Tag: ‘The
‘The older Protestant theology was right to treat Aristotle as an adversary’
There has been a resurgence, among Protestants, either towards affirming the classical theism of Thomas Aquinas (i.e., Christian-Catholic theology synthesized with Aristotelian categories) or rejecting it.[1] But even those, in the broader Reformed world who ostensibly reject it, still affirm it; insofar, that they operate with the philosophical-theological categories provided for by said Thomistic synthesis. I have, for decades now, been calling this Thomistic-Aristotelian mode of Reformed theology out. And yet, that machine will never really bust. It has tentacles reaching into the far reaches of the Christian world at this point. In the West, in particular, it has publishing…
“The kingdom of His beloved Son”: On the Non-dualist Reality of the Kingdom
“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, …” Colossians 1:13 Do you see how this is not a dualistic scheme—like light versus darkness, good versus evil? Christianity does not operate in a dualistic frame of reference. It presents the world and the church with the fact that everything in relation to God in Christ is asymmetrical; and asymmetrical in a way where there is no comparison between who He has offered for Himself in the eternal Son become flesh in Jesus Christ, and every other thing in this…
‘The Father’s Theology’: An evangelical theology versus a philosophical theology
I am a proponent of an evangelical theology. ‘Evangelical’ in the sense that the starting point for theology, I contend, ought to be the Evangel or Gospel Hisself. This is contrary to the philosophical, or hard metaphysical theologies that have characterized much of the Western tradition’s theologizing for centuries (i.e., we could think of Thomas Aquinas all the way into Nietzsche et al.) An ‘evangelical theology’ is a kerygmatic theology; particularly when we understand that the kerygma is the pronouncement and announcement that Jesus is Lord. It is a theology of the Father who declares, “this is my dearly beloved…