Analytic Theology

Dogmatic Christian theology instructs us that by giving his life, and suffering on the cross, Jesus expiated all of the world’s sin and guilt. But there is something very unusual about his sacrifice. Which is: (a) nobody in the New Testament requested it! You will search the New Testament in vain for someone who comes [...]

The New Life Church’s Board of Overseers recently dismissed Ted Haggard, a prominent author and national evangelical Christian leader, for “sexually immoral conduct.” Haggard wrote: “I am a sinner. I have fallen.” New Life’s interim senior pastor, Ross Parsley, told church members: “Pastor Ted is living in a greater measure of repentance and forgiveness today [...]

Christians believe not only in the historical reality of Jesus, but also that he had certain ascriptive predicates, as set forth, for example, in the Nicene Creed. Muslims believe in the former proposition, but deny the latter; Jesus simply was a “messenger of God,” whereas it was Muhammad who was God’s final prophet. Both Christianity [...]

Jesus had an annoying habit of speaking in parables. The New Testament sets forth anywhere from 32 to 48 of them, depending on who’s doing the counting. In fact, parables comprise most of what he had to say during his stay here on the terra firma; Matthew 13:34 and Mark 4:33 go so far as [...]

OK, just to make sure we’re all on the same page, Arianism was invented by Arius, who was a Catholic priest in Alexandria, Egypt, circa 300 C.E. Yes, the same Alexandria later reconceptualized by Lawrence Durrell in his immortal Alexandria Quartet, about which, more later — like, way later. At the risk of paraphrase, the [...]

I am growing increasingly skeptical about the idea of a “Judeo-Christian tradition.” Everybody from historians to anthropologists frequently appeals to this concept, as a way of explaining or emphasizing certain allegedly desirable features of Western civilization, particularly in its current form. The fact of the matter, though, is that it is difficult to think of [...]

I always have been intrigued by arguments for the existence of God. Maybe it’s because they tend to put you in a contemplative frame of mind. Lately I’ve become interested in a sub-set of these issues, which is, why don’t we all start believing in the indigenous God that is native to our ancestral territories. [...]

The New York Times Book Review from several weeks ago discussed two books, which are: Hauser, M., Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong (2006) (reviewed by the esteemed Richard Rorty); and, Collins F., The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (2006). Ironically, the reviews appeared only [...]

Should we be interested in why both Abraham and Kierkegaard were willing to teleologically suspend the ethical? Not in a psychological sense, but rather, the reasons they would give if asked to do so (for example, if they were called upon to account for their behavior in a court of law). Abraham would say: “God [...]