Source: Rob Bell once questioned hell: Here’s why he is now taking aim at the Bible | Religion News Service
Here is a great interview by Jonathan Merritt with Rob Bell on his latest book, on the Bible.
Tag: Jonathan Merritt
Jonathan Merritt – Faithful to the End: An interview with Eugene Peterson
Jonathan Merritt, from Religion News, has produced another extremely interesting interview, this time with well-known pastor and theologian Eugene Peterson, the author of The Message, a very inspired, I think, contemporary paraphrase of the Bible. Here are a few quotes (the emphases are mine).
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…I never really thought I’d be a pastor because I had so many pastors I didn’t respect. I just assumed I would be in academic work, so I started doing that—I went to seminary and graduate school to be a professor. And then I became a professor at the seminary in New York City where I graduated. But they didn’t pay me very much. Greek and Hebrew professors aren’t very high on the pay scale. So I got a part-time job in a church, because I had been ordained but just to be a professor. I’d never been around a pastor who was a man of God, to tell you the truth.
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…pastoring is not a very glamorous job. It’s a very taking-out-the-laundry and changing-the-diapers kind of job. And I think I would try to disabuse them of any romantic ideas of what it is. As a pastor, you’ve got to be willing to take people as they are. And live with them where they are. And not impose your will on them. Because God has different ways of being with people, and you don’t always know what they are. Continue reading “Jonathan Merritt – Faithful to the End: An interview with Eugene Peterson”
Who should Christians vote for? Theologian Miroslav Volf makes a surprising case for one candidate | Religion News Service
A prominent theologian at Yale Divinity School thinks one candidate is more Christian than the other. His answer may surprise you.
‘…we could say that Jesus Christ is the only Christian candidate’
The Gospel Coalition and how (not) to engage culture | Religion News Service
The ministry blocks dissenters and ignores journalists who might ask difficult questions. This is not engaging culture, but evading culture.
Source: The Gospel Coalition and how (not) to engage culture | Religion News Service
Jonathan Merritt on the pathologies of tehe Gosle Coaliton. Here is a good quote:
‘You can’t transform a culture while you’re browbeating, rebuking, name-calling and gagging. That’s not a recipe for cultural engagement, but rather cultural enragement.’
Theologian: Religious extremists like ISIS carve a bloody path through history – On Faith & Culture
Theologian: Religious extremists like ISIS carve a bloody path through history – On Faith & Culture.
This is a MUST READ interview with Yale theologian Miroslav Volf on religious violence in our world today.
Jonathan Merritt Interview with NT Wright
This is a two part interview. Here are just a few quotes.
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On inerantism
I don’t think I’ve ever said “I am not an inerrantist.” But the controversies which gave rise to that label were strongly conditioned by a shrunken post-enlightenment rationalism, and I would hate to perpetuate that. It’s possible that “inerrancy” is, so to speak, the right answer to the wrong question. It’s a bit like “transubstantiation” in the Middle Ages: if someone asks, “Is Jesus really present in the breaking of the bread?” you have to say “Yes,” but if the only philosophical framework you have for doing so is Aristotle’s metaphysics you will come out with an answer which sends the wrong signals. Continue reading “Jonathan Merritt Interview with NT Wright”
Greg Boyd on the Bible and Certainty – An Interview with Jonathan Merritt
Pastor Gregory Boyd (Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary) made a name for himself years ago when he penned the best-selling Gold Medallion Award-winner Letters from a Skeptic, a collection of letters with his agnostic father that address tough questions non-Christians people have about the faith. But Boyd quickly became a lightning rod of controversy when he became a proponent of “open theism”, a view claiming that the future is not pre-determined and therefore God knows the future as possibilities and not fact (for more, see his book God of the Possible).
In his newest book, Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty, Boyd has returned to his roots in a way by urging people to wrestle with the big questions of faith. He claims that modern Christians have come to accept a false belief that faith is rooted in certainty. He says that faith is instead being willing to commit to living a certain way despite not being certain. Here, we discuss the benefit of embracing doubt and why he believes we need even to question God. Continue reading “Greg Boyd on the Bible and Certainty – An Interview with Jonathan Merritt”
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