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2016-11-01T17:14:00-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Reformation Day post–a year and a day late (or 364 days early)

Last updated on: November 1, 2016 at 5:14 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

The following is an article that I wrote for Christianity Today online last year, which they decided not to publish. So I’m releasing it this year as a blog post. I didn’t get it out yesterday, but that’s probably appropriate, since it’s an argument for All Saints’ over “Reformation Day.” This article was probably my last attempt to speak as an evangelical Protestant to evangelical Protestants. I will always consider myself an evangelical, but having made the decision to “swim... Read more

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2016-10-31T18:12:00-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

And he that will reach it, about must, and about must go

Last updated on: October 31, 2016 at 6:12 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

The Wartburg, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wartburg_Eisenach_DSCN3512.jpg As anyone who knows me is aware, I’ve been engaged for more than twenty years now in discerning whether or not I should enter full communion with Rome (i.e., “become Catholic”). This journey began–well, it probably began with my parents and grandparents teaching me the Christian faith in infancy. Discovering G. K. Chesterton as a teenager made me begin to think of Catholicism as a live possibility. Phil Kenneson, one of my professors at Milligan College, told... Read more

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2016-10-24T22:50:00-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Al Smith the papist demagogue: the origins of a “democratic institution”

Last updated on: October 24, 2016 at 10:50 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Thomas Nast cartoon, public domain, https://www.catholicleague.org/thomas-nast-cartoons/ Apparently there is something called the “Al Smith dinner,” which is a “democratic institution” in danger from Donald Trump. I find this a bit ironic, since when Al Smith actually ran for president in 1928 plenty of people thought he was a danger to democratic institutions himself. He would take the Bible out of public schools: Indeed, his candidacy was nothing more than a papal plot to smash the public schools with a club called... Read more

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2016-10-16T20:58:00-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The ‘Am and the Yam

Last updated on: October 16, 2016 at 8:58 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

In my ongoing effort to read through the Bible in Hebrew, I just finished Jeremiah 5. One of the things that struck me about it this time through was the contrast between God’s control over nature (v. 22) and God’s people’s ability to resist God (v. 23). God sets the sand as a boundary for the sea, and the waves of the sea can’t pass it however much they may rage, but “this people” does manage to “turn aside and... Read more

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2016-09-18T22:08:00-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Throne of Blood

Last updated on: September 18, 2016 at 10:08 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

My latest Netflix DVD was a movie I’d seen years ago, Throne of Blood–Akira Kurosawa’s magnificent Japanese adaptation of Macbeth. A couple of things struck me this time around that I hadn’t remembered from last time. One was that in terms of plot and characterization Kurosawa’s version is, in some ways, an improvement on Shakespeare’s (yes, blasphemy, I know). In Shakespeare, we jump from the witches predicting that Macbeth will become the king to Macbeth already having discussed the murder... Read more

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2016-08-19T14:33:00-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Love the person, hate the sin?

Last updated on: August 19, 2016 at 2:33 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Rebecca Bratten Weiss adds her voice to the many condemning the maxim, “hate the sin, love the sinner.” I agree with the substance of what Rebecca is saying here, but I still can’t see how this means that “hate the sin, love the sinner” is a false maxim. Quite the reverse. She has a good point that labeling people as “sinners” (as if we aren’t sinners ourselves) is a problem, so we could rephrase it as “hate the sin, love... Read more

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2021-10-28T08:28:26-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Intelligent Design, part 2

Last updated on: October 28, 2021 at 8:28 am By Edwin Woodruff Tait

My friend Jonathan Huddleston (my most reliably acute critic) pointed out that I really didn’t do enough to substantiate the thesis in my last post. In particular, Jonathan asked why God couldn’t be the creator in the traditional, orthodox sense (the one who causes all things to be, including the processes of nature) while also “tinkering” (the term I used in my earlier post) by setting up particular structures in the way suggested by ID theorists. It’s a good caveat.... Read more

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2016-08-11T15:54:00-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Why Intelligent Design is not (good) theology

Last updated on: August 11, 2016 at 3:54 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

One of the most common accusations against Intelligent Design theory is that, while claiming to be science, it is really theology. Usually the people making this accusation see “science” as a good thing and “theology” as a bad thing, so they are effectively trying to discredit ID by associating it with what they see as a pointless and discredited intellectual endeavor. Also, of course, if it’s theology it doesn’t belong in science class in a public school. I think that... Read more

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2016-07-23T21:04:00-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Is Game of Thrones more Christian than Lord of the Rings?

Last updated on: July 23, 2016 at 9:04 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

In a recent Facebook discussion, Rebecca Bratten Weiss (of the excellent “Suspended in Her Jar” blog on Patheos) suggested that the treatment of violence in the “Song of Ice and Fire” books by George R. R. Martin is, in a sense, more truly Christian than Tolkien’s treatment of the same subjects. In Tolkien a conquering, messianic emperor brings peace through righteous violence. In Martin, on the other hand, violence is portrayed in its full horror. Furthermore, in the fourth book,... Read more

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2016-07-22T16:54:00-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Another blog post at Pickled Pencil

Last updated on: July 22, 2016 at 4:54 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

on Donald Trump and the mysticism of money. Read more

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