In The Bad Place, J. Webb Mealy argues that hell is not a place of unending conscious torment, as has been popularly understood, but rather the unrepentant will ultimately be destroyed and no longer exist. To put some terminology on it, against the traditional view, which we could name “eternal conscious torment” or “infernalism”, Mealy…
Tag: theology
The Bride of the Lamb by Sergius Bulgakov (Review)
Who Should Read This Book - Readers who are into theology and are desiring a deep dive into the work of one of the greats, perhaps the greatest, Russian theologian of the 20th century. What’s the Big Takeaway - Bulgakov presents a beautiful story, an image of one humanity and all creation (the creaturely Sophia),…
Continue reading ➞ The Bride of the Lamb by Sergius Bulgakov (Review)
The Comforter by Sergius Bulgakov (Review)
Who Should Read This Book - This is a work of deep and profound, yet poetic and beautiful theology so I’d say it is for readers with some grounding in theology who want to think deeply on the things of God (i.e. its probably not for beginners). What’s the Big Takeaway - For me, this…
Continue reading ➞ The Comforter by Sergius Bulgakov (Review)
A Living Alternative: Anabaptist Christianity in a Post-Christendom World; Edited by Joanna Harader and A.O. Green (Review)
Who Should Read This Book- Anyone interested in Anabaptist Christian tradition, especially Christians disillusioned with the nationalist bent of the faith and looking for a different tradition rooted in the nonviolent teaching of Jesus. What’s the Big Takeaway - As the west becomes an increasingly post-Christian culture, the Anabaptist tradition may be uniquely poised to…
Circling the Elephant:A Comparative Theology of Religious Diversity by John Thatamanil (Review)
Who Should Read this Book - Readers interested in religion, theology and especially inter-religious dialogue from a Christian perspective. What is the big take-away from this book: American Christians are already part of multiple religions, once we recognize the modern definition of world religion needs redefining and we then include consumerism, nationalism, capitalism and other…
Reflecting on the secular, our post-Christian culture and how I am learning to believe in fairies.
To read my newsletter, click here: https://mailchi.mp/4e59198fed4b/dave-hersheys-newsletter-5351690 You may have heard it said that we live in a “secular age” or a “post-Christian culture.” But what does that mean? After all, the majority of people (about 65%) in our country still identify as Christian, even if the numbers who are members of a church is…
The Mystery of Christ by John Behr (Review)
John Behr is quickly vaulting to the top of my favorite theologians list. His book The Mystery of Christ is brilliant. Behr argues that the way forward, in our post-modern context, is to recover the patristic (premodern) way of doing theology. In this we look at the whole of scripture through the passion of Jesus.…
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The Lamb of the Nonviolent God (Book thoughts)
This week I finished Sergius Bulgakov’s The Lamb of God as well as J. Denny Weaver’s The Nonviolent God. As someone who appreciates both Orthodox theology (Bulgakov) and Anabaptist theology (Weaver) it was interesting to read these books at the same time. They are quite different. Bulgakov’s is heavy and challenging, its a weighty tome…
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Is God Violent? Reading the Bible Through a Jesus-Shaped Lens (Story of Scripture 8.5)
Listen to the podcast. Its my longest one so far (29 minutes!) and probably more fun to listen to than to read. But if you’d rather read, here’s the script: Intro Hello and welcome to the Ancient Pathways Podcast. We are going through the story of scripture, from God’s creation through to the call of…
Partakers of the Life Divine: Participation in the Divine Nature in the Writings of Charles Wesley by S.T. Kimbrough Jr. (Review)
My life in the Christian Church and among Christian churches has been kind of all over the place. I have noticed though, that this is kind of the norm for Protestant Christians in America. We who grew up in the evangelical subculture were more bound together by Veggietales cartoons and CCM music than any denomination…
David Hershey 