General
Reflections on the Awakenings Conference
Category: General
Tags: Mark Charles, Missio Alliance, N.T. Wright
There was so much to love about last week’s Missio Alliance conference, Awakenings. For one thing, the diversity of both the crowd and the presenters was absolutely beautiful. N.T. Wright went so far as to…
Divine Accommodation in the Early Church
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Revelation
Topics: Attributes and Character, Biblical Interpretation
One of the basic points made in The Crucifixion of the Warrior God is that the Old Testament reveals how God adjusts his revelation and instructions to accommodate the weakness of his covenant people. This…
The Entire Old Testament is About Jesus
Category: General
Tags: Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology, Old Testament
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
Jesus himself taught that he carried more authority than any prophet that predated him. Though Jesus regarded John as the greatest prophet up to himself (Matt 11:11), he claimed his own “testimony” was “weightier (megas)…
The God Who Stoops
Category: General
Tags: Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
The way that one imagines God can be thought of along the lines of a Rorschach test. That is, I submit that the way a person imagines and experiences God says at least as much…
Classical Theism’s Unnecessary Paradoxes
Category: General
Tags: Attributes of God, Classical Theism, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Suffering
Topics: Attributes and Character
The traditional view of God that is embraced by most—what is called “classical theology”—works from the assumption that God’s essential divine nature is atemporal, immutable, and impassible. The Church Fathers fought to articulate and defend…
Challenging the Assumptions of Classical Theism
Category: General
Tags: Classical Theism, Cruciform Theology, Platonism
Topics: Attributes and Character
What came to be known as the classical view of God’s nature has shaped the common, traditional way that most people think about God. It is based in the logic borrowed, mostly unconsciously, from a…
Yahweh as the Dark Knight
Category: General
Tags: Character of God, Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology
Topics: Attributes and Character
I recently received an interesting analogy for The Crucifixion of the Warrior God from Aaron Reini. Thank you Aaron! In the final scene of “The Dark Knight,” Batman and Commissioner Gordon are standing over Harvey…
Renouncing Violent Appearances: CWG Excerpt
Category: General
Tags: Character of God, Crucifixion of the Warrior God
My ultimate hope for this two-volume work is that readers will acquire the cross-centered “Magic Eye” that allows them to discern the self-sacrificial, indiscriminately loving, nonviolent God revealed on the cross in the depths of…
Crucified Transcendence
Category: General
Tags: Classical Theism, Cruciform Theology, Nature of God, Transcendence, Trinity
Topics: Attributes and Character
If our thinking about God is to be faithful to the New Testament, then all of our thinking about God must, from beginning to end, be centered on Christ. I’m persuaded that even our thinking…
The Trinity and the Crucified God
Category: General
Tags: Character of God, Cruciform Theology, Love, Nature of God, Trinity
Topics: Attributes and Character, Trinity
God has always been willing to stoop to accommodate the fallen state of his covenant people in order to remain in a transforming relationship with them and in order to continue to further his sovereign…
Cross Centered Q&A
Category: General
Tags: Bruxy Cavey, Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Dennis Edwards, Greg Boyd
For those within driving distance of Saint Paul, MN, we invite you to join us for a free event. Greg will be discussing his new book Crucifixion of the Warrior God with Bruxy Cavey (Pastor of The…
Can Good Theology Be Innovative?
Category: General
Tags: Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
For many in conservative Christian circles innovation in theology and biblical interpretation is viewed as suspect, if not sinful. To this I would simply respond by pointing out that the attitude that would dismiss hermeneutical…
Approaches to Reading the Bible
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
As early as the 17th century, certain Bible scholars began to apply the scientific model of knowledge that evolved during the Scientific Revolution to the study of Scripture. This new “scientific” approach is broadly referred…
A Cruciform Dialectic
Category: General
Tags: Character of God, Cross, Cruciform Theology, Love
Topics: Attributes and Character
One of the most important aspects of God’s action on Calvary, I believe, is this: God revealed himself not just by acting toward humans, but by allowing himself to be acted on by humans as…
God’s Love is Cruciform
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, God is Love, God's Love
Topics: Attributes and Character
Paul instructs us in what it means to follow Jesus, when he stated, “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself…
Incarnation and Covenant
Category: General
Tags: Covenant, Incarnation, Israel
The most distinctive aspect of Jesus’ identity, according to the faith of the historic-orthodox Church, is that Jesus is fully God and fully human—“God Incarnate,” to use the Church’s creedal phraseology. To accurately reflect on…
God as Covenant Keeper
Category: General
Tags: Covenant, Salvation, Trinity
Topics: Attributes and Character
Covenant lies at the heart of the biblical understand of God’s relationship to the world. Simply put, a covenant stands in contrast to a contract where parties enter into a quid pro quo arrangement. With…
The Perfect Love of God
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Cruciform Theology, God is Love, Jesus, Triune Love
Topics: Attributes and Character
The Father, Son and Spirit exist as the infinite intensity and unsurpassable perfection of eternal love. We know this about the triune God not by speculation but because Jesus demonstrated that love (Rom 5:8) in…
What Makes the Good News So Good
Category: General
Tags: God, God is Love, God's Character, Jesus
Topics: Attributes and Character
While God was revealed in various ways and to various degrees through the law and the prophets of the Old Testament, in Jesus we finally have the one who is “the exact representation of God’s…
The Call To Nonviolent Discipleship
Category: General
Tags: Enemy Love, Peace
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
The cross wasn’t simply something God did for us. According to the NT, it was also an example God calls us to follow. Yet, as discussed in the previous post, most often the call to…