“One Little Hour”

The Obama campaign has taken off its gloves. Tired of being lambasted by shallow Republican attack ads comparing Barack to vapid celebrities and misconstruing his words about feminine comestic products, Obama representatives have started series of ads portraying McCain as hopelessly out of touch. (more…)

When I was a kid I devoured science fiction. At the tender age of 7 or 8, my dad introduced me to his 1960s copies of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, a monthly magazine which published pure science fiction stories alongside actual scientific articles. To be honest I usually skipped over the hard science and dove into the worlds of Poul Anderson, Ben Bova, Robert Heinlein, Christopher Anvil, and of course Isaac Asimov. (more…)

Richard Niebuhr gets less attention in evangelical circles than his older brother Reinhold. The two were born to a modernistic Lutheran pastor in Missouri, earned degrees from Yale, and became noted neo-orthodox thinkers.

In Social Sources Richard argued that sectarianism within Christianity is caused by social, economic, and political pressures. For example, he pointed to Weber’s thesis about the Protestant work ethic in order to argue that the capitalist spirit aided the advance of Calvinism. Niebuhr also believed that socio-economic tensions contributed to a class division between “respectable” middle class churches, like the Lutherans and Calvinists, and lower class Anabaptists and Methodists. (more…)

I just finished rereading Larson’s examination of the 1925 Scopes Trial, which was awarded the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History. Larson is a Harvard law graduate who also earned a PhD in history at the University of Wisconsin.

Larson’s Pulitzer was well-deserved (I’m sure he is relieved to know I approve). He displayed no discernable bias in his treatement and presented the foibles of both creationists and evolutionists with equanimity. (more…)

I admit I was skeptical when I began reading The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism by Carl Henry, a founder of Fuller Theological Seminary and of neo-evangelicalism. Growing up at Bob Jones University imbued me with suspicion of my new-evangelical brethren and their engagement with the “world.” My worst fears appeared to be confirmed when I read Harold Ockenga’s introduction which calls for “a progressive Fundamentalism with a social message.”

But by the time I finished the book (a relatively quick read at 89 double-spaced pages, though taking far longer than the page count would indicate owing to Henry’s obtuse writing), I was convinced by parts of Henry’s thesis. (more…)

Last night Michael Gembola, Scott Pickering, and I attended 10th Presbyterian Church in Center City Philadelphia. I was slightly disappointed that I wasn’t going to be able to watch the Super Bowl, but in hindsight I don’t regret the decision one bit (even though I missed the greatest upset in Super Bowl history).

After the evening service Dr. Michael Ward of Cambridge presented his dissertation work on the Chronicles of Narnia, recently published as Planet Narnia by Oxford University. Dr. Ward’s presentation was flawless and his evidence compelling. He titled the talk (more…)