Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic

2015-02-02T11:55:00-05:00

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 Two Messengers

Last updated on: February 2, 2015 at 11:55 am By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Perhaps to the clear-eyed angelThere was nothing in the word he brought but glory:Infinite splendor in a point of flesh,Bursting, breaking through the veil of blood and mucus,Passing through a narrow gateTo fill creation with redoubled light. Only the old man, his rheumy eyesBlurred with false hopes,Back scarred by Roman rods,Feet hard with trudging up the stony hillTo watch the heroes die,Only he, perhaps, could taste in his body the sourness of the sweet word,Could see the sword quivering in... Read more

Christianity

poetry

2015-01-15T11:55:00-05:00

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.

Greg Boyd’s warfare theology part 4–the “blueprint model”

Last updated on: January 15, 2015 at 11:55 am By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Boyd’s antagonist throughout his two volumes of “warfare theology” is something he calls the “blueprint model” or “the myth of the blueprint.” This view of Divine providence, according to Boyd, became prominent with Augustine, replacing the “warfare model” which had prevailed in the first three centuries of the Church’s history. In “blueprint theology,” God ordains in some way everything that happens. This may take Calvinist or Arminian forms, may use the language of “permission” rather than saying that God directly... Read more

2014-12-08T10:29:00-05:00

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.

Greg Boyd’s warfare theology part 3–Creation

Last updated on: December 8, 2014 at 10:29 am By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Boyd’s “warfare theology” rests on a doctrine of creation as an act whereby God gives radical freedom to His creatures. This means that, for Boyd, the ultimate explanation of the acts of free beings is to be found in their own choice, not in some further cause such as the providential purpose of God. The world is what it is not solely because of God’s will, but because of the interplay of many wills, which may be acting against God.... Read more

2014-12-04T15:14:00-05:00

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.

Immanentizing the eschaton

Last updated on: December 4, 2014 at 3:14 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Conservatives are fond of saying that one shouldn’t “immanentize the eschaton.” What else, I ask, is one to do with an eschaton? What they mean by this, of course, is that we should not use violent means to bring about a utopian society. Of course we shouldn’t. But the violent means used by Marxists and other secular seekers of the Eschaton are themselves decidedly means of “this age.” Marxists justify totalitarianism precisely because the perfect classless society isn’t here yet.... Read more

Christianity

politics

2014-11-13T15:12:00-05:00

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.

Greg Boyd’s warfare theology part 2–God at war in Scripture

Last updated on: November 13, 2014 at 3:12 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

The first of Boyd’s two books on “warfare theology,” God at War, focuses primarily on the Scriptural evidence for a God who fights evil. Boyd places this picture of God over against what he calls “blueprint theology” in which God stands above the fray, having ordained in detail everything that happens. Boyd argues that the “blueprint” view is both un-Scriptural and practically harmful, because it leads Christians to accept evil as part of God’s plan rather than fighting against it. i’ll... Read more

2014-11-13T14:17:00-05:00

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.

Thoughts on Isaiah, ISIS, and the Peaceable Kingdom

Last updated on: November 13, 2014 at 2:17 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

A few things that jump out at me from reading Isaiah in Hebrew (I’m on chap. 11 now): 1. The word that the NRSV translates as “argue it out” in 1:18 (Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow) is the same word that the NRSV translates as “arbitrate for” in 2:4 (He shall judge between the nations, and arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their... Read more

2014-10-21T21:34:00-05:00

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.

Greg Boyd’s warfare theology, part 1

Last updated on: October 21, 2014 at 9:34 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

One of the major theological controversies in the evangelical world in the past couple of decades has centered on the theological position known as “open theism.” The controversy seems to have died down in recent years, largely because open theists have been expelled from positions of influence in evangelical intellectual culture, not because their arguments have been effectively answered. For anyone reading with this not familiar with the controversy, I should define “open theism” before going further. Open theism is... Read more

2025-08-02T20:26:12-05:00

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 Victory of Reason–a review

Last updated on: August 2, 2025 at 8:26 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Rodney Stark is one of the foremost living sociologists of religion. His 2000 book Acts of Faith, co-written with Roger Finke, expounded an extremely influential “supply-side” theory of religion as a social phenomenon, countering the “secularization” thesis and arguing that there was a pretty steady “demand” for the “goods” provided by religion. Differences in religious commitment over time or across space were due to supply rather than demand. People had different kinds of religious needs, so that in a “free... Read more

2014-06-26T15:14:00-05:00

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.

Ten theses on gay marriage

Last updated on: June 26, 2014 at 3:14 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

OK, since no one (except Stephen Milliken) is excited about monism, here are some theses about gay marriage: 1. Gay marriage really is the redefinition of marriage to make it gender neutral. It is not simply the granting of “equal access” to an institution whose meaning remains the same. 2. However, given the shifts that have taken place in our cultural understanding of marriage, such a redefinition makes sense. That is to say, we have privatized the concept of marriage... Read more

GLBT

politics

2014-06-22T17:00:00-05:00

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.

Monism part 2

Last updated on: June 22, 2014 at 5:00 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Stephen Milliken, who provoked my first post on monism, pointed out that I never actually got around to defining it.Indeed–with good reason, since it seems to me to be a term that can mean several things. I’m more interested in teasing out what those several things could be than in deciding which of them is the right definition. Insofar as I provided one, it was “that all things emanate from God.” But as I pointed out, that’s rather ambiguous.Stephen then... Read more

Christianity

philosophy

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the only disciple who was not martyred?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Peter Thomas John James

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category apologetics Bible Catholicism Christianity economics history Middle Ages personal Reformation Rodney Stark Uncategorized

Select a Month August 2026 June 2026 January 2026 December 2025 October 2025 June 2025 February 2025 December 2024 November 2024 June 2024 May 2024 January 2024 December 2023 April 2023 December 2022 November 2022 September 2022 July 2022 June 2022 April 2022 November 2021 September 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 December 2018 October 2018 June 2018 March 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 September 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 August 2014 June 2014 March 2014 January 2014 September 2013 August 2013 June 2013 August 2012 July 2012 October 2011 June 2011 March 2011 July 2010 March 2010 January 2008 May 2007 April 2007 February 2007 October 2006 August 2006 March 2006 January 2006 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 September 2004

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Catholic