Dr Paul Allen

A bible college student walked to the bathroom and threw up. She’d just heard a professor explain that Christians believe Jesus is fully God and fully man because an emperor said so. She’s now a bestselling religious author, but then Diana Butler Bass was a doctoral student at Duke, preparing for a career as a Church historian. And Professor Elizabeth Clark upset her world. Diana told the story in a series of tweets. People who argue about this kind of thing argued. The argument may look like an academic argument about ancient history. It’s really an argument about the nature of Christianity: Whether the Faith is given to us in great detail or it’s something we create as we go along. I would say the first. She would say the second. Constantine’s Christianity You may know the story. By the early fourth century, the long-persecuted Christians had gained some respect and freedom. The Church had grown so big it couldn’t be ignored or persecuted anymore. (See the historian ...

We've Been Hurt: I can actually include myself in this one personally. Sometimes the hurtful act is specific, like when my youth leader threw a Bible at me for asking the wrong questions. Sometimes it's rhetorical, either from the pulpit, in a small group study or over a meal. Sometimes it's physical, taking the form of sexual abuse or the like. But millions claim a wound they can trace back to church that has never healed. Why? In part, because the church rarely seeks forgiveness. Adult Life/University and Church Don't Seem to Mix: There are the obvious things, like scheduling activities on Sunday mornings (hint: young people tend to go out on Saturday nights), but there's more to it. In college, and before that by our parents, we're taught to explore the world, broaden our horizons, think critically, question everything and figure out who we are as individuals. Though there's value in this, it's hyper-individualistic. But Church is more about c...

Icon depicting the First Council of Nicaea. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Diana Butler Bass , in  Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening  (2012), triumphantly announces the advent of “the Fourth Great Awakening .” Emergent activist Shane Claibourne hails this as “new life budding from the compost of Christendom.” For Brian McLaren , Bass’s prophetic voice is “provocative, inspiring…a sage guidance for the future.” Does the term “Great Awakening” indicate a reclaiming of 18 th  century Gospel orthodoxy? Not a chance!   For Bass “religionless Christianity” is the elimination of creeds and dogmas, of authority structures and inhibiting moral codes, of a propositional, inerrant Bible. She hails a movement borne along on the breath of an undefined “Spirit” into an age of pure inner experience. This Awakening has nothing to do with historic Christianity. Bass notes that “Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists h...