Thoughts on Everyday Theology
Articles exploring the implications of faith
How should Christians approach thinking about tradition?
It is difficult to be neutral about the idea of tradition. Either you are attracted to it, or you are repelled by it. This is especially true when it comes to the Christian faith. Many Christians are attracted by the idea of being part of tradition. The liturgy, the...
Studying Theology at a Secular University
Studying theology in a secular institution can be challenging to the faith of a young Christian. You are taught about a wide range of theological beliefs, some of which are outside the bounds of orthodox Christianity. Your teachers know much more about the Bible and...
How Should We Do Apologetics?
Throughout my life I’ve been simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by apologetics. As a teenager I wanted to help people (including myself) who had sincere questions about the Christian faith. But many of the apologetics books I read seemed overly confident and...
Why is the Bible Authoritative?
The Bible is the primary authority for all Christians. But this causes a problem when we are asked “why do you trust what the Bible says?” Whatever reason we have must be a higher authority still, because we trust that when it tells us to trust the Bible. Neither can...
The Love of God and the Unforgivable Sin
How do we rightly understand Jesus’ saying that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven? Especially, how do we understand it in the context of the rest of the Bible, which proclaims forgiveness of ALL our sins?
How Can Jesus Have All Power?
A Reflection on Ephesians 1:17-23.
Is ‘Suffering’ Still the Greatest Objection to Christianity?
I want to suggest that over the last few decades there has been a slow decline in objections to Christianity taking the form: “How could an all-powerful, loving God allow so much evil and suffering in the world?” The question itself comes from a modernist culture...
How one Philosopher became Christian through reading Aristotle
In 1981 the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre converted to Christianity during the course of writing his most famous work, After Virtue. The book argues that today’s Western understanding of right and wrong (morality) is a shipwreck of disconnected fragments that...
What is Worship?
I grew up in a church which was home to two competing attitudes to Christian worship. One of them was expressed when people emerged from a service grumbling that they “didn’t get anything out of” the worship that morning. The other was manifest in a common response to...
Sex and the Church – and Diarmaid MacCulloch
“I think religion has got everything appallingly wrong and it has been terrible for us in sexual terms” declared Diarmaid MacCulloch in an interview about his three-part BBC series, “Sex and the Church.” The series is an attempt to prove his thesis by examining the...