By Steve Harmon The Aug. 5 shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., has set off spirited debate over the merits of gun-control legislation. As a theologian who thinks that a lively debate within a contested tradition can be…
The myth of redemptive violence
By Steve Harmon The Aug. 5 shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., has set off spirited debate over the merits of gun-control legislation. Comments span the spectrum of perspectives in the contemporary American debate over gun control…
Baptists and Episcopalians together?
In my book Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity, I suggested this as something that “ordinary Christians” can do locally to further the visible unity of the church: “If your own denomination has been in…official…
The Eschatology of ‘Young Love’
Six months ago I couldn’t have imagined writing an appreciative review of an album by an artist whose music is frequently described as a unique blend of folk, hip-hop, and Brit-pop (think Coldplay for the latter genre). The Coldplay connection…
Baptists who “do this”
Cooperative Baptists are Baptists who “do this” when they get together. They “do this” not only in their local churches but also in their assemblies and in the institutions of theological education with which they partner. I’m talking about the…
The formation and reception of believer-theologians
But on the other hand…. My college philosophy professor Wallace Roark taught me that cultivating the capacity to “think on the other hand”—to Think Like an Octopus—is the key to becoming a good thinker. “But on the other hand” is…
The theologian-hood of all believers
Karl Barth (1886-1968), the most significant theologian of the twentieth century, wasn’t a Baptist (he was Swiss Reformed). Yet over the past 60 years Barth has arguably had at least as much influence on theologically-educated Baptists as any Baptist theologian…
Christian unity as Christ’s victory, and our task
By Steven Harmon The theme for the 2012 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Jan. 18-25) is “We Will All Be Changed by the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Based on First Corinthians 15: 51-58, the theme encourages Christians…
Was Jesus an object of childhood bullying?
By Steven Harmon Reflecting on Scripture, the fourth-century church father Gregory of Nyssa insists that in the Incarnation the Son of God embraced fully the human condition, including “the advance from infancy to adulthood,” and experienced from others the alienation…
The goal of Baptist-Catholic dialogue
By Steve Harmon Updating my Facebook status about being in England last week to participate in the final of current international theological conversations between the Baptist World Alliance and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity prompted a friend to respond:…
Music review: Grace inside a sound — U2, ‘No Line on the Horizon’
By Steve Harmon “This is the most thoroughly Christian thing they’ve done yet.” That was my initial reaction to the last two U2 albums in 2000 and 2004. In retrospect, that was just as true of the triad of albums…