Browse results
Abstract
The charge of schism has been one in the history of Western Christianity that carries with it deep emotive tones of horror. Through the examination of a tract making this charge about eighteenth-century English Dissent by the evangelical Anglican clergyman Thomas Robinson and of its rebuttal by the Particular Baptist theologian Andrew Fuller, this essay explores such perennial questions as: what is the nature of a true church and what is its relationship to the state? There is a poignancy to this particular debate between Robinson and Fuller as both men were evangelicals and each had a profound respect for the other.
Abstract
Christopher Watkin’s book Biblical Critical Theory offers a new technique for assessing issues and conflicts arising in both academic and wider cultural contexts. He offers diagonalization as a way of identifying alternatives to the harmful polarities (dichotomies) in which issues are presented. I argue that diagonalization fails as a technique as it is not presented in a way that others can readily adopt, it fails to explain why or how the diagonalizations resolve dichotomies, and treats complex issues as if they can be rendered into dichotomies and then resolved in a simplistic manner.
Abstract
In a recent article, Chris Barrigar has argued that my theological and philosophical case for gun ownership fails. This article critiques Barrigar’s response. I argue that Barrigar’s critique fails because it (a) incorrectly situates my arguments in a libertarian context, (b) inadequately engages with my exegetical arguments, (c) misunderstands and thus fails to engage with the relevant philosophical arguments, (d) ignores my existing work addressing some of his objections, and (e) misinterprets the relevant empirical evidence.
Abstract
Gregory Boyd explains the long history of evolution and all suffering that results from it—as well as suffering that results from other natural phenomena—by appealing to an angelic fall through which demonic meddling warps the original, divinely-intended lawlike regularity of the cosmos. With this position, Boyd aims to exonerate God in the face of all evil, which for Boyd includes all forms of suffering. While Boyd’s cosmic warfare theodicy is more thoroughly developed than any other to date and embraces certain scientific evidence about the world in a way that other fall-based theodicies do not, I argue that it nonetheless falls short of a viable theological worldview since it relies upon special pleading and ad hoc premises and ultimately presents an inconsistent system of belief.
Abstract
Barrigar addresses more directly the distinction between Hsiao’s individualist-level priority on self-protection and the author’s priority on the well-being (security) of society as a whole (and thereby of the individuals within society). The author argues that our starting point as Christians is not natural law and individual rights but rather God’s vision of shalom for societies. (On top of which the author argues that Hsiao’s natural law claims are disputable anyway). The author also addresses more substantially the issue of collateral harms to society within high gun-culture, a significant type of cost to society that is inadequately recognised in the literature. The author concludes by returning to his central argument, namely, that a central component of any theology of guns must include an account of agape-love, of self-sacrifice for the benefit of others, which Hsiao’s response insufficiently addresses.