In my latest video, I address the fact that some accounts of exorcism within the Gospels are described in a manner suggestive of epilepsy. With that in mind, I summarize three ways to think about this: first, it could be that these were simply exorcisms and that the presentation of demon possession is similar to […]
accommodation
Could God Command You to Rape and Cannibalize? If not, Why Think He Could Command You to Slaughter?
Long-time readers of my blog (all fifteen of you!) may recall my past critique of the accommodationist approach to the Canaanite genocide. But others will not. And for those folk, I offer this article. From a Christian theological point-of-view, it is a truism to note that God accommodates to various suboptimal understandings of the nature […]
Did the biblical concept of God evolve from polytheism to monotheism?
My 2013 book God or Godless (co-authored with atheist John Loftus) is a collection of twenty short debates. In ten debates I argue for a debate resolution and John argues against it. And in ten debates John argues for his own resolution and I argue against it. That’s the way it was supposed to work, anyway. But […]
The Biblical Cosmos: A Review
Robin Parry. The Biblical Cosmos: A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Weird and Wonderful World of the Bible. (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2014.) Like many conservative Christians of my generation, I was raised as a young earth creationist (YEC). We prided ourselves on taking what we believed to be the most faithful and commonsense reading of the Bible. Other Christians bowed to […]
Is it time for a female Jesus?
Jesus was a Jewish man. Despite this fact, for centuries Jesus has been depicted in western art with features more indicative of northern European ancestry. And what’s really interesting is that nobody seems to have a problem with this. Nor is northern European ancestry the one exception. Jesus is regularly illustrated in the terms of […]
Jesus you’re my … superhero?
Paul famously summarized his missionary strategy in 1 Corinthians 9:22 when he wrote: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” The strategy may have been definitive of Paul, but it certainly wasn’t original to Paul. After all, it was God the Son himself who […]
Jesus Christ meets Jeanne Christa: Accommodation run amok?
In “Can Christians call God ‘Mother’?” I addressed the controversial topic of whether, er, Christians can call God ‘Mother’. It is now time to follow up by taking that conversation to the next, even more controversial, level. This is the picture of Jesus with which I grew up. He looks like Jesus doesn’t he? High cheek bones. […]
The God I really don’t understand
I am almost at an end (for the time being) of recycling my old classic posts from my Christian Post blogging days. Hopefully by the end of this week I’ll be reviewing Loftus The End of Christianity again. In the interim, here is a 2009 article I wrote on a new book (at the time) […]
