttered something like this. The difference is that Paul did not write a sanguine blank check; he conditioned his sentiment with important qualifiers, and he defined the ‘good’ as other than comfort and wealth. Continue Reading »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I found this interesting.

Thoughts?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Download as PDF

How does one define the emerging church? This is not an easy question to answer. Are you emerging? Maybe you are and you just don’t know it. It is very difficult to define exactly what it means to “emerge.” Sometimes its characteristics sound a lot like what “Evangelical” used to mean. Other times it sounds just like “Liberal.” Often it is hard to distinguish from neo-orthodox or even Eastern Orthodox. Many would just say that emergers are Christian Democrats!

If you compare yourself to a personality to determine whether you are emerging, it is no better. To whom do you choose to compare yourself? Brian McLaren? Doug Pagitt? Dan Kimball? Mark Driscoll?

1. If you go with Brian McLaren, then you may view “emerging” as somewhat of a political revolution.

2. If you go with Doug Pagitt, then you may see “emerging” as the hope of God’s redemption through a sort of quasi-universalism.

3. If you go with Dan Kimball, then you see “emerging” as a mission to win the lost with the essential message of the Gospel through kindness and understanding (sounds a bit like evangelicalism).

4. If you go with Mark Driscoll, then you may find it hard to distinguish “emerging” from a missional minded reformed evangelicalism. Continue Reading »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

It has been fun, interesting, discouraging,encouraging and enlightening to see the various reactions to the posts on the Emerging Church. As you would expect, there have been both positive and negative reactions. I thought that I would take the time to post links to some of these here so that you could get a balanced view of how people are responding, positive and negative.

One of the most common problems with the reactions is that most of these reactions either only post the chart or they only link to one part of what became a six-part series. Because of this, the main thrust of my intentions were sometimes misrepresented, being taken out of context. This is why I am going to follow this with a post that combines all parts into one. Hopefully future links will go to this complete post instead.

Positive:

Christians in Context

The Separation

In Proximity

Traveling Ancient Roads

SoCal Theologica

Joy in the Journey

Micah Fries

Personal Trainer

Ron’s Bloviating

An Accidental Blog

Normal Christian Life

Negative:

Tall Skinny Kiwi

Finitum non carpax infiniti (who has a chart of his own!–nice.)

Mending Shift

Emergent Village

Brad Boydston

Neutral:

Between Two Worlds

Dan Kimball

Submersive Influence

Jesus Under Plastic

Blue Like Elvis

Jesus Creed (Whole lot of comments. I dialogue a bit there)

Faith Maps

Phoenix Preacher (lots of comments)

Stuff out Loud

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

What is the difference in Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism? Are they compatible or are they different religions all-together? How does Orthodoxy define salvation? Do they hold the Scriptures as their ultimate authority?

Join us as we discuss these questions and many more with Orthodox theologian Bradley Nassif. In the broadcast I ask Dr. Nassif four very important questions with answers that may surprise you:

What, in your opinion, is the biggest weakness of Evangelicalism?
What, in your opinion, is the greatest strength of Evangelicalism?
What, in your opinion, is the biggest weakness of Orthodoxy?
What, in your opinion, is the greatest strength of Orthodoxy?

I will give you a teaser on this. The greatest weakness of Evangelicalism is our ecclesiology and our “historical amnesia.” I agree.

Don’t forget to check out Dr. Nassif’s excellent podcast called Simply Orthodox.

 

 Converse with Scholars - Bradley Nassif - Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism [54:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (927)

Purchase the book: Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism: Three Views.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Here is an illustrated history of postmodernism. It has to be watched to be understood.

I am hoping that this will give people a better idea of why we live in a postmodern world. It does not justify or endorse postmodernism in any way, it simply gives a context for the confused mindset that many in our generation are experiencing. The emerging church, Emergent and emerging, is that which seeks to be a witness for Christ because they identify with the postmodern mindset. I hope this helps in our ongoing discussion.

 

 History of Postmodernism: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1999)

This video is taken from the Introduction to Theology course of The Theology Program.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Or “Top Twenty Signs you are moving from emerging to Emergent!” 

Now maybe you will appreciate this more (I have made a few changes).

20. You only curse around fundamentalists.

19. You leave your church because the sermon was not obscure enough.

18. You refer to your local assembly as “church,” “synagogue,” or “mosque” depending on who you are talking to.

17. Your blog is a rant about how everyone else rants too much.

16. You brag that you have never been pinned down theologically on any issue. Continue Reading »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I now turn to what is without a doubt the most popular interpretation of John 10:30 other than the traditional Trinitarian understanding, namely, the view that Jesus was asserting only that he and the Father were one in “purpose.” I should state at the outset that everyone agrees that from a New Testament perspective Jesus and the Father are one in purpose. The issue is whether the unity of which John 10:30 speaks is specifically a unity of purpose rather than a unity of divine power, nature, or identity. In other words, the claim to be considered here is whether John 10:30 means nothing more than that Jesus is united in purpose with the Father.

Those who promote the “one in purpose” view in order to combat Trinitarian theology can point out that some mainstream Christian scholars have also interpreted John 10:30 in this way. Continue Reading »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Having finished my series about the Emerging Church, I feel that it is important that I say a few things so that people have a better understanding about my thoughts in general concerning the “conversation” that is going on—the “emerging” conversation.

I have a deep sympathy toward the confusion that postmodernism has brought about. The global culture that has been created in the last 50 years has caused us to change our perspectives on many things. The internet, world news, and globalization of culture has made it less likely that people can stay sheltered in a naive understanding of truth, religion, and morality—even if they are right. The ever changing currents in science, exposure to world religions, fractures in the family unit, divisions in Christianity, and subjective change in personal beliefs and certainty have caused Christians to question the reliability of any source of truth. People are suspicious, disillusion, bewildered, and uncertain. Continue Reading »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tonight, it is Bradley Nassif to talk about Eastern Orthodoxy and its differences and simularities to Evangelicalism.

But it does not stop there. Check out this list of upcoming guests on Converse with Scholars.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!