Posts
Reflections on my ride on Kafka’s train
Category: General
Have you ever noticed that every year seems to race by twice as fast as the previous one? Surely, I’ll be dead by tomorrow! It’s like a Kafka novel. (For readers not familiar with Franz…
A Conflicted Memorial Day
Category: General
Hope you all had a happy Memorial Day. (Isn’t that something of a misnomer — a happy time remembering people killed in war?) Memorial Day honestly leaves me conflicted. On the one hand, I am…
A Review (of sorts) of Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution
Category: General
I’m taking a (much needed) break from my work on The Myth of the Blueprint and my related insatiable obsession on ancient Greek philosophy. I’m going to spend the next few months working on a…
Pure Grace and Free Will
Category: General
I received a question the other day that I get quite often, so I’d thought I’d share it with you all. It was from an Arminian-turned-Calvinist who basically wondered how salvation can be by grace…
Is the Kingdom Invisible?
Category: General
Traditionally, Christians have often made a distinction between the “visible” and “invisible” Church. It was a way of differentiating between the Church the world sees, which presumably includes people who are Christian in name only,…
Jesus’ Example of Lobbying Against Gays
Category: General
(warning….satire ahead) This past weekend in the Saturday paper I found a lovely article that reports that both the House and the Senate approved a bill that would make violence against gays simply because of…
Objections to Petitionary Prayer 3
Category: General
Over the last couple days I’ve reviewed two objections to petitionary prayer raised by a second century pagan philosopher named Maximus of Tyre. Today I want to examine his third argument. In the fifth paragraph…
Objections to Petitionary Prayer 2
Category: General
A couple days ago I reviewed the first of several objections to petitionary prayer that a second century pagan philosopher named Maximus of Tyre raises in the fifth of his Philosophical Orations (entitled “On Prayer”)….
Objections to Petitionary Prayer 1
Category: General
For the last two years I’ve been immersed in ancient Greek philosophy, reading as many original sources as I can (e.g. the works of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, etc.). It never ceases to amaze me how…
What a reading-addicted pathetic egghead reads
Category: General
Hey bloggers and bloggettes, I occasionally get asked, “What ya reading these days Greg?” So — since I’ve committed myself to sprinkling in academic reflections with random “me” stuff — I thought I’d tell you….
from one of the admins
Category: General
ok…. marcia here….i work with greg at christus victor ministries…administrative and photograhy. you won’t hear from me much on this blog but sometimes i need to defend myself with those that follow this blog. i…
welcome to my new blog
Category: General
Heh folks, We’ve got a new web blogger page site thingy whatever…. do you like it? Thanks to Jen Halverson the wonderful for setting this up! To be honest, I don’t get this blogger thing…
Is There a Uniquely “Christian” Way of Being Superior?
Category: General
A Reflection on “Christian” Politics In every political conflict, the feuding parties uniformly assume that they are wiser and/or morally superior to their opponents. They have to. On what other basis could two political parties…
What About the Military? 4-9-07
Category: General
I recently received an email from a person serving in the military that included this statement:“I read your book The Myth of a Christian Nation. You should not have published this. Jesus works with military…
The Fatal Flaw in the Classical View of God
Category: General
The “classical view of God” refers to the view of God that has dominated Christian theology since the earliest Church fathers. According to this theology, God is completely “immutable.” This means that God’s being and…
More “Practicing the Presence”
Category: General
One major problem many American Christians face is that we tend to embrace a magical view of the Christian faith. We assume that if a person “prays the sinners prayer,” “surrenders their life to Christ,”…
Discipleship, Moment by Moment
Category: General
“Offer your heart to Him at every moment. Don’t restrict our love of Him with rules or special devotions. Go out in faith, with love and humility.”Brother Lawrence (Practicing the Presence of God)To me, the…
Practicing the Presence 3-24-07
Category: General
I’m trying to remind myself these days to “practice the presence of God.” Seems to me that everything – everything – depends on this. Our “life” is nothing but a series of “nows,” so the…
Greg Responds to “Amazing Grace”
Category: General
I and my friends went to see the movie “Amazing Grace” the other night. It’s a movie on the life of William Wilberforce, the Christian political activist who is largely responsible for ending the English…