Merry Christmas, everyone! Here is the introduction to the chapter on incarnation in my 2008 book Faith Lacking Understanding. The excerpt invites Christians to rediscover the magic and mystery of incarnation by way of a celebrated children’s story. In her delightful children’s classic The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Barbara Robinson tells the story of how the […]
Faith lacking understanding
What is the most difficult Christian doctrine to defend?
In my 2008 book Faith Lacking Understanding I identify three types of objection to Christianity: Logical objections Plausibility objections Moral objections Next, as I work through the Apostles’ Creed I identify examples of each type of objection. For example, the doctrine of the Trinity is subject to logical objections. Meanwhile, the doctrine of particular divine action within […]
A new review of Faith Lacking Understanding
In my 2008 book Faith Lacking Understanding: Theology through a glass darkly I take the reader on an exploratory journey through seven doctrines in the Apostles’ Creed. After a prefatory chapter on theology, belief and confession, each subsequent chapter is devoted on one doctrine in particular: the Trinity, divine action in creation, incarnation, atonement, ascension, […]
A Review of Faith Lacking Understanding
In 2008 I published Faith Lacking Understanding: Theology Through a Glass Darkly (Paternoster). The book used the Apostles’ Creed as a structure to explore the attempt to articulate several doctrines against the charges that they are either incoherent (Trinity, incarnation), immoral (atonement, hell) or implausible (divine action, ascension). The latest review of the book just […]
Happy with your mother in hell?
Today’s blog is brought to you courtesy of my book Faith Lacking Understanding. More specifically, it is excerpted from the beginning of the chapter on the doctrine of hell. The passage includes a great quote from Robert Ingersoll, a skeptic of the nineteenth century who was confounding good midwestern American Christians on the whistlestop tour when Richard Dawkins’ grandfather […]