Who is Andrew Uffman?

Did somebody hijack Craig?

Rantings, Ravings, and Recantations of a Heretic

OK. I said it. I said that I wondered whether the Trinity was as central as it is made out to be here at Duke. This statement has been taken with a considerable amount of confusion and name calling (thank you Wilson), not to mention caused me a considerable amount of confusion for myself. So let me say here what I think I may mean (obviously I'm still somewhat confused) and what I definitely do not mean. Let's begin with the later:

I do not mean:
1. That the Trinity is not true or real
2. That God is not at the center of everything
3. That I do not believe in the Trinity
4. That I will not teach the Trinity

What I may mean:
1. That the doctrine of the Trinity is our best estimation of God, but that the doctrine while true and full, is not God in the fullest, who is incomprensible in the end except from what God has told us about Godself (I hate that word "godself." I wish there were a better one.)
2. That the doctrine of the Trinity is not the place I would begin with evangelism or a presentation of the faith to an unbeliever or even a nominal believer.
3. That intellectual assent to the doctrine of the Trinity does not necessarily mean one is a Christian.
4. That intellectual doubt of the doctrine of the Trinity does not necessarily mean one is not saved (in the fullest Wesleyan sense) or being saved, but probably does mean that one is not a Christian (in the lowest sense of the word...The way that Lewis uses it in Mere Christianity).

Whether these things that I may mean above add up to the Trinity not being central or not, I do not know. Thus, I publically recant from any declaration that the Trinity is not central.

I still wonder whether the emphasis on the Trinity does not end up causing us (myself included) to fall into what I see as possible errors above.

Onward Christian peacemakers,
Tom

Good News for Gay Christians

Here is an excellent, thought-provoking article on the issue of homosexuality and the church by Oliver O'Donovan. I think it is easily the best I have ever read on the topic. O'Donovan formerly was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, University of Oxford. Since August he is Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology at the University of Edinburgh. Yes, an Anglican in the Hauerwas-Williams constellation.

Good News for Gay Christians

Anthropology

Though my ecclesial fetish needs little discussion here, I thought that this quote was comedy.

"The Church, expert in humanity, has a perennial interest in whatever concerns men and women."


It is funny, like most theological jokes, for being both entirely absurd and entirely true.

The document I have yet to read and probably won't for a while, but it is Ratzinger's statement which pronounced the (near) impossibility of a woman's ordination. At least I think it is

Looking backward from year 2015

This is alarming! But also worth a read... :). Don't miss the section on theology at the end....

http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/OldWorldBasic/2015.htm

Revolution

Brothers and sisters:

For some time I have wanted to bring something to your attention; but to do so gracefully I knew not how. But thankfully I have been trying my hand at plundering the Egyptians of late. Thoughts from our old friend Friedrich...

"Learning to think: our schools no longer have any idea what this means."

"Nothing seems to me to be rarer today than genuine hypocrisy. I greatly suspect that this plant finds the mild atmosphere of our culture unendurable. Hypocrisy has its place in the ages of strong belief: in which even when one is compelled to exhibit a different belief one does not abandon the belief one already has. Today one does abandon it; or, which is even more common, one acquires a second belief--one remains honest in any event. Beyond doubt, a very much larger number of convictions are possible today, than formerly: possible, that means permitted, that means harmless."

Those are from Twilight of the Idols: Or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer. From The Anti-Christ:

"Mankind does not represent a development of the better or stronger or higher in the way it is believed today. 'Progress' is merely a modern idea, that is to say a false idea."

Enough of that preparatio evangelica. My point, rather, my call to moral action, to courage, to thought, to revolution, is this: read 1-2 Timothy, Titus, 1-2 Peter, and Jude, and receive them for what they really are: the Word of God.

PA