Dr Paul Allen

English: Stained glass panel in the transept of St. John's Anglican Church, Ashfield, New South Wales (NSW). This scene depicts Nicodemus questioning Jesus, with Jesus answering him "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). The inscription on this memorial window reads "Memory of George Mackenzie Holden. April 25th 1841. Died May 25th 1881." (Half of the words are on a paired panel.) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) John 3:1–3 “ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is  born again he cannot see the kingdom of God ’” (v. 3). Many of the passages that we will examine are occupied with the condition of the heart and the planting of the Gospel in ready soil ( Matt.  13:18–30, 36–43; 15:1–20).  The Bible, of course, has much to say on this subject, emphasizing our need to have our hearts renewed or, as we commonly say in theology, regenerated by the Holy Spir it. The term regeneration comes from two ...

Image via Wikipedia For a century and a half secular humanist scholars predicted the demise of religion, which Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud dismissed respectively as the opiate of the people, and a mental illness. But the materialistic utopia never materialized. Instead, people have awakened to “spirituality.” Not God but materialistic secular humanism is  dead . One of the Death of God theologians, David Miller (whom we did not read in class) later gave the game away. In his book,  The New Polytheism  (1974) ,  he made the shocking claim that “at the death of God we would see the rebirth of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome.”  The Postmodern deconstructionist, Mark Taylor, observed that “the 21st century will be dominated by religion in ways that were inconceivable just a few years ago.” A secular literature conference in 2006 boasted the title  God is Undead: Post-Secular Notions in Contemporary Literature and Theory  and included ...