Stephen Prothero on “Separate truths”

Stephen Prothero writes against seeing all religions as teaching the same thing in “Separate Truths: It is misleading — and dangerous — to think that religions are different paths to the same wisdom.”

When it comes to safeguarding the world from the evils of religion, including violence by proxy from the hand of God, the claim that all religions are one is no more effective than the claim that all religions are poison. As the New Atheists (another species of religious lumpers) observe, we live in a world where religion seems as likely to detonate a bomb as to defuse one. So while we need idealism, we need realism even more. Read the entire article…

Bruce Waltke controversy heading to ABC World News Tonight

ABC World News Tonight will be covering the controversy over Old Testament professor, Bruce Waltke, and his endorsement of evolution. The show will air either Friday or Sunday night, according to Peter Enns, Senior Fellow of Biblical Studies for The BioLogos Foundation.  Waltke’s endorsement of evolution in the form of a video at Biologos, led to his resignation from Reformed Theological Seminary (see my previous post for more).  Peter Enns encountered a similar problem at Westminster Theological Seminary, when he published his book, Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. Also slated to appear on the show is Ken Ham, a leading creationist from the organization, Answers in Genesis.

Update: ABC News has an article up now, with some comment from Peter Enns as well.  Note that ABC needs to get their titles right.  They apparently aren’t aware of the differences between evangelical and evangelist.

(Update) Bruce Waltke no longer with RTS after statements on evolution

Old Testament scholar, Bruce Waltke, who posted a video at Biologos on why evangelicals need to embrace evolution, resigned from Reformed Theological Seminary this last week.  The lesson of being a professor at a confessional school, especially after Peter Enns was dismissed from Westminster Theological Seminary, seems to be that any professor who really wants serious academic freedom needs to look elsewhere.  No school can offer unfettered academic freedom, especially if you want tenure, you’ll definitely have hoops to jump through.  However, being confessional, at least, very conservative and confessional, seems to imply that one’s soul is duty bound to the confession as interpreted by one’s community.  The limitations are absolutely more restrictive and this means that thinking outside the box may eventually move one outside of the community.

From USA Today:

Asked if this limits academic freedom, Milton said: “We are a confessional seminary. I’m a professor myself, but I do not have a freedom that would go past the boundaries of the confession. Nor do I have a freedom that would allow me to express my views in such a way to hurt or impugn someone who holds another view.” Indeed he added that the problem with what Waltke said was as much his suggestion that religion will lose support over these issues as his statements about evolution itself. (The statement of faith at the seminary states: “Since the Bible is absolutely and finally authoritative as the inerrant Word of God, it is the basis for the total curriculum.”) Continue reading…

UPDATE: Christianity Today is reporting (with a HT: to Justin Taylor who originally broke the news) that Bruce Waltke is (for now) heading to Knox Theological Seminary (Fort Lauderdale, FL).  Knox, I might add, also went through its own near-split a couple years ago over the less than literal interpretative methodology of Dr. Warren Gage.

American Academy of Religion Midwest Regional Conference

This last weekend I delivered a paper at this years American Academy of Religion Midwest Regional Conference.  The conference theme was “Religion, Sex and the Body,” and my paper (”Border Crossing and God’s ‘Impartial Hand’: The Religious Justification for Mary Astell’s 18th-Century Feminism”) was for the History of Christianity section on “Engaging the Body: Purity, Performance, Parity and Perfection.”

It was a good conference.  Can’t say I was all that impressed by Rock Island (IL) or Moline (IL), though Davenport (IA) on the other side of the Mississippi was interesting.  We went to The Figge while there and ate of two great restaurants, The Woodfire Grill and Mojo’s.  We stopped by The Source, which is supposed to be the largest and oldest used bookstore in Iowa, but it really didn’t impress as much as I hoped.  (It is too easy to get spoiled by the gems in Ann Arbor, MI.)  Augustana College, where the conference was held, has a beautiful campus.

The plenary address (”‘The Lingam Made Flesh’: Split-Level Symbolism in Hinduism” was given by Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago Divinity School.

The conference will be there next year as well.  I’ll probably attempt to get a paper submitted for that as well.  It will be on “Teaching Religion.”

Other papers heard while there included:

“In the Space Beyond Movement: A Dance Studies Approach to Elisabeth of Spalbeek’s Dance of the Passion” (Katherine Milligan, University of Missouri, Columbia)

“Protestants Protesting Protestantism: 20th Century Experiments in Monasticism” (George Faithful, St. Louis University)

“A Perspective 0n Kathryn Tanner’s Christ the Key, Part I” (Evan Kuehn, Wheaton College and The University of Chicago)

“A Perspective on Kathryn Tanner’s Christ the Key, Part II” (Nathan Crawford, Loyola University, Chicago & Indiana Wesleyan University)

“Christology After the Death of God: Incarnation and the Rise of Secularism”(Thomas Bridges, Marquette University)

Respondent: Samuel Chambers, Vanderbilt University (to the three above this)

“Faith Without Theodicy: Rediscovering Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey” (C. Hannah Schell, Monmouth College)

“Flannery O’ Connor and the Disabled Body” (Tim Basselin, Fuller Theological Seminary)

“‘Some Ultimate Faith and Love’: James Baldwin’s Moral Mission” (Spencer Dew, Loyola University, Chicago)

BrandonWithrow.com has a new look

BrandonWithrow.com has been given a face lift. It seems to be my habit, about once a year or so, to redo my blog. I get the design fever fairly quickly.

If you follow this blog via a reader, then you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell, so I posted a picture.  I’m hoping to keep it moving with more regular posts.  Some school terms are more difficult than others (this Spring one included) for finding time to blog, but I hope to fit it in more.  Some new features of the blog include my Twitter feed.  If you’re on Twitter, please take the time to follow me.  I’ll follow in return.

More to come…