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Continue reading →: AI, Human Agency, and the Future of Local CommunityI’ve been thinking about the AI arms race and the fears that come with it. There are the obvious concerns about AI becoming uncontrollable and potentially catastrophic, but there is another concern that I think gets less attention: what happens to human agency when enormous technological and economic power becomes…
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Continue reading →: Why I Reject Both Calvinism and Open TheismI reject both Calvinism and Open Theism because I think both begin with an assumption about God’s relationship with time that I don’t share. I affirm the classical Christian understanding that God is omniscient, eternal and sovereign, and I also believe that human beings make genuinely free choices. I don’t…
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Continue reading →: Does 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 Teach a Pre-Tribulation Rapture or the Second Coming?When Christians talk about the “rapture,” 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 is usually one of the first passages that comes up. Paul says that Christ will descend from heaven, the dead in Christ will rise, and believers who are still alive will be “caught up” to meet the Lord in the air.…
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Continue reading →: THE CONVERGENCE OF FRINGE EXTREMISM – SOVEREIGN PSEUDOLAW AND RELIGIOUS MANDATES IN REGIONAL AUSTRALIABy Andrew Park The study of political radicalisation in modern Australia often suffers from a profound geographical and cultural disconnect. When urban academics and mainstream media outlets attempt to map the rise of anti-government movements, they routinely focus on visible, public-facing entry points. A recent feature in The Chronicle by…
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Continue reading →: Why Do American Evangelicals Keep Tripping Up on the Trinity?This morning I was reading about William Lane Craig’s rejection of the eternal begottenness of the Son. Dwelling on this, I was reminded of another recent controversy within American Evangelicalism: Eternal Functional Subordination. They represent very different conclusions, but both seem to rebalance the relationship between the immanent Trinity—who Father,…
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Continue reading →: Is Buddhism Really an Atheistic Religion?I’m always a little bemused when atheists describe Buddhism as an atheistic religion. I understand the reasoning: Buddhism doesn’t centre on a creator God, and some forms of Buddhism can certainly be practised without belief in a personal deity. But I wonder whether “atheistic religion” is really adequate as a…
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Continue reading →: Christian Nationalism: When Faith and National Identity Become EntangledI’m seeing a lot of US conservatives trying to problematise the phrase “Christian nationalism.” It really isn’t that complicated. Christian nationalism belongs to the broader family of religious nationalism: ideologies that fuse religious and national identity. Think Islamism, Hindutva, or religious Zionism. The particular theology and politics differ, but the…
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Continue reading →: If Jesus Is the Image of God, Why Doesn’t Theology Proper Start with Jesus?I sometimes encounter an assumption, both among critics of Christianity and among Christians themselves, that the God of the Old Testament is fundamentally different from the God revealed by Jesus. Critics may point to the Old Testament’s violence and judgment as evidence that Christianity’s God is morally problematic, while some…
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Continue reading →: Mary and the Ark of the Covenant: An Unexpected Echo in Luke 1:43Some weeks ago I came across a meme comparing two passages of Scripture: David’s response to the Ark of the Covenant in 2 Samuel 6:9 and Elizabeth’s words to Mary in Luke 1:43. The suggestion was that Luke intentionally presents Mary in connection with the Ark of the Covenant. My…
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Continue reading →: Revisiting Craig Carter’s Contemplating God with the Great TraditionI have recently been revisiting Craig A. Carter’s Contemplating God with the Great Tradition. It is not a new book, but it is one that continues to challenge me. Carter’s central concern is that modern Christianity has lost something important: a rich understanding of God’s transcendence and the metaphysical framework…
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