Randal Rauser

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

The Tentative Apologist

Enjoying the Old Testament: A Review

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Eric A. Seibert, Enjoying the Old Testament: A Creative Guide to Encountering Scripture. IVP Academic, 234 pp. Francis Bacon famously observed, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested…” For many Christians, the Old Testament is like spinach: we know it is good for us, but […]

Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History: A Review

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John Dickson. Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History. Zondervan, 2021, 328 pp. Historian Howard Zinn observes, “all history, while recalling the past, serves some present interest.” Anyone who has spent time on the interweb talking to skeptics and atheists has likely encountered Christian history told from the […]

Sitting on My Hands

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On Sunday night, I finished the typesetting for my next book, Progressive Christians Love Jesus Too. Now I’m sitting on my hands waiting for the completion of the covers and a few other details. Once that is all complete, the book should be available in hardcopy within a few days. Kindle will follow in about a […]

Progressive Christians Love Jesus Too

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Here is the back cover promotional description for my forthcoming book Progressive Christians Love Jesus Too. Some Christians want to silence the progressive conversation. Don’t let them.  They’ve been called “progressive Christians.” Their ranks include Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Peter Enns, Rachel Held Evans, John Pavlovitz, Richard Rohr, and many others. Over the last two […]

Announcement on My Next Book: Progressive Christians Love Jesus Too

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Last year, I read a really bad book: Alisa Childers’ Another Gospel? is an ignorant polemical screed that attacks several Christian thought leaders by name, insisting that these individuals (people like Peter Enns, Brian Zahnd, Rachel Held Evans, Richard Rohr, and so on) are not Christians at all but rather wolves out to destroy God’s church. Sadly, […]

Should Christians Believe Muhammad Rode on a Flying Horse?

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I often hear a version of this quip from atheists: “If you accept the Bible’s miracles, why don’t you accept that Muhammad rode a flying horse?” The assumption lying behind the question is this: if you accept one miracle claim, why don’t you accept them all? Sorry to burst your balloon, but that’s like asking “If […]

Forgiveness

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This is my personal statement that I forgive the individuals who have attacked me in the last week. I forgive the individual who tweeted without evidence “You are a racist!” and subsequently liked a tweet that claimed I use the ‘n’ word. I forgive the person who tweeted the despicable claim that I use the […]

So I’ve Been Publicly Shamed: Or, Why I Hate Twitter

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Yesterday, I posted a critique of Will Smith on Twitter. Personally, given that I do investigatory work into workplace conflict including instances of physical and emotional abuse, harassment, and other breaches of psychological safety, I was especially disturbed by his recourse to violence in hitting Chris Rock coupled with the toxic masculinity encapsulated in modeling […]

Steelmanning, Strawmanning, and Supermanning

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We’ve probably all heard of the strawman fallacy. And many of us have also heard of the perceived opposite of strawmanning, namely steelmanning. In this article I want to introduce another informal fallacy. To my knowledge, I am the first to articulate the concept and coin the term supermanning. Check out the analysis and avoid the fallacy! Let’s […]

The Problem with Young Earth Creationism in One AiG Tweet

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There are a lot of problems with young earth creationism. Most people are well versed in the scientific problems. But no less daunting are the hermeneutical problems as helpfully summarized in this AiG tweet: God’s Word makes it clear that he created everything in six literal days (as plainly defined per the Hebrew word for […]

My Statement on Bruxy Cavey’s Sexual Abuse of a Congregant

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The results of the investigation into Canadian celebrity pastor Bruxy Cavey are out. According to Bruxy’s statement on his blog, he had an “extramarital affair.” His statement is titled “My Confession” and is ostensibly presented as a raw and honest admission of this “adulterous relationship” which is his “darkest sin” and “greatest failure”. Importantly, he […]