Theology Central
Theology Central exists as a place of conversation and information for faculty and friends of Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Posts include seminary news, information, and opinion pieces about ministry, theology, and scholarship.How the Left Thinks
Forget short-term mission trips. Encourage young Christians to join protests. At Sojourners.
Review: Reformations by Carlos M. Eire
Samuel Gregg writes a review of Carlos M. Eire’s Reformations: The Early Modern World 1450-1650. Here’s a sample.
The Reformation certainly didn’t simply spring from the mind of Martin Luther. But as a historical development, it has been the subject of polemics for 500 years: not just between Catholics and Protestants, but also, over the past century, between historians and sociologists with disparate views on how the modern world emerged. Any serious study of the Reformation’s origins and impact consequently requires a willingness to traverse a veritable minefield of longstanding theological and historiographical arguments.
Read more of this review at the Library of Law and Liberty.
The World’s First Baby Born to Three Parents
Yup. That’s right. A procedure approved only in the UK. A US team. In Mexico. Brave New World? Read at the New Scientist.
Sola Scriptura or Papal Confusion?
Protestants (including Baptists) have insisted upon acknowledging Scripture alone as their authority for faith and practice. Catholics, who affirm the authority of the Magisterium and of the Pope speaking ex cathedra, have often pointed to divisions among Protestants as proof that Sola Scriptura is inadequate as a principle of authority. That argument has never been completely convincing, but it had more plausibility when Roman Catholicism seemed to be moving in a single direction under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Under Pope Francis, however, conservative Roman Catholics are having to do their own dance around Papal authority, which, it turns out, is not all one thing. In a perverse way, it’s funny to watch. You read about some of this dance in an article at First Things entitled “Creeping Infallibility.”
After School Satan Club?
Yes, it’s been approved Nehalem Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, where it promises to promote “benevolence and empathy for everybody.” Baptists have defended freedom of religion–is Satanism included? Read about it at The Oregonian.
The Whig Narrative and American Christianity
Whigs? Really?
Oh, yes. You’ll learn something at First Things.
Crossway Reverses Decision on ESV
Crossway has reversed its decision to make the text of the English Standard Version permanent. Read the rationale at the Crossway blog.
The Swinburne Controversy
Richard Swinburne is one of the most highly respected philosophers in the world. And he is a Christian, broadly orthodox, who has spent much of his career arguing for theism and Christianity.
Swinburne was invited to address the Midwest meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers. His topic was “Christian Moral Teaching on Sex, Family, and Life,” including a discussion of homosexuality, of which Swinburne disapproves. He was invited to address this topic not only because of his stature as a philosopher, but because he had already written on it.
The backlash came almost instantly. For example, Edward Hackett wrote,
Yesterday, I gave Richard Swinburne, the famous Oxford Christian philosopher, a piece of my mind. . . . My response was mixture of abhorrence and overwhelming anger, and I tried as I might to encounter this idea calmly.
In the face of the backlash, SCP president Michael Rea of the University of Notre Dame posted the following to his Facebook account:
I want to express my regret regarding the hurt caused by the recent Midwest meeting of the Society for Christian Philosophers. The views expressed in Professor Swinburne’s keynote are not those of the SCP itself. Though our membership is broadly united by way of religious faith, the views of our members are otherwise diverse. As Preisdent of the SCP, I am committed to promoting the intellectual life of our philosophical community. Consequently (among other reasons), I am committed to the values of diversity and inclusion. As an organization, we have fallen short of those ideals before, and surely we will again. Nonetheless, I will strive for them going forward. If you have thoughts or feedback you would like to share with me, I would welcome hearing from you via email or private message.
Now the counter-backlash has set in. The philosophers at Rightly Considered have objected to Rea’s treatment of Swinburne. Journalist Rod Dreher at The American Conservative has written an excoriating article. Even Douglas Wilson has weighed in.
Most importantly, an open letter has been sent from sixty-three members to the leadership of the SCP. The letter calls for a formal apology to Swinburne.
A society of philosophers is supposed to be committed to open enquiry. If it is to be biased at all, one would think that a Society of Christian Philosophers would be biased toward Christianity and its values.
If there is a lesson here, it is that there is no safe space for speaking biblical morality.
Are you an Arminian? Take the test to find out!
The State of Theology in America
“What do Americans actually believe? The State of Theology data set is rich with information useful for discerning the beliefs of Americans about God, salvation, ethics, and the Bible in a way that goes beyond simple labels and religious affiliations. Read some of our key findings below and explore the data for yourself.”
Yet More on the Trinity
Kevin DeYoung contributes to the discussion in behalf of The Gospel Coalition.
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises was one of the most important recent shapers of a conservative vision of economics. Read a quick introduction to him at the ISI.
What Is Arminianism?
Get the FACTS here.
Civil Rights Commission Report
The United States Commission on Civil Rights recently delivered its report to the Obama administration. The name of the report is “Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties.” The civil liberty with which so-called “nondiscrimination principles” are supposed to be reconciled is freedom of religion. The overall thrust of the report is that religious freedom–and particularly Christianity–will have to make room for “nondiscrimination principles.” You can download a PDF of the report here.
Accreditation News
The Council on Higher Education Accreditation is the organization that accredits the accreditors. CHEA also tracks governmental attitudes and actions toward accreditation. The latest newsletter is here.
What Does Not Satisfy . . .
“What does not satisfy when we find it, was not the thing we were desiring.”
–C. S. Lewis, The Pilgrim’s Regress (p. 123).
George Nash on the History of Conservatism
George Nash is probably the most important historian of American Conservatism. He retraces the history of conservatism and contrasts it with populism at the New Criterion.
Lewis’s Argument against Naturalism
C. S. Lewis regularly argued that naturalism is self-defeating. On a naturalistic account, reasons are only accidental because beliefs are caused. Here is a version of the argument from his allegorical autobiography.
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IN THE WARMTH of the afternoon they went on again, and it came into John’s mind to ask the lady the meaning of her second riddle.
‘It has two meanings,’ said she, ‘and in the first the bridge signifies Reasoning. The Spirit of the Age wishes to allow argument and not to allow argument.’
‘How is that?’
‘You heard what they said. If anyone argues with them they say that he is rationalizing his own desires, and therefore need not be answered. But if anyone listens to them they will then argue themselves to show that their own doctrines are true.’
‘I see. And what is the cure for this?’
‘You must ask them whether any reasoning is valid or not. If they say no, then their own doctrines, being reached by reasoning, fall to the ground. If they say yes, then they will have to examine your arguments and refute them on their merits: for if some reasoning is valid, for all they know, your bit of reasoning may be one of the valid bits.’
–C. S. Lewis, The Pilgrim’s Regress (pp. 62-63).
Why “The Great Music” Is as Important as “The Great Books”
At least according to Peter Kwasniewski over at The Imaginative Conservative.
Hypothesis and Fact
C. S. Lewis puts the following words in the mouth of Mr. Enlightenment:
Hypothesis, my dear young friend, establishes itself by a cumulative process: or, to use popular language, if you make the same guess often enough it ceases to be a guess and becomes a Scientific Fact.
–C. S. Lewis, The Pilgrim’s Regress (p. 23)
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