Michael CrichtonThe author Michael Crichton, perhaps best known for Jurassic Park, recently died of cancer, aged 66. His novel State of Fear (published in paperback in 1995) is a well-researched thriller containing a strong strain of scepticism about the currently-fashionable nostrums of the anthropogenic global-warming school. It’s well worth reading. As I was recently reminded, in the course of the book he has one of his characters say this about Lomberg’s The Sceptical Environmentalist.Throughout the long controversy, Lomborg has behaved in exemplary fashion. Sadly, his critics ha... [read more]

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Those who visit Helm's Deep may by now have encountered 'Piggy in the Middle', which is the second of our mid-monthly series Taking a Line.For November there is a second Analysis in our three-part series on bits of logic and their use in systematic theology, 'History and Dogma' . This is accompanied by the second instalment on natural law, "Natural Law and Common Grace". (This is the last segment to be posted on the site of what is a longish paper to be given in full at the February 2009 Affinity Theology Conference. So for the remainder of the paper, you'll have to come along! )The next Ta... [read more]

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Old theological conflicts frequently reappear dressed in a new outfit. So it is with narrative theologies and their theological output. Currently, in the guise of narrative theologies of one sort and another, we are presented with a version of the 19th century conflict between history and dogma in new dress. Not the denial by history of dogma, but its subtle and sometime not-so-subtle attenuation. This attenuation may not be intentional but it is real for all that. It’s a result of the constraints of the discipline of history.History is concerned with what is the case, with what has in fa... [read more]

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The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold. (Acts 28.2)Part of our resistance to the idea of natural law (besides the objection that the use of the term ‘natural law’ seems to belong exclusively to the Roman Catholic Church), is the multiple ambiguity of the adjective ‘natural’. Suppose an apple tree; the apples that it bears are natural, they are the product of the processes that are intrinsic to an apple tree’s being an apple tree and not a cherry tree. If someone attaches wax apples to the... [read more]

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“I'm first a Christian, next a Catholic, then a Calvinist, fourth a Paedobaptist, and fifth a Presbyterian. I cannot reverse this order.”- 'Rabbi' DuncanThe piggy in question is ‘evangelicalism’, a curious and misshapen beast, as piggies often are. But why is he ‘in the middle’? Let me try to explain.Suppose the question is this: how should an evangelical Christian orientate himself theologically? Where are his theological roots, from where is he to derive his identity? To many evangelicals, the answer is obvious. He has his identity from Scripture, (sola scriptura, perhaps even... [read more]

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Some choppings and changings this month.As an experiment, I shall try a new series of postings, to be called Taking a Line. These will be comments on trends, issues in the news, the occasional book review, and that sort of thing, which have some Christian theological aspect to them. Rather similar to the recent post on ‘Creationism’. In fact, let’s call that particular post the first of this new series. (Is that a performative utterance? Are we changing the past?)Each Taking a Line will appear around the middle of the month. The first, due out in two weeks or so, is helpfully entitle... [read more]

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To begin with I shall make a distinction which will structure the entire enterprise. This is between what might be called a theory of natural law, on the one hand, and de facto or empirically identifiable evidence for common acknowledgement and observance of certain norms. The idea of a theory of natural law has been of course an important component in Roman Catholic teaching through the years, and in later thinking in the seventeenth century of non-Catholic thinkers such as Hugo Grotius. Such theories lay emphasis upon the attempt to derive general moral principles from human nature, and f... [read more]

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‘Inquiry should be made more strictly after his other learning, and whether he hath skill in logic and philosophy’. - Directory for the Ordination of Ministers, Westminster Assembly of Divines, 1643.The Bit of logicThere are important differences between:(1) (p and q), and(2) not both (p and not-p) and(3) (p entails q).That’s the bit of logic. What it is says is that there’s a significant logical difference between two propositions being consistent (1) , two propositions being inconsistent by being self-contradictory (2), and one proposition entailing another proposit... [read more]

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I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and EarthDiscussion in newspapers about ‘creationism’ ebbs and flows, at least in the UK. Recently there has been a flurry of interest sparked by remarks from the Education Director of the Royal Society, Professor Michael Reiss, who is also a clergyman of the Church of England, to the effect that creationism ought to be discussed in school science classes. He was not arguing for ‘creationist’ views, but that since creationism is held by 10% of the population, teachers should be ready to discuss it. As Professor Reiss reporte... [read more]

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The September post contains my second rumination on Professor Vanhoozer's The Drama of Doctrine. Jonathan Edwards has gently elbowed his way to the front of the queue and is able to give us his views on the Trinity.As the nights lengthen (at least up here in the Northern Hemisphere) it seems appropriate to change the mood from the fun and games of theodrama, and to think a bit about logic. So the next three Analyses will deal with aspects of logic that are of relevance to the systematic theologian, but which are sometimes fudged. But in order to pay due regard to the church calendar, betwe... [read more]

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