Review and Response

T. M. Moore’s assessment of Pagans & Christians in the City is what any author hopes for—a review that is laudatory and charitable, but also comprehending and insightful. In this response, therefore, I might just say “Thank you” and stop there. However, Moore does call attention to some contestable choices in the book that in…

If there is, in the corpus of Jesus’ teaching, what might be considered a defining parable, my vote goes to the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13.24-30, 36-43). Here Jesus provides a framework for history and a template for thinking about the progress of the Kingdom of God. The parable covers the…

For those who teach at a Christian school, whether in grades K-12 or at the post-secondary level, there is an expectation that one’s faith is integrally connected with one’s teaching. For many, this takes the form of a philosophical or theological analysis of the academic content, often focusing on controversial issues or a more general…

A review of one’s work, especially a fair and kind one, is a gift. An invitation to address the matter further in response is another. In the present case, there is little cause for a response of the crossing swords variety, since Dave Klanderman apparently liked On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom and…

Jack Mulder Jr. is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Hope College. In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis writes the following about controversies surrounding the Blessed Virgin Mary: ...there is no controversy between Christians which needs to be so delicately touched as this. The Roman Catholic beliefs on that subject…

We are grateful for Ben DeVan’s review. He offers two major critiques of Paul Behaving Badly and three smaller, more granular critiques. We will begin with the simplest issues and work up to the more complex. Early in the essay, DeVan notes that the series could be improved by—or at least would benefit from—contributions by…

I want to thank Ben DeVan for his review of the “Behaving Badly” series. Iron sharpens iron, and any constructive critique is welcome. I also appreciate the opportunity to respond to his review. I found Jesus Behaving Badly particularly challenging to write for a variety of reasons. For one thing, a certain standard had already…

Ironically, for many Christians, the IVP “Behaving Badly” trilogy focuses on what is essentially their “trinity”: God, Jesus, and Paul. As much as I love Paul, I would never put him on the same level as the God of the Old Testament (YHWH), or the God of the New (Jesus). But perhaps the fact that…

I am grateful to David T. Lamb, Mark L. Strauss, E. Randolph Richards, and Brandon J. O’Brien for their responses to my review essay in this short symposium concerning their books. I thank each scholar for specifying which of my critiques they find persuasive and for responding to my other critiques by strengthening or elaborating…

In his Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, the eighteenth-century founder of Methodism, John Wesley, strove for biblical commentary that penetrated deeply yet remained concise and clear. Discontent with mere intellectual insights, Wesley yearned to assist the “learned and unlearned” to understand better God’s ways so that they would progress in joy and character development…

We are grateful to Brandon M. Hoover for taking the time to engage and extend our argument about educating students for homemaking rather than upward mobility. In large part, we agree with his call for more robust sustainability programs, but our hopes are at once more modest and more radical than Mr. Hoover’s seem to…

Introduction The purpose of higher education has been argued for centuries, and is currently on the hot seat in public discourse for its high costs and debt in the midst of wage stagnation and reduced upward mobility. The response to this hot seat has been for increased attention to the role of higher education in…

I appreciate this opportunity to respond to Steven Harmon’s response to my review. Such responses can become meta quite quickly, and I think a response to a response can grow like kudzu. So I will highlight only a few remaining matters of relevance having read Harmon’s very thoughtful reply. First, I would reiterate that I…

Kimlyn J. Bender is Professor of Christian Theology, George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University. In 1905 at the Baptist World Congress, a precursor to the Baptist World Alliance, Alexander MacLaren led the participants in a recitation of the Apostles’ Creed. Since that moment, Baptists have wondered and debated exactly what that event signified.…

Steven R. Harmon is Visiting Associate Professor of Historical Theology, School of Divinity, Gardner-Webb University. I am grateful to Kimlyn Bender for his perceptive review of Baptist Identity and the Ecumenical Future and to Christian Scholar’s Review for publishing not only such an extensive review of the book, but also my response to it along…

Paul Sullins raises interesting questions about my critical realist personalism. But his critique reflects some confusions. Let me answer his easier criticisms first. I indeed make no distinction between human soul and spirit, seeing no need for such a difference either theologically or psychologically. I also, in fact, do not theorize religion in the two…

Paul Sullins is Professor of Sociology at The Catholic University of America. Introduction As is well known, in contrast to Plato’s theory that the universal forms of the things we experience exist in an ideal realm (idealism) of which we had knowledge prior to experiencing them, Aristotle thought that they did not exist apart from…

Christian Smith considers it “too narrow and exacting” to require that Christian scholarship seek to “weav science and theology integrally together.” I, on the other hand, consider that to be the sine qua non of scholarship that is Christian. I am not suggesting that every individual work of Christian scholarship needs to articulate theological or…

Jack Mulder, Jr. is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Hope College. I am pleased to see that my argument for the Immaculate Conception generated a response, although I am a bit surprised at the sort of response it generated. R. Gary Chiang and Evelyn M. White present an interesting analysis of the biological data surrounding…

Jack Mulder Jr. challenged Christians to accept the Immaculate Conception of Mary (“Why More Christians Should Believe in Mary’s Immaculate Conception,” Christian Scholar’s Review 41.2 :117-134) because it provided the psychological freedom for her to consent to the Incarnation. In this paper R. Gary Chiang and Evelyn M. White take up this challenge by showing…