Does a Bible-Centric Faith Make Christianity Anemic? Andy Stanley’s Latest Book
I recently received Andy Stanley’s latest book, Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World (Zondervan, 2018). My review of the book will soon be available on The Gospel Coalition website.
For now, I thought it would be helpful to highlight the promotional statements on the cover. By the looks of them, Stanley’s message in this book will be very similar to his controversial sermons over the last couple of years (see my prior interactions with Stanley, here and here).
Here are some of the statements:
Once upon a time there was a version of our faith that was practically . . . irresistible. But that was … Continue reading...
“Let Them Not Share in the Affairs of Life”: How Ancient Christians Were Viewed as Dangerous to Society
Celsus “just can’t stand Christians.”
So, writes James O’Donnell (Pagans, 101) as he describes the vicious opposition to Christians in the earliest centuries, particularly from the second-century critic Celsus.
A few weeks ago, I began a short, three-part blog series about what people in the ancient world thought of Christians. In the prior post, we explored how Celsus viewed Christians as ignorant, uneducated simpletons.
In other words, one of the main problems with Christians was intellectual in nature.
But Celsus is by no means finished. In this post, we will see that he thinks that Christians also have a behavioral problem. Their actions are rude, anti-social, and … Continue reading...
Did Jesus Promise to Return within the Lifetime of his Disciples?
For critics of early Christianity, one of the stock objections is that Jesus predicted he would return in the lifetime of his disciples. And since he clearly didn’t return, then he cannot be believed.
Indeed, it is this belief that has spurred many other theories among scholars, most notably Hans Conzelmann’s thesis that Luke’s Gospel was written to explain the delay of the second coming.
But, is it really true that Jesus predicted that he would return in the lifetime of his disciples? Here’s a recent video where I briefly address this question:
As for whether the imminent coming of Jesus affected the development of the NT canon, see my … Continue reading...
Book Notice: The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World
Just a couple days ago I received the new book by Bart Ehrman entitled, The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World (Simon and Schuster, 2018). I had received a pre-published copy of the book several months ago and have been working through it.
The reason I have a keen interest in this volume is because it covers a lot of the same ground of my recent book which was released last year, Christianity at the Crossroads: How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church (SPCK/IVP Academic, 2017).
Currently, I am about 3/4 of the way through Ehrman’s volume and plan to review it formally … Continue reading...
The Peculiarity of Early Christian Worship (or How Early Christians Managed to Offend Just about Everybody)
“What in the world is this Christianity thing?”
A phrase like this would not have been unusual among Romans in the first couple of centuries. In the eyes of the average citizen, Christians were an odd bunch. And what made them odd was not just what they believed. It was how (and who) they worshiped.
To be sure, worship was a big deal in the ancient world. The ancient Greco-Roman culture was very religious. Even more to the point, they were publicly religious. Worship rituals and activities were visible for all to see.
And it was precisely here that this “Christianity thing” was found to be strange and unusual. Indeed, … Continue reading...