Randal Rauser

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

relativism

Are Progressive Christians Relativists? Rebutting the Absurd Claims of Alisa Childers

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This article consists of three excerpts from one chapter in my book Progressive Christians Love Jesus Too. To read more, pick up a copy of the book! Time and again, I find a common error among many conservative Christians: they confuse a healthy awareness of our own fallibility in knowledge with relativism about truth. For […]

“Speaking Their Truth”? How conservative Christians make false claims to defend truth

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In Progressive Christians Love Jesus Too, I rebut Alisa Childers’ erroneous attempt to claim that progressive Christians widely embrace a radical voluntarist relativism about truth according to which people can make claims true simply by willing that they be true. The example Childers cites is a person who wants bacon to be healthy by declaring “Bacon […]

A Look at Fraternite’s Thesis

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My essay “Is ‘God’s not Dead’ a modern classic?” elicited some interesting replies. Perhaps the most interesting (certainly the most robust) came from Fraternite. The core of his response is what I call “Fraternite’s Thesis” (FT): (FT): Objective facts are claims about the physical properties of objects; i.e. they are correspondently true independent of the human […]

Pragmatists, Prophets, and Punitive Appendage Amputation

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In my review of William Webb’s Corporal Punishment in the Bible  I argued that Webb does not go far enough in his redemptive-movement hermeneutic. In this followup article I will develop that criticism further. I will begin by providing an illustration that illumines the tension between the pragmatist and the prophet before I turn to focus […]

Vomit flavored jelly beans and other offenses to the natural order

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As I noted last time, people disagree radically on their conceptions of what it means to flourish. To some people, flourishing would mean growing old and full of years. But Roger Daltrey (lead singer of The Who) hoped he’d die before he gets old (see the lyrics for “My Generation” for further clarification). And as for Eric […]

Surely you can’t be serious!

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“Airplane” inexplicably did not win the Palme ‘d’Or at Cannes. Looking back, it is hard to believe that it was passed over when you have riveting scenes like this. But this discussion is not really about “Airplane”. Rather, it is about the fact that there are things people say to us to which we rightly respond “Surely you […]