A Podcast All About Christianity
There are various ways to do theology. One is to go through the Bible and make theological reflections. Another is to organize theology around a number of agreed upon categories. But another is autobiography. Colby Dickinson looks at this in the book, Theology as Autobiography. In this book, Dickinson looks at theology requiring translation, and … Read More “Theology as Autobiography – Review” »
Early Christianity is closely tied to the history of the Roman Empire. Whether as the victims of persecution or as those rising to positions of power, the church could never ignore the empire and vice versa. So some knowledge of the empire and the emperors is important for Christian history. A great resource for this … Read More “Emperors Don’t Die in Bed – Review” »
I always have mixed feelings when I read books by Bart Ehrman. He is a respected scholar and he is a gifted communicator. Those things don’t always go together. However, his books are also often heavily shaped by his reaction to his former evangelical faith. This is true for The Triumph of Christianity as well. … Read More “The Triumph of Christianity – Review” »
Does the Church have a good history or a bad history? The answer is yes. The Church has included some of the worst and some of the best. Thus, John Dickson’s new book, Bullies and Saints, is aptly named. Many of the histories of Christianity are written with either of two aims: to make the … Read More “Bullies and Saints – Review” »
I have been doing some research into the idea of the image of God for my interest in Disability Theology. One of the books that I read was God’s Many-Splendored Image by Nonna Verna Harrison. Many scholars who look at this topic come from a biblical or a philosophical perspective. Harrison, who is a patristic … Read More “God’s Many-Splendored Image” »
Who are the Gnostics and where did they come from? Often they are thought of as a Christian heresy but it may be more complicated then that. Carl Smith looks at these questions in his book No Longer Jews: The Search for Gnostic Origins. The title gives it away that he sees a Jewish connection. … Read More “No Longer Jews – Review” »
One of the most intriguing figures in Christian history for me is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer argued for complete nonresistance and yet was implicated in a plot to assassinate Hitler. Bonhoeffer was too conservative for liberals and too liberal for conservatives. Eric Metaxas attempted to turn him into an evangelical culture warrior in his bestselling biography. … Read More “Letters and Papers from Prison” »
One of the biggest threats to what would become orthodox Christianity was Gnosticism. There had been other theological innovations in the early church but Gnosticism was the most radical. And the most confusing. A helpful book for moderns readers to understand this complex movement is The Gnostics: Identifying and Early Christian Cult by Alastair H. … Read More “The Gnostics – Review” »
Christianity emerged out of Judaism and borrow many of its concept of God. You can find this post regarding a book that investigates monotheism in Judaism and Christianity. But how did the Christian concept of God relate to pagan thought? One God: Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire is a book that looks at a … Read More “One God: Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire” »
Christianity began as a Jewish sect. Judaism has a strong doctrine of monotheism. Christianity worships Jesus as divine. How did this come to be? Early Jewish and Christian Monotheism, edited by Loren Stuckenbruck and Wendy North, examines many of the issues surrounding this question. It is not a unified thesis giving one explanation of what … Read More “Early Jewish and Christian Monotheism” »
