Roger Olson – What is Fundamentalism?

Here are, according tto Roger Olson, the ‘symptoms’ of the spiritual disease called ‘fundamentalism’:

1) A tendency to elevate doctrines historically considered “secondary” (non-essentials) to the status of dogmas such that anyone who questions them questions the gospel itself.

2) A tendency to eschew “Christian fellowship” with fellow evangelical Christians considered doctrinally “impure” along with a tendency to misrepresent them in order to influence others to avoid them.

3) A tendency to “hunt” for “heresies” among fellow evangelical Christians and to reward fellow fundamentalists who “find” and “expose” them—even where said “heresies” are not truly heresies by any major confessional standards shared among evangelical Protestants.

4) A tendency to place doctrinal “truth” above ethics such that misrepresenting others’ views in order to exclude or marginalize them, if not get them fired, is considered justified.

5) A tendency to be obsessed with “liberal theological thinking” that leads to seeing it where it does not exist along with a tendency to be averse to all ambiguity or uncertainty about doctrinal and biblical matters.

(Source, ‘What Is “Fundamentalism?”’)

NOTE: In case you wonder if you are a fundamentalist.

 

 

 

Roger Olson – What is Liberal Theology?

Here are, according to Roger Olson, the ‘hallmarks’ of modern liberal theology:

1) A tendency to reduce the Bible to “the Christian classic” that is “inspired” insofar as it is inspiring;

2) A tendency to reduce Christianity itself to ethics such that doctrine is an expression of collective opinion always open to revision in light of changing cultural conditions;

3) A tendency to embrace and promote individualism in spirituality and doctrine while insisting on certain controversial ethical positions as matters of justice and therefore beyond debate;

A Plea for Christian Common Sense and Healthy Skepticism: An Antidote to Gullibility and Hysteria

Source: A Plea for Christian Common Sense and Healthy Skepticism: An Antidote to Gullibility and Hysteria

Roger Olson, one of my favourite evangelical theologians, speaks about ‘Christian’ hysteria and the common sense that is necessary to debunk it.

he ends his article with a question: ‘What’s our current hysteria? How should it be handled?’

What about ‘Norwegian’ hysteria?

A Call for American Evangelical Leaders to Confront Evangelicalism’s Lunatic Fringe

Source: A Call for American Evangelical Leaders to Confront Evangelicalism’s Lunatic Fringe

A stern call to theological sobriety from Bapotist theologian Roger Olson.

Roger Olson Asks CBF Liberals to Drop ‘Moderate’ Label

An article by Bob Allen, from Baptist News Global.

A quarter century after forming to resist fundamentalism in the Southern Baptist Convention, theology professor Roger Olson says the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is increasingly polarizing over liberal views gaining ground in the originally moderate group.

A professor at a moderate Baptist seminary says some individuals within the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are starting to sound more liberal than moderate, prompting others to worry the quasi-denomination is drifting leftward and away from its evangelical roots.

Roger Olson, professor of theology and Christian ethics at Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, said in a Patheos blog Feb. 22 that a division is developing in the 1,800-church network founded in 1990.

On one hand, he said, there are those who want to elevate the Baptist concept of “soul competency” to question traditional orthodoxy. Others “want to hold to basic Christian orthodox and evangelical commitments while avoiding rigid, narrow dogmatism over secondary matters.”

Olson said Cecil Sherman, the founding coordinator of the CBF who died in 2010, was by all accounts the figurehead leader of the moderate Baptist party that left the Southern Baptist Convention to establish a truly moderate — neither liberal nor fundamentalist — Baptist group in the South.

Going Where Angels Fear to Tread: Christianity and Freemasonry

Going where angels fear to tread: Christianity and Freemasonry.

Roger Olson talks openly about the shameful domination of the Southern Baptists by Freemasonry.

How American Evangelical Christianity Has Changed…

How American Evangelical Christianity Has Changed….

Roger E Olson on TEN MAJOR CHANGES IN AMERICAN EVAGELICALISM that he has witnessed.

Roger Olson vs Al Mohler – Should Christians Support Capital Punishment?

    
–          Roger Olson               vs             Al Mohler        –

The CNN religion blog published on 1 May an article of Al Mohler in which he argues that ‘Christians should support the death penalty’.

On 2 May, Roger Olson responded to what he describes as Mohler’s ‘ambiguous defence of the death penalty’.

This discussion was occasioned by the recent failed execution by lethal injection of a person condemned to the death penalty in Oklahoma.

