Thoughts on ethics, society, politics, religion, philosophy, theology, and everything in between
The Political Nature of the Christian Gospel According to the modern idea of the distinction between religion and politics, religion and politics are two separate realms or spheres of human life. Religion is personal, interior, and otherworldly, while politics is public, corporate, and this-worldly. These two realms may have some kind of mutual influence or … Read more
Old Testament and New Testament Ethics It is obvious to anyone who reads through the Bible that there are significant discontinuities between the ethics of the Old Testament and the ethics of the New Testament. For example, the Old Testament Law allowed for divorce (Deut 24:1); Jesus absolutely forbids it (Matt 5:32). The Old Testament … Read more
When faced with the fact that there is no universal or self-evident morality, there are a number of ways in which some people will try to establish morality on a merely secular basis. I will argue that all these attempts fail to provide any sound basis for morality. In order to establish a sound basis … Read more
The Bible as Scripture What is the Bible? The Christian answer is that it is the word of God. Yet at the same time, the church has always recognized that the Bible is also a fully human book. In fact, it is not a single book, but a collection of dozens of books written by … Read more
Morality and Intuitions Many people assume that there are at least some moral truths which any reasonable person can (or at least should) recognize, regardless of their particular worldview. Some moral truths, it is often assumed, can and should be known regardless of a person’s religious or metaphysical beliefs, or lack thereof. However, this assumption … Read more
The Necessity of Theological Ethics Theological ethics is the branch of Christian theology that engages in a reasoned analysis of ethical issues from the standpoint of Christian theology. Many Christians might question whether it is necessary to engage in such a task. Some would argue that our conscience and our intuitions are sufficient to tell … Read more
The Fall “To us things are normal when they are going well. Health, affluence, peace—these are normal, so convinced we are of our own righteousness, of what is our due. But Scripture teaches the very opposite. Unfortunately, what is normal now that man is separated from God is war and murder, famine and pollution, accident … Read more
I. Presuppositions When assessing the historical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, the matter of presuppositions is of fundamental importance. If someone believes that miracles are in principle impossible, no amount of evidence will convince them that Jesus rose from the dead, since they have ruled out this possibility a priori. If someone believes that miracles might … Read more
Contemporary Ethical Discourse Ethical discourse in our society is at a point of crisis. Gone are the days when, for example, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass engaged in a reasoned political debate for a full seven hours, and crowds stayed and listened for the whole time.[1]See Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age … Read more