Over at First Things, Stephen Barr writes an interesting reply to a particle physicist who thinks that science entails atheism. Key paragraph: For Jews and Christians, however, pitting God and the laws of nature against each other in this way is an absurd mistake; for it is the very lawfulness of nature that points to a divine Lawgiver. In the Bible, God gives laws not only to the people of Israel, but to the cosmos itself, as in Jeremiah 33:25, where he declares his fidelity to Israel in these terms: “When I have no covenant with day and night, and … Continue reading How God and Science Mix

Mark A. Noll, The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009). $25.00, 212 pages. The Christian church is not American, demographically speaking. More broadly, it is not western. It may have been predominantly western at the beginning of the twentieth century, but at the beginning of the twenty-first, it no longer is. As Dana Robert wrote in April 2000: “The typical late twentieth-century Christian was no longer a European man but a Latin American or African woman.” This southward demographic shift requires a new historiography of Christianity, one less focused … Continue reading The New Shape of World Christianity

Keith Yandell and Harold Netland, Buddhism: A Christian Exploration and Appraisal (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009). $22.00, 230 pages. The diversity of the world’s religions raises several important questions: Do religions make truth claims? Can these truth claims be assessed? Can the assessment be negative without also being violent? For one group of people—especially in the religious studies guild—the answer to all three questions is negative. Properly interpreted, they argue, religions do not make truth claims. That is why such people believe in the epistemic and moral parity of religions. However, they go on to argue, religious fundamentalists—who do … Continue reading Buddhism: A Christian Exploration and Appraisal