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Evangelical

2014-09-15T23:41:30-07:00

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.

Social Darwinism, Richard Dawkins and Down syndrome

Last updated on: September 15, 2014 at 11:41 pm By Paul Louis Metzger

People often wrongly connect Darwin’s doctrine of the survival of the biological fittest, including reproduction, with superiority in other spheres, such as morality, intellect, aesthetics, and spirituality. If anything, the moral to Darwin’s ethical stance is that people should have big families, wherein the children reach adulthood. What is termed Social Darwinism should probably be labeled Social Spencerism, following Herbert Spencer’s social philosophy. Darwin did not fully accept Social Darwinism or “eugenics,” which was coined by Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton... Read more

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2014-09-12T17:40:09-07:00

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.

Gated Communities and the Visible/Invisible Church

Last updated on: September 12, 2014 at 5:40 pm By Paul Louis Metzger

I struggle with those gated communities and that form of gated community thinking where people associate only with people of their own ideological and cultural bent. Such isolation. I also struggle with churches that function as gated communities of various kinds. Perhaps some churches exclude people of other ethnicities, economic brackets, those with “disabilities,” the elderly or young or singles, the vibrant or dying, or those with different worship styles, personality types, hobbies, IQ’s, and political perspectives. The list goes... Read more

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2014-09-10T19:08:09-07:00

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.

What’s Wrong with Justice? Addressing Some Christian and Buddhist Concerns

Last updated on: September 10, 2014 at 7:08 pm By Paul Louis Metzger

I remember someone claiming there is too much talk of justice in Evangelical circles these days. From what I recall, this person felt that highlighting consideration of justice was distracting people from placing due emphasis on the gospel. This individual viewed justice as an appendix to the gospel at best, or possibly even extraneous to it. Certainly, Evangelicals must focus consideration on the proclamation of the gospel or good news of God’s grace revealed in Jesus Christ; even so, the... Read more

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2014-09-11T13:58:27-07:00

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.

Can’t Pimp Jesus

Last updated on: September 11, 2014 at 1:58 pm By Paul Louis Metzger

Pimping involves the objectification and abuse of human bodies for profit. Pimping is an atrocious way for one person to treat another. Similar themes are found in the Bible. The Old Testament sometimes refers to God’s people as a prostitute (take Hosea for example). Their wayward hearts lusted after things other than God and they played the prostitute. God was their scorned lover who remained faithful and did not abuse or pimp them; their other lovers abused them, though (See... Read more

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2014-09-08T08:29:19-07:00

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.

Who Is to Blame for the “Jihad Generation”?

Last updated on: September 8, 2014 at 8:29 am By Paul Louis Metzger

Someone recently told me that “Diplomacy always fails; military confrontation alone is able to solve problems.” While the current crisis involving ISIS requires military intervention, efforts in diplomacy must never cease. While I cannot imagine governments negotiating with ISIS, I also cannot imagine a situation where diplomacy is abandoned. Governments must make sure that they do not disenfranchise and relationally disengage minority populations and religious groups. Afzal Amin, a former British military leader who is a Muslim, claims that British... Read more

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2014-09-01T12:51:24-07:00

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.

Your Ultimate Concern Is Your God

Last updated on: September 1, 2014 at 12:51 pm By Paul Louis Metzger

Theology is the study of that which concerns each of us ultimately and its bearing on everything else. Paul Tillich wrote about the subject of “ultimate concern” at length, but not exactly in the same vein (See for example Paul Tillich’s treatment of this theme in his Systematic Theology, volume 1 {Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1951}; refer here to a discussion of Tillich and the essence of religious attitudes being that of “ultimate concern”). One does not need... Read more

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2014-09-02T14:01:55-07:00

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.

Sunday Morning Reflections on “Mu” and the Resurrection at Ganshoin

Last updated on: September 2, 2014 at 2:01 pm By Paul Louis Metzger

As I prepare for church this morning, I think back to two recent trips to Ganshoin, a Zen Buddhist temple in Obuse in Nagano, Japan. Those sojourns inspired conversations with Buddhists and Christians alike. The temple is perhaps best known for famed Japanese artist Katsushiksa Hokusai’s painting of the Phoenix or “Ho-o Staring in Eight Directions.” The painting appears on the temple ceiling (pictured in this post). The temple grounds also feature the grave of daimyo Fukushima Masanori and the... Read more

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2014-08-26T16:31:22-07:00

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 Blood of the Martyrs & the Seed of the Church, Love and Tolerance

Last updated on: August 26, 2014 at 4:31 pm By Paul Louis Metzger

Last week, I visited Nikko, Japan, one of Japan’s greatest historical and memorial sites. Nikko features Toshogu, Japan’s most extravagantly adorned shrine, and the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Tokugawa shogunate’s founder. In keeping with his instructions for the year following his death, he was enshrined as a deity at Nikko by designation of the Imperial court. Ieyasu’s aim was to serve Japan from Nikko as its perpetual guardian. By most if not all standards, Ieyasu was a brilliant military... Read more

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2014-08-21T07:41:33-07:00

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 Diversity in Japan and the United States

Last updated on: August 21, 2014 at 7:41 am By Paul Louis Metzger

The other day I was talking with an American of diverse ethnicity in Japan. We were discussing how homogeneous Japan is and how difficult it would be for Japan to foster diversity similar to the United States. In light of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and a host of other such tragedies, one might wonder if fostering diversity American-style is a good thing. As a culture, we have such a long way to go, as the... Read more

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2014-08-18T16:22:24-07:00

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.

What Makes Someone a Person and not a Thing?

Last updated on: August 18, 2014 at 4:22 pm By Paul Louis Metzger

What makes someone a person and not a thing? Can such differentiation even occur? Do these questions matter, and if so, why? The differentiation of persons and things bore great significance for Martin Luther King, Jr. for matters of morality. In his estimation, moving from a culture of things to persons would help us confront well such problems as economic exploitation, racism, and militarism (Please listen here to King’s critique of the Vietnam War along such lines). While I don’t... Read more

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