What did the early Church Fathers have to say about the doctrine of eternal punishment?
Every now and then I make a video for Rethinking Hell, and I’ll share some of those here as they are produced. The purpose of this one was to provide a succinct reply to the comment that is sometimes made that the doctrine of hell as a place of eternal torment is the view that all the Early Church Fathers held. I hope you find it interesting!
Can you really annihilate what the translators and dictionaries say by simply gesturing to a well known rule in Hebrew? Probably not!
When learning a biblical language – or when just learning a few things about a biblical language for that matter, seminary students or preachers can sometimes start to feel like they’ve gained super powers – and now with just the effortless and universal application of a few of the rules they’ve learned, they can nail down exactly what the writer meant and thereby amaze their peers, win every argument and floor their congregation with their prowess.
As some of you will know, I’m involved in a collaborative project called Rethinking Hell. If you haven’t seen it, do take a look. I’ve just put together this short promo to whet your appetite. Feel free to share this video far and wide!
I’m not going to tell you what I think of this. I want you to tell me what I should think.
As some of you may know, Right Reason has merchandise. There’s a link to our store over on the right. The link is http://www.cafepress.com/rightreason. The store is hosted by Cafepress, who provide a service that enables people to design and sell their own merchandise. I’m going to describe a recent experience that I had with them, and I’d like your feedback on whether or not you believe they conduct themselves ethically in the matter I am describing.
Is believing in the resurrection of Jesus as foolish as falling for somebody’s tall-tale about teleportation? Recently James East brought to my attention his short article where he calls into question the “minimal facts” approach to arguing for the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. How well does his objection fare? Not especially well, as it turns out.
It was a pleasure to be asked to review The Baker Academic Theological Studies Collection from Logos Software. The bottom line is that this is a tremendous collection to have at your fingertips if you’re a student or teacher of theology, a pastor – or if you’re someone who simply enjoys reading theology of course, we do exist! The works are somewhat academic in tone, but not at the inaccessible end of the scale by any means. The works are published by branches of Baker Books (Baker Academic and Brazos), and if you have experience with these publishing houses you’ll realise that this means they are published to be read by mere mortals.
There are fifteen titles in the collection here so my review I’ll just comment briefly on each book individually, but there’s little doubt (especially since they come as a bundle!) that this collection as a collection presents something of more value than simply a small collection of decent theology books (although it is that).
- Craig L. Blomberg and Sung Wook Chung (ed), A Case for Historic Premillennialism: An Alternative “Left Behind” Eschatology (8 authors)
- Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Christology: A Global Introduction: An Ecumenical, International, and Contextual Perspective
- Steven R. Guthrie, Creator Spirit: The Holy Spirit and the Art of Becoming Human
- Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, The Doctrine of God: A Global Introduction: A Biblical, Historical, and Contemporary Survey
- Bruce L. McCormack (ed), Engaging the Doctrine of God: Contemporary Protestant Perspectives (11 authors)
- John G. Stackhouse Jr., Evangelical Ecclesiology: Reality or Illusion?
- Brad Harper and Paul Louis Metzger, Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction
- Jonathan R. Wilson, God so Loved the World: A Christology for Disciples
- Timothy George (ed), God the Holy Trinity: Reflections on Christian Faith and Practice (10 authors)
- Nonna Verna Harrison, God’s Many Splendored Image: Theological Anthropology for Christian Formation
- Bruce L. McCormack (ed), Justification in Perspective: Historical Developments and Contemporary Challenges (11 authors)
- Kelly M. Kapic and Bruce L. McCormack (ed), Mapping Modern Theology: A Thematic and Historical Introduction (14 authors)
- Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Pneumatology: The Holy Spirit in Ecumenical, International, and Contextual Perspective
- Khaled Anatolios, Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine
- Hans Boersma, Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition
One thing at the outset gave me pause.
A number of people are linking to and commenting about a recent story over at Hemant Mehta’s blog, Friendly Atheist, about “The Atheist Daughter of a Notable Christian Apologist.” The apologist is Matt Slick, and the atheist is his daughter Rachael. Essentially, the article is her relatively short life story about growing up with Matt as her Dad, how he taught her what theological terms means and all about the importance of critical thinking, and how she lost her faith after leaving her parents’ home and she no longer speaks to her Dad. This is either going to be an intellectually riveting insight, or it’s going to be an intellectually vapid, classless capitalisation on someone’s family tree and a broken relationship with one of the “bad guys.” Guess which it turned out to be.
In episode 50, I ask the question – So what?
Throughout the life of this blog and podcast I have offered a Christian perspective on the subjects that I cover, even having the audacity to commend a Christian outlook as sensible, defensible and (gasp) true! But why bother doing that? What’s it all about – what difference does it make whether or not Christianity is true? You’ll have to listen and find out!
Glenn Peoples
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VICTIMS OR BULLIES? Mel Pont, pictured with her fiancé, is upset that doctors have the freedom to do what they think is right rather than what she wants them to do.
In my part of the world, the most commented on new story at the moment is that a bigoted, moralistic, judgemental doctor has refused to prescribe the contraceptive pill for a young engaged woman, and she is making sure the media knows his name.