Randal Rauser

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

hermeneutics

Speaking to Abraham’s Silence: A Review

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J. Richard Middleton. Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God. Baker Academic, 2021. The binding (Aqedah) of Isaac is one of the most troubling stories in all Scripture. And it is not hard to see why. The story depicts God commanding a father to butcher […]

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 […]

Why God Did Not Command the Slaughter of the Canaanites, Briefly Explained

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This article provides a brief synopsis of a case explaining why God did not command the slaughter of the Canaanites. It is based on a debate opening statement that I gave last year. And it provides an introduction to some of the arguments I develop at length in Jesus Loves Canaanites. “Slaughter” is defined as the […]

The Limits of Defending Biblical Violence By Appealing to a Big, Wild, and Dangerous God

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Over the years, I have seen many Christians attempt to address problems of divinely sanctioned biblical violence by reframing them as virtues: in short, the bug is a feature. How so? On this re-narration, the problem of biblical violence should remind us that God is big and wild and dangerous. This offers an essential chastening […]

Seven Things I Wish Every Christian Knew About the Bible: A Review

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Michael Bird. Seven Things I Wish Every Christian Knew About the Bible. Zondervan, 2021. Seven Things is an introduction to the Bible written by Anglican priest and New Testament scholar Michael Bird. The book is written in seven chapters addressing origins (chapter 1), inspiration and inerrancy (chapter 2), authority (chapter 3), the cultural distance between the biblical […]

Would Jesus have endorsed gay marriage?

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Jesus never talks about same-sex relationships, but he does talk about marriage (e.g. Matthew 19:1-10, Mark 10:1-12). And when he describes marriage, he always does so within the context of an indissoluble male/female covenantal bond. His understanding of the indissolubility aspect is an important topic in the conversation, But here I want to focus on […]