Alanbean

LATEST ARTICLES ( 628 )

• How Much Jesus is in God?

  

  Then I realized that this close association between Christ and Creator allows Jesus to define the heart of God in the most extraordinary fashion. Read more

  Posted on 25 December 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• How Much Jesus is in God?

  

  We typically ask the question the wrong way around: “How much God was in Jesus?”  When we begin with this question we start fussing about the virgin birth (or... Read more

  Posted on 25 December 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Is Liberal Christianity the Answer for Post-evangelicals?

  

  “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”That is an audacious... Read more

  Posted on 23 December 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Grief and Glory

  

  My great uncle Henry always had a gimmick.  One year he was into reflexology and the next time I saw him he was peddling a wonder drug.  And when I was fifteen... Read more

  Posted on 21 December 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Worshiping the Flag

  

  This has not been a good year for the National Football League. Game attendance and viewership are both down, although no one is sure if that is due to... Read more

  Posted on 12 December 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Adrift on a Sea of Magic: the Uneasy Legacy of the Jesus People

  

  Christianity is a supernatural religion.  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  The Bible is replete with signs, wonders and miracles of... Read more

  Posted on 06 December 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Remembering My Botched Baptism

  “Remember your baptism!” If you are a member in good standing of a liturgical church, you are likely familiar with this charge. Read more

  Posted on 25 November 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Remembering My Botched Baptism?

  

  “Remember your baptism!” If you are a Methodist or a Presbyterian or a member in good standing of a liturgical church, you are likely familiar with this charge. Read more

  Posted on 24 November 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• What Will It Take for God to Look Like Jesus?

  

  Most American Christians pick and choose from a host of theological offerings, picking out a little of this and a little of that on the basis of what looks... Read more

  Posted on 13 November 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Learning from the Tragedy of John Howard Yoder

  

  Harvey Weinstein’s sins aren’t all that unusual; that’s the problem.  So common are Harvey’s transgressions that we have traditionally adopted a... Read more

  Posted on 10 November 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Violence is Born of Fantasy; So is the Cure

  

  When a gunman kills twenty-six people in a South Texas Church there is no way you can talk about anything else.  That’s part of the web of reasons that people... Read more

  Posted on 06 November 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Does Christianity Have a Future?

  

  We are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.  Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg and a long-buried... Read more

  Posted on 04 November 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• Mississippi Supreme Court Upholds Flowers Conviction Yet Again

  In a 5-4 decision,  the Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of Curtis Flowers. The Court is divided between conservatives with a “nothing to... Read more

  Posted on 03 November 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• What Preachers and Strippers Have in Common

  

  Harvey Weinstein was just the beginning.  Now NPR’s Senior Vice president for news, Michael Oreskes, has resigned in the wake of allegations of sexual... Read more

  Posted on 01 November 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• “You Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee”: How Exile Rewrote the Hebrew Scriptures

  

  You can read David Gushee’s Still Christian: Following Jesus Out of American Evangelicalism in an evening or afternoon. You can and you should. Read more

  Posted on 26 October 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• The Future of Red Letter Religion

  I just reposted my review of Peter Enns’ The Sin of Certainty. Like most of the revisionist preachers, theologians and biblical scholars in America, Enns... Read more

  Posted on 25 October 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• The Atheism of Jesus

  

  The first generation of Christians were atheists.  At least that’s the way they looked to the Romans.When a religious group denies the existence of every god... Read more

  Posted on 25 October 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• The Doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement is Dying. Is That a Bad Thing?

  Roger Olson of Truett seminary shares a question:Why is it that, during my lifetime, evangelical Christianity in America seems to have largely forgotten and... Read more

  Posted on 23 October 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• The American Christian Dilemma

  This post describes the contemporary religious dilemma that inspired me to write Breaking the Silence (or whatever I end up calling the book that’s rattling... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY

• In Spite of Dungeon, Fire and Sword: My Mennonite Legacy

  

  The death of Michael SattlerI know very little about my family history, partly because it is so complicated. My ancestors came to Canada and the United States... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2017 DEBATE, SOCIETY