Lydia McGrew, Hidden in Plain View: Undesigned coincidences in the Gospels and Acts (DeWard, 2017). Over the last few decades, Christian apologetic defenses of the historicity of the New Testament have typically pursued a minimal facts approach according to which one seeks to establish a basic set of core claims about the life and death of […]
The Hyenas Did Not Touch Him: On Writing Creeds Today
In 2003 the great church historian Jaroslav Pelikan published his magnum opus, a book called Credo which gathers together more than 1000 creeds from the history of the church. The overall impact is powerful as one comes to terms with the fact that creeds are not simply a bygone occupation of the early church. On […]
We especially welcome applications from women and visible minorities
When I was looking for a teaching position in the early 2000s I repeatedly encountered a variant of this statement in countless job descriptions: We especially welcome applications from women and visible minorities. That was a bit discouraging, as you can imagine. To be sure, I understood the reasoning: society in general, and academic institutions […]
YouTube and the Christian Persecution Complex
As a group, Conservative Christians in North America seem to be hypersensitive to persecution to the extent where they are susceptible to a persecution complex or persecutory delusion. As a case in point, consider an article posted just today by Michael Brown titled “Why YouTube’s Conflict With Infowars Should Concern Us All.” Brown raises a […]
Have you committed the Unforgivable Sin? A Devotional Reflection
I recently wrote a few devotionals for a forthcoming publication and I decided to publish them at my blog as well. This second devotional is based on a section of my most recent book, What’s So Confusing About Grace? Mark 3:29: “But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is […]
God Became Meat: A Devotional Reflection
I recently wrote a few devotionals for a forthcoming publication and I thought I would publish them at my blog as well. Here is the first. John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Every December, Christians around the world gather to watch the annual Christmas pageant. But for many of us, […]
A Family Defense of the Resurrection of Jesus
This article is based on a chapter in my 2013 book God or Godless, a collection of twenty short debates coauthored with atheist John Loftus. What would it take to persuade you that your brother is the long-expected messiah? Quite a lot, I suspect. You grew up with the guy. You saw him scrape his […]
Why is Billy Graham Lying in State?
This morning I posted the following question on Twitter: Yesterday Billy Graham was honored posthumously as the fourth citizen ever to lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol. Graham, of course, is famous for a single reason: proselytization for a particular religion. Is this an appropriate honor in light of the American Establishment Clause? — […]
