See also Postermodernism. Social justice is a light and fluffy term; it is meant to carry so much weight and yet defining it is like holding onto water: it changes anytime you try to put a definite meaning to it. Our goal is witnessing to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the good which comes from the light of God shining into the dark places of the world. I have too often heard the very theologically incorrect statement that people will be converted by our acts of service and kindness.

This blog post by Dr. Michael J. Kruger hits on issues of theology, politics, culture, and even the arts (or at least a performer of art). A good and humorous read explaining the importance of the need for a standard of truth over and against subjective claims! As Dr. Kruger mentions, you can find the consistent teaching of the Church laid out in one convenient work of history here. This book sits on my shelf waiting for a good read.

Some helpful thoughts! Let us not seek a legalistic community where we do not engage with the world, but let us seek understanding so that we be both compassionate and zealous for the truth. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Some great thoughts about sin and grace from Desiring God. Notably it starts off by talking about the importance of the words we use in our worship music and how one simple change has drastic effects upon the theology of the song! https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/does-grace-still-amaze-you UPDATE: 20200125 This site can help you worship through the psalter! Use it! http://www.thepsalmssung.org/ UPDATE: 20200130 Redemption Studio seeks to build up the Christian community through the arts, but a danger is that we would worship the things we create rather than the Creator.

This covers an important trend I have seen since my days in Campus Crusade. Have you heard the catchphrase of the need for “vulnerability” or the need to be “vulnerable”? it is in vogue among the broadly evangelical to speak and even boast of one’s brokenness and the healing that is found in Jesus’s loving and personal relationship forming arms, but it is so often stripped of the responsibility and guilt.

Robert Alter’s name has been mentioned more than once in biblical theology classes of mine at RTS. He presents a way to understand well Old Testament literature. Though he is not a Christian, his work I have been told can be used to understand Hebrew literature in ways we are unaware of as Western 21st century Christians. I would suspect that his observations are great but that his conclusions and/or presuppositions contain issues.

While interesting to see a non-theology professor gain a spotlight in the news, it is a shame that he belittles Augustine’s, Gottschalk’s, Ratramnus’s, Florus’s, the early Anselm’s, Aquinas’s, and Calvin’s—and of course many others—thought by thinking that God’s sovereignty and grace must equate to fatalism rather than compatibilism. There is a rich history which he throws away, leaning more into Enlightenment thinking that Scriptural reasoning. We must be well-versed not only in our own views, but in those of others, and we must be able to explain them well without turning to strawman arguments.

Jordan Peterson took many by surprise after he showed an interviewer’s logical problems. What has interested many on the political right is his biblical quotations and references, yet what many fail to realize is that his thoughts are little more than a repeat of the German higher critics from the 18th through 20th century. In particular his thoughts reflect those of Strauss, the father of radical theology whose thoughts come out of then-contemporary Hegalian thinking.

Check out this 25-part women’s Bible study on the Epistle to the Hebrew led by President and Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity Dr. Michael J. Kruger. The study is a video series and even has study notes available for download. https://rts.edu/hebrews/