The conventional story of the decline of hell in the modern world points out the seismic shift from a premodern and "unscientific" to modern and "scientific" cosmology in the seventeenth century. But is it as simple as that, and was such a decline in fact rendered inevitable by the rise of the natural sciences? By
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(This is Part 2 of 2 of this review. For part 1, go here.) Some Observations Each of the essays in this volume deserves a close reading and detailed interaction and I regret that I cannot devote that kind of space to them here, especially in the case of Dunn’s essay which should be read
Justification: Five Views, edited by James K. Beilby and Paul Rhodes Eddy (IVP Academic, 2011). 319 pages. To ask what the legacy of recent justification debates will be for future debates over the Gospel and the Church’s proclamation of it is implicitly to ask what we have clearly, decisively learned in these debates. In theology,
"To think in and through the scriptures is to have a sanctified vision." So say John J. O'Keefe and R. R. Reno in their excellent study, Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible (Johns Hopkins, 2005), 116. After lecturing on the patristic Rule of Faith last week, I once again came away
The God of curved space, the dry God, is not going to help us, but the son whose blood spattered the hem of his mother’s robe. "Looking at Stars," Jane Kenyon The question of God's relationship to evil and suffering is popular again. It has been the main topic of my own research for the
Sermon illustrations (and for some reason this is especially true of published ones) are notorious for their nonsensical and soul-eating vacuity. Too often they strengthen the arms of skeptics digging for more ways to ridicule conventional Christianity. Yet one of the most stirring, stubbornly nourishing turns of phrase I've ever read is in a sermon