The first review was posted by David Haitel at Amazon.ca. David writes: “I appreciate Dr. Rauser’s readable and conversational style as well as his strong affirmation of the truth of God’s Word. He clearly outlines the beauty, simplicity, and richness of God’s grace. Christ’s love is truly at the center of His grace. Excellent and […]
Archives for August 2017
All Saints: A Christian movie for non-fundamentalists
A few weeks ago I was invited to attend a pre-screening of All Saints, a “Christian movie”. I’m not sure what a Christian movie is, but as best I can guess, in popular parlance it is a movie marketed to evangelical Christians. That in itself is enough to make me skeptical. As a cinephile, I’m interested […]
The “Nashville Statement”: Three Problems with the Preamble
Yesterday the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood issued “The Nashville Statement“. I’m sympathetic with many concerns of The Nashville Statement and I believe many of the statements in the document are well-crafted and fundamentally correct. Unfortunately, I also have significant concerns with the document and they start at the beginning. In this article I’m going […]
The latest review of What’s So Confusing About Grace?
Here’s another review of What’s So Confusing About Grace? at Amazon.com. This one comes courtesy of Daniel Rieder. Thanks, Dan!
“I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth…” Could God be punishing Texas?
13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. […] 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath […]
On Keeping a Closed Mind: Lessons from The Friendly Atheist
A couple days ago The Friendly Atheist posted an article titled “Christian Textbook Urges Readers To ‘Keep a Closed Mind’.” The short article features a screenshot from a page out of a textbook for Christian young people. (Before this I’d never heard of the book, What’s on Your Mind? Discover the Power of Biblical Thinking, or […]
Is it technically morally wrong to proselytize for something other than the true religion?
I encountered the question this morning in a tweet from Counter Apologist: Question for Theists: Is it technically morally wrong to proselytize for something other than the true religion? — Counter Apologist (@CounterApologis) August 25, 2017 Point One In response, the first point I made is that proselytization is simply the act of attempting to […]
Evangelicalism, Academic Freedom, and Robert Gagnon
Today I read an article at the Unfundamentalist Christians blog about the departure of anti-gay firebrand Robert Gagnon from his position at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (PTS). In the article, “Gagnon out at PC(USA) Seminary” the author Don Burrows talks about Gagnon’s limited job prospects after PTS: “Gagnon himself appears to realize [his limited prospects], as, […]
What’s So Confusing About Grace? My Interview with Bob Dutko
I’ve been on The Bob Dutko Show several times now. In this twenty minute interview we talk about the theme of my new book, What’s So Confusing About Grace? https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/extras-tentativeapologist/Grace+on+Dutko+Show.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
Effective Altruism and the Christian: A Conversation with Joshua Parikh
Last week I posted a review of Peter Singer’s 2015 book The Most Good You Can Do in which Singer discusses the concept of effective altruism. This article was the catalyst for several conversations including, the following exchange with Christian philosopher Joshua Parikh. Josh is a student at Oxford who just completed an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, […]
Cross Abuse: One reason you might not want to work for a Christian organization
Some years ago I met a member of a local atheist group. He introduced himself as a graduate of Taylor University College (TUC), the sister school of the seminary where I teach (TUC closed in 2009). An atheist graduate of a Christian university? How’d that happen? The young man then explained that following graduation he […]
Back When Kids Did Things: Lamenting the time before smartphones
My daughter said she wished she was born in the 80s so she could grow up with friends who did stuff instead of living on social media. ? — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) August 19, 2017 My daughter loves Stranger Things (a Netflix television series) and Super 8 (a movie), two period programs set in 1983 and 1979. She loves […]
Confused About Grace? Read my new interview with myself
In keeping with past tradition, I decided to interview myself on the publication of my new book. (Don’t worry, interviews with people other than myself are in the schedule too, including one with Bob Dutko this coming Tuesday.) You can read the interview here.
A Case Where I Spend WAY TOO MUCH Time Analyzing a Snide Atheist Meme
Here is a tweet from the folks at “Atheist Republic”. Call it a meme if you want. (Might as well since the word “meme” seems to apply to most anything that gets retweeted.) So here’s the meme: pic.twitter.com/AduwjnloUq — Atheist Republic (@AtheistRepublic) August 16, 2017 I’m not sure what definition of “bullshit” the folks at […]
