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Randal Rauser

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

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relativism

Speaking Your Truth? Unpacking Evangelical Apologetic Rhetoric

October 27, 2022 by Randal

In this video, I explain how some evangelical apologists misrepresent a common phrase (and what it really means. ?

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, evangelicalism, relativism, rhetoric, truth

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

June 25, 2022 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Alisa Childers, progressive Christianity, Progressive Christians Love Jesus Too, relativism, truth

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

May 6, 2022 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: progressive Christianity, relativism, truth

A Look at Fraternite’s Thesis

May 7, 2014 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: relativism, subjectivism, truth

Pragmatists, Prophets, and Punitive Appendage Amputation

January 1, 2013 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Bible, corporal punishment, ethics, hermeneutics, pragmatism, relativism, William Webb

Vomit flavored jelly beans and other offenses to the natural order

November 13, 2010 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: aesthetics, ethics, Jelly Belly, morality, naturalism, relativism, taste

Surely you can’t be serious!

November 6, 2010 by Randal

“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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, deconstructionism, ethics, moral objectivism, morality, naturalism, relativism

The Sam Harris Sinkhole

November 1, 2010 by Randal

I don’t have time to read Sam Harris’ new book, but I do have time to watch him talk for twenty minutes, summarizing the main thesis in a TED talk. And so, thanks to Tory Ninja forwarding this link, I got a sense of the book’s thesis. But first a disclaimer: this is not a review […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, ethics, God, meta-ethics, morality, relativism, Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape, theism

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