* * *

Mohler believes that ‘the Bible clearly calls for capital punishment in the case of intentional murder’. His arguments? The direct ones are all from the Old Testament, while the New Testament texts he quotes are very general, and they are, at best, inferrances on the topic under discussion. He also tries to qualify the implications of his conclusions by stating that ‘society is to take every reasonable precaution to ensure that no one is punished unjustly’; which, we know already, from innumerable cases, is an impossible task. There simply cannot exist absolute assurance as to someones’s guilt, which makes mistakes – meaning, state sactioned murder of wrongly accused innocent victims – unavoidable.

A Non-Calvinist, Relational View of God’s Sovereignty

A Non-Calvinist, Relational View of God’s Sovereignty.

This text is a must read, for both Calvinists and non-Calvinists.

Roger Olson Named Professor of Christian Ethics at Baylor University

Christian ethics is close to Roger Olson’s heart, he says, because it was close to Jesus’ heart. In fact, the Baylor University theologian and ethicist adds, Christ was as much about showing how to live a godly life as he was about saving the world from sin.

“Jesus was about ethics,” Olson said. “The Sermon on the Mount was about ethics. I don’t think you can believe in Jesus and not believe in ethics.”

Olson’s passion for ethics made him Baylor’s choice for the newly established Foy Valentine Endowed Professorship in Christian Ethics. He was named to the chair in January. While new to the appointment, Olson has taught theology and ethics at Baylor since 1999. He is also the author of 16 books on theology and Christian ethics, and expects to see another published this year.

University officials and colleagues say Olson was the clear choice because his academic interests and desire to share gospel values mirror the life of the professorship’s namesake, the late Foy Valentine.

Read the entire article on the Associated Baptist Press website.

Roger Olson – Is there hierarchy in the Trinity?

Roger Olson

Professor Roger E Olson (who, by the way, resembles surprisingly to my father) has just published on his blog (thanks to Scot McKnight for the link) a very well written article (first in a series) on the present debate in American evangelicalism on subordinationism within the Trinity.

For those who are not familiar with this dispute, complementarians try to argue that women’s subordination to men, by divine design, parallels the eternal subordination of the Son (and the Holy Spirit) to the authority of the Father.

What I mean when I say I am “Against Calvinism” | Roger E. Olson

What I mean when I say I am “Against Calvinism” | Roger E. Olson.

This may upset some hard-line Calvinists, but hurt is good sometimes for the soul.

Uneasy Bedfellows: Finding a Home in Two Conflicting Theological Movements « Musings of a Hardlining Moderate

Uneasy Bedfellows: Finding a Home in Two Conflicting Theological Movements « Musings of a Hardlining Moderate.

This is a very important text and I submit it to my friends who have a serious interest in theology and an open mind.

Here is my short comment to Carson Clark, the author of this post:

Carson dear,
It took you two years to write this and I have to expedite my little comment in a few minutes, as I need to leave soon for the airport.
I read your text with the greatest interest, but my baby sitting responsibility this week for three very active boys (My daughter was away) did not allow me many spare moments even for my job.
Anyway, I respect and admire those I know in the two camps you have mentioned.
Personally, I feel closer to the paleo-orthodox camp, simply because of its stronger appeal to spirituality. Although I appreciate and agree with many of the insights of the postfundationalists, philosophy is not my preferred discipline. I value it as an instrument, but I am wary of its speculative bias.
That will be all for now. I will treasure this text. Thanks.

Why Capital Punishment Is Unchristian

Roger Olson argues in a recent article published by ABP that the capital punishment is sub Christian and straight, I cannot agree with him more.

Here are his seven arguments:

The Evangelical Divide – A View from the Other Side

My previous post on the Evangelical divide was based on a text written by Arminian theologian Roger Olson.

In case some people doubt such a divide really exists, I add here part of an article on this topic published in First Things by the Reformed theologian Gerald McDermott, the Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion at Roanoke College and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion,  editor of The Oxford Handbook of Evangelical Theology and coauthor of The Theology of Jonathan Edwards (Oxford).

I add here, as a teaser, the first part of this longer text (bold emphases are mine).

* * *

Roger Olson on Divisions Among Evangelicals

In a recent post of Scot McKnight’s blog I have found out about a recent post on Professor Roger Olson’s blog (which I highly recommend) that really stroke cord with my own experience with what he calls the ‘neo-fundamentalists’.

I paste below just a few relevant quotes (the bold emphases are mine). I will only add here matters of principle, leaving you you the ‘pleasure’ of reading the horror stories in Olson’s post.