Posted in eschatology, theodicy on 15 May 2008 | 2 Comments »
Occasions of suffering like we are seeing in Burma and China are always jarring reminders of the fragility of life as well as the extreme vulnerability to disaster that many (especially the poor) live with. The unimaginable scale of loss and devastation (with losses in the hundreds of thousands) that is being [...]
Posted in eschatology on 29 February 2008 | 2 Comments »
This is a fascinating read on parenting, mortality and the way we seem incurably drawn toward a lasting hope. It sort of reminds me with a conversation Julie and I had the other day about whether or not she had to become an adult some day. The upshot of the conversation was that [...]
Posted in eschatology, providence, theology on 13 February 2007 | 8 Comments »
We’ve had some interesting conversations in class over the past few days regarding the classic debate about God’s knowledge/control of the current and future events and the meaningful choices that we have to make. The conversation ultimate turns on two elements of the Bible’s presentation of how God runs the world: God is sovereign, [...]
Posted in eschatology, social issues on 18 August 2006 | 1 Comment »
Allow me a sentimental follow-up to the previous post. I was drawn to the Augustine quote because he put his finger on something I think many of us know intuitively. Experiences of joy in this life are always tainted by the fact that we know they will not last and the fact [...]
Posted in eschatology, theology on 10 August 2006 | 3 Comments »
What do Christians believe the future holds in terms of the ultimate goal or ‘point’ of history? Some recent Newbigin reading has helped clarify this question for me. Christian belief about the future generally falls into one of two categories:
Christian hope is placed in the gradual improvement of the world until God’s rule [...]
Posted in eschatology, theology on 4 August 2006 | 5 Comments »
I’ve been reading up on evangelical history in preparation for a new course this fall and the definition of ‘evangelicalism’ is still proving elusive. I am getting some exposure to some of the main thinkers that have shaped the movement as a whole.
One of the most significant evangelical theologians of the past half-century [...]
Posted in epistemology, eschatology, pluralism on 19 July 2006 | 2 Comments »
I’ve now had approximately three weeks to digest the material from my ‘History of Protestant Spirituality’ course and it’s been interesting to try to understand the different ways in which Protestants have understood themselves in relation to God. From Luther’s ‘theology of the cross’ and its reminder that God is experienced in suffering to [...]
Posted in eschatology on 16 June 2006 | 7 Comments »
One of the errors for which evangelical theology should be most sorry is the way it has presented the Christian view of the end of history. I suppose we could debate the very idea of an ‘end’ of history, many of the world’s religions do not see history as a linear process but rather [...]
Posted in eschatology on 25 April 2006 | 7 Comments »
The more I’m reading Simply Christian the more I’m seeing that Wright’s theology is ultimately ‘eschatological’ in nature. That is just a convoluted way of saying that everything we believe and do now should be informed by what we believe about the future that God has for us and for the world. So [...]
Posted in eschatology on 16 April 2006 | No Comments »
Found a really interesting take on the traditional Christian concept of immortality and how it affects our understanding of the resurrection. Here’s a little taste:
As long as our thinking contains even a trace of the notion of “immortality,” we will understand neither the reality of death nor the miracle of resurrection. For to [...]
