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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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review

Blame it on the Singers: The Tragic and Triumphant Story of Milli Vanilli

October 31, 2023 by Randal

The other day I watched Milli Vanilli, a critically acclaimed new documentary about the infamous duo. And I highly recommend it. To those who don’t remember, the stratospheric rise of this Euro pop duo Rob and Fab back in 1990 was matched only by their straospheric crash when their own producer called a press conference […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Milli Vanilli, review

Owning the Unknown: A Review

October 28, 2023 by Randal

Robert Charles Wilson, Owning the Unknown: A Science Fiction Writer Explores Atheism, Agnosticism, and the Idea of God. Pitchstone, 2023. Accomplished science fiction writer Robert Charles Wilson’s new book Owning the Unknown is equal parts memoir and philosophical meditation as Wilson recounts his own brushes with the mystery of the universe through vignettes from his life interwoven […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, Owning the Unknown, review, Robert Charles Wilson, skepticism

Did Brian McLaren Stay Christian?

August 17, 2022 by Randal

In his new book Do I Stay Christian? Brian McLaren offers reasons to leave the faith and remain within it. In this video, I offer a reflection on the book and a consideration of the final question: Did Brian McLaren Stay Christian? ?

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Brian McLaren, Christianity, review

Did Brian McLaren Stay Christian? A Review of Do I Stay Christian?

August 15, 2022 by Randal

Brian McLaren, Do I Stay Christian? A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned. MacMillan, 2022. Since the publication of his first book, Church on the Other Side (Zondervan, 1998), Brian McLaren has been on a very public journey to figure out what Christian faith means today. Over the years, I have read several […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Brian McLaren, Do I Stay Christian?, progressive Christianity, review

Speaking to Abraham’s Silence: A Review

May 15, 2022 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Abraham, Abraham's Silence, biblical hermeneutics, biblical violence, hermeneutics, review, Richard Middleton

Enjoying the Old Testament: A Review

May 2, 2022 by Randal

Eric A. Seibert, Enjoying the Old Testament: A Creative Guide to Encountering Scripture. IVP Academic, 234 pp. Francis Bacon famously observed, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested…” For many Christians, the Old Testament is like spinach: we know it is good for us, but […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Bible, biblical studies, Enjoying the Old Testament, Eric Seibert, review

Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History: A Review

April 27, 2022 by Randal

John Dickson. Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History. Zondervan, 2021, 328 pp. Historian Howard Zinn observes, “all history, while recalling the past, serves some present interest.” Anyone who has spent time on the interweb talking to skeptics and atheists has likely encountered Christian history told from the […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, Bullies and Saints, Christian history, church history, John Dickson, review

Hugs and Statistics: A Review of Us Versus Us: The Untold Story of Religion and the LGBT Community

March 5, 2022 by Randal

Andrew Marin. Us Versus Us: The Untold Story of Religion and the LGBT Community. NavPress, 2016. 213 pp. Andrew Marin begins Us Versus Us by introducing us to a photograph of Marin himself and his wife hugging a gay man at the 2010 Chicago Gay Pride Parade (see below). They didn’t know the man but he was prompted […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Andrew Marin, LGBT, review

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

January 18, 2022 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: biblical violence, book review, hermeneutics, Michael Bird, review

The Unmaking of Patriarchy: A Review of The Making of Biblical Womanhood

August 9, 2021 by Randal

Beth Allison Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth. Brazos Press, 2021. In 2016, Beth Allison Barr’s husband lost his job as a youth pastor, a position he had held for more than fourteen years. The reason? He dared challenge the church’s complementarian stance on women in ministry. The church […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Beth Allison Barr, egalitarianism, patriarchy, review, The Making of Biblical Womanhood

According to Alisa Childers, People Like Me Are Going to Hell: A Review of Another Gospel?

July 11, 2021 by Randal

I just finished reading Alisa Childers’ book Another Gospel?. It is a hugely popular book that came out a year ago and has almost two thousand Amazon.com reviews. As I will note briefly below, it does have some diamonds embedded in the coal. But there is a lot of coal. Indeed, this is one of […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Alisa Childers, Another Gospel?, review

The Early Reviews of Jesus Loves Canaanites

May 24, 2021 by Randal

Jesus Loves Canaanites has now been out for 5 weeks and while a few brief reviews have been posted at Goodreads and Amazon, the first blog review was posted today by J.W. Wartick at his Reconstructing Faith blog. You can read it here: Genocide and the Challenge of Apologetics: Randal Rauser’s “Jesus Loves the Canaanites”

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Jesus Loves Canaanites, review

Canadian Primal: A Review

April 28, 2021 by Randal

Mark Dickinson. Canadian Primal: Poets, Places, and the Music of Meaning. McGill-Queens University Press, 2021. It was a rainy afternoon in February in the late 1990s and I was jogging by Fort Langley (east of Vancouver). The clouds had been socked in heavy and dark for days blocking out the spectacular, jagged peaks of the North Shore […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Canadian Primal, literary criticism, Mark Dickinson, Poetry, review

Christianity Vindicated?: A Review of The Rational Faith Part 2

March 29, 2021 by Randal

Jason A. Crook. The Rational Faith: A Review of the Evidence for Christianity. 2020, 267 pp. If you have read the first installment of my review of Jason Crook’s new book The Rational Faith (for Part 1 see here) then you know that I got sidetracked by outlining my disagreement with the way Crook sets up […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, Christianity, Jason Crook, review, The Rational Faith

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