Soul-Bearers

This week I want to continue pondering the implications of the resurrection, this time focusing on the bodily resurrection. The theological importance of bodily resurrection did not become fully obvious until Christianity moved beyond the Levant into Asia Minor and Greece, where the Semitic understanding of the world was far less significant and Greek and …

Dualism Postscript: Augustine and the Cosmos

I found a much clearer description of the dualism of Augustine in T. F. Torrance than anything I was able to say on my own. In the Augustinian outlook nature was looked at only to be looked through toward God and the eternal realities. As such it had no significance in itself but had significance …

Dualism 2: Embodiment

One of the most significant prophets of the new non-dualistic manner of thinking was Michael Polanyi. A chemist who began his illustrious career at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin shortly after WWI and emigrated to England just before WWII, Polanyi was in the thick of the new scientific approach pioneered by Einstein. Einstein’s theories …

Truth Arising from the Touch of Jesus’ outstretched hand

I have a long history of engagement with Sunday’s Revised Common Lectionary readings. The epistle, Romans 10:5-15, is one of those texts that is deeply problematic for Protestants while at the same time one of the most beloved. In a variety of classes in both college and seminary the instructor has posed the question, “What …

Creationism: We’re Still Arguing About This?

One would think the creationism/evolutionism debate would just go away, but it hasn't. I have been surprised at how many staunch creationists still exist. They're not noisy for the most part, but when they find out I used to be a pastor, they assume that I must be a creationist also. Because of the persistence …