“As the Lord’s Prayer is the Prayer of prayers, the Decalogue the Law of laws, so the Apostles’ Creed is the Creed of creeds. It contains all the fundamental articles of the Christian faith necessary to salvation, in the form of facts, in simple Scripture language, and in the most natural order — the order of revelation — from God and the creation down to the resurrection and life everlasting... It is by far the best popular summary of the Christian faith ever made in so brief a space. It still surpasses all later symbols for catechetical and liturgical purposes, especially as a profession of candidates for baptism and church membership... It has the fragrance of antiquity and the inestimable weight of universal consent. It is a bond of union between all ages and sections of Christendom.” —Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 1:14-15
"Fortress Theology and the Mirage of Paradox"
"Peer Pressure, Confessionalism and the Corruption of Judgment: Why Theologians Can't Think Straight"
"Verbal Plunder: Combating the Feminist Encroachment on the Language of Theology and Ethics"
Assessing the New Atheists -- Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins:
"Chris is not Great: How Hitchens Poisons Everything:"
A review of Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (New York, Twelve, 2007)Sam Harris, The End of Faith ( coming soon)
Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation (coming soon)
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (coming soon)
The Creed: Beliefs that Matter
Introduction: "The Nature and Importance of Creeds"
Chapter 2: "...in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth"
Chapter 3: "and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord"
Chapter 4: "who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,"Chapter 5: "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into Hell."
Chapter 6: "The Third day He rose Again from the Dead"
Chapter 7: “He ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty.”
Chapter 8: “From there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.”
Chapter 9: "I believe in the Holy Spirit;"
Chapter 10: “the holy catholic church; the communion of saints;”
Chapter 11: “the forgiveness of sins;”
Chapter 12: “The resurrection of the body; and life everlasting.”
More to come...
"...Christian scholarship has an obligation to truth, that is, to God. Only by the careful pursuit and acquisition of truth can we begin to execute our calling faithfully and effectively. Theologians and their students must shun the naive ferocity of those who hold to opinions that cannot stand up to careful scrutiny. Do not mistake their vicious passion for intellectual virtue or courage. It is not. It is the anguished outrage of those who have been unfaithful to their commission as apostles for truth, a commission that requires fidelity to things as they are, not to things as we would like them to be. Like Nero, those theologians spend their time fiddling with the evidence while the real world, and its questions and concerns, burns down around them. But, they themselves do not worry because they believe their asbestos dogmatism will protect them, even if it does not protect the world. In truth, however, it will protect neither. That is because Christian theologizing is, or ought to be, a 'reality game.' The morality of scholarship demands a willingness to face the truth, even when it says that some of our most cherished beliefs are raw fiction. Without courage to face the truth and the freedom to do so, neither Christian scholars nor the students they instruct will ever stand in the vanguard of academic pursuit. They lack the intellectual virtue and wherewithal to do so."
—Michael Bauman, "Peer Pressure, Confessionalism and the Corruption of Judgment: Why Theologians Can't Think Straight"
10 July 2006