Christopher Benson

The recent brouhaha over Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, reminds me of why I’m not at home among exclusivists or universalists. If forced to choose, I would sit at the hearth of exclusivists any day of the week, as their message does a better job of cohering with the scandal of the gospel… . Continue Reading »

Since the so-called “hermeneutic turn,” initiated and sustained by that Teutonic proclivity for ratiocination, we’re told that everything”on the page and off the page”is a text, and therefore it’s interpretation all the way down. … Continue Reading »

’Tis the season when major transatlantic publications, such as the New York Times,Washington Post, Atlantic, Economist, Guardian, and Times Literary Supplement, feature their holiday guides and notable books of the year. Seldom pleased with the selections, I’ve put together my own list of best reads… . Continue Reading »

Why is the future of reasoned Christian disagreement endangered? Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, has a penetrating answer in “Knowing Myself in Christ,” an essay that belongs to The Way Forward?: Christian Voices on Homosexuality (Eerdmans, 2003), edited by Timothy Bradshaw. . . . . Continue Reading »

Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann has assisted my understanding of genre and authorial intent in the so-called “first creation story” (Genesis 1:1-2:4a). I will distill his treatment from An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination. Work slowly . . . . Continue Reading »

Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and author of The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, has written a paper for BioLogos called, “Creation, Evolution, and Christian People.” Pastor Keller estimates that “what current science tells . . . . Continue Reading »

There is a peculiar American tendency to bifurcate public debates into two sides, one “pro-” and the other “anti-” (e.g., abortion, climate change, homosexuality). The science and religion debate is no exception. BioLogos has a helpful feature on their website that shows . . . . Continue Reading »

Did you watch Ted Olson’s interview on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace? Consider the irony: Olson is a conservative legal giant who argued the winning side of the recent Prop 8 decision in California. Watch the video below and weigh his argument.BIG QUESTION #1: Does the U. S. Constitution . . . . Continue Reading »

Based on the comments I received from my blog posts on the science and religion debate, I want to point Evangel readers in the direction of some resources that would inform the conversation because––with the exception of a few interlocutors––pervasive ignorance and fear seem to . . . . Continue Reading »

Since U. S. District Judge Vaughn Walker overturned California’s 2008 constitutional ban on same-sex marriages, my ears are hearing the prophetic words of U. S. Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia’s dissenting opinion in Lawrence v. Texas (2003). Read my edited version carefully:Countless . . . . Continue Reading »