Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

Podcast

80. The Problem with Porn: A conversation with Matt Fradd

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We live in a world where Abercrombie and Fitch sell padded bras for eight year olds, where b-movie stars build their careers by tweeting demeaning selfies to their legions of voyeuristic knuckle dragging fans, and where an adjective like “sexy” is now used to describe everything from sports cars to sermon titles. In short, ours is […]

4. The 59-Second Apologist: What are Calvinism and Arminianism?

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Have you seen the t-shirt that explains Calvinism and Arminianism? On the front it declares “Calvinism: This shirt chose me”. And on the back it says, “Arminianism: I chose this shirt.” In case you’re looking for a bit more, in this episode of The 59-Second Apologist, Randal explains the difference between Calvinism and Arminianism. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tentativeapologist/59+Second+Apologist-4+Calvinism+and+Arminianism.mp3Podcast: Play in new […]

50. The Evidential Problem of Evil (Part 1)

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William Rowe tells the story of a fawn (think Bambi) severely burnt in a forest fire and left to die slowly over several days amidst the burning embers of the ravaged forest floor. It’s just one fawn, right? Who cares? But if God really is all-good and all-powerful then presumably he would not allow gratuitous […]

49. David Goa on Christianity and the Religions

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Some years ago conservative Protestant theologian H. Wayne House published a book titled Charts of World Religions. In one two page chart the book compares and contrasts the beliefs of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, secular humanism, Hinduism and Buddhism on their views of creation, God, mankind, and scripture. All that, in two pages. Twenty five years […]

48. God is not a white man: Terry LeBlanc on Indigenous Theology

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God is a white man. Just consider the iconic “Creation of Adam” fresco in Michelangelo’s timeless Sistine Chapel ceiling.  Take a look. See? There’s God, beard waving in the heavenly breeze, arm extended, creating Adam in his very white and very male image. But what if God isn’t white? What if he isn’t male? What if images like […]

47. The Devil’s in the Music: On growing up evangelical in the 80s

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I grew up reading Hal Lindsey books. Beginning with The Late, Great Planet Earth (1970), Mr. Lindsey had a string of bestsellers throughout the 1970s. And each of those books promoted a popularist form of dispensationalist Christianity that read the predicted future of the book of Revelation in the unfolding events of the evening news. […]

46. Kelly Kapic on A Little Book for New Theologians

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Some years ago I arrived home to see my neighbor sitting in the front seat of her car with a strange, pained expression. “Are you okay?” I called over in a faltering attempt to be neighborly. My friendly inquiry was immediately returned with an in-depth account of my neighbor’s lower back pain, its etiology, proposed course […]

45. Randal on Divine Violence in the Bible

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Mark Twain once wrote of the Bible, “It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history…” The interesting thing is that Christians often avoid that history: from the flooding of the earth to the destruction of Jericho, they read those “blood-drenched” parts of the narrative […]

43. Can pedophiles be saved? A conversation with Scott Drennan

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Over the last year we’ve tackled many topics on the Tentative Apologist Podcast from big bang cosmology to biblical interpretation. But no topic is as difficult or immediately gripping as the topic of this podcast. Today we are tackling the topic of pedophiles: their crimes … and their redemption. Redemption? To many, talk of redeeming and restoring these […]

42. Peter Enns on Inerrancy and the Bible

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At the beginning of his book Misquoting Jesus, Bart Ehrman tells the story of his conversion to conservative Christianity as a young man. And then he relays how, over the next several years, his faith in the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible was gradually taken apart as he confronted the full range of human […]