Mike Wittmer

Category: Theology

  • projecting their projection

    Christmas break is a good time to catch up on my reading, and I just skimmed an older book by Paul Vitz, Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism (1999).  Vitz’s book is a response to Feuerbach and Freud’s assertion that God is a projection of our human desires.  Vitz observes that 1) they…

  • newsworthy

    60 Minutes ran an informative piece last night on the patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Istanbul.  The gist of the segment explained how Muslim Turkey is attempting to eliminate the 1700 year old church there.  It includes some stunning footage of early churches cut into the Tolkienesque mountains of Cappadocia, and is worth a…

  • the Jesus-driven life

    The lesson that I relearned from reading Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics II/1 and IV/1 this semester is that we need to start with Jesus, because if we don’t then he might not fit. A few weeks ago Rick Warren was on a special Thanksgiving edition of Meet the Press, and near the end of the…

  • the new perspective and Barth

    Last week my Barth class read the Church Dogmatics, IV/1, p. 621-26, where Barth makes a few comments which seem relevant to the controversy surrounding the new perspective on Paul. 1. Barth agrees with the NPP that Paul used the term “works of the law” to refer to the ethnic boundary markers of “circumcision, the…

  • good sex

    Piles of grading have prevented me from blogging this week, but I did manage to finish this racy devotional for Our Daily Journey. It seems particularly appropriate given the winter storm that is burying us. If you’re single and snowed in, there’s always Scrabble. read > Proverbs 5:1-23 Drink water from your own well—share your…

  • the end of innocence

    Meredith Baxter played the mother on the television show, Family Ties, and today on Today she announced that, after three marriages and five children, she had decided that she would try being a lesbian. There goes what’s left of my childhood.  I don’t know what’s true anymore.  I suppose that next I’ll learn that Alex…

  • evangelicals and roman catholicism

    In light of the comments on my last post, I think that some of you may appreciate Doug Philips’ interview with Chris Castaldo, who recently published Holy Ground, a book which explains his conversion from Roman Catholicism to evangelicalism.  Doug’s interview probes the essential issue of justification, and how it is presently held by Roman…

  • the manhattan project

    In light of our recent discussion about homosexual practice, I thought that you might want to know about and even sign The Manhattan Declaration, a joint statement from Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Christians (it was written by Robert George, Timothy George, and Chuck Colson) which defends our religious freedom to live by the teaching…

  • designated pagans

    Matthew Westerholm sent me this link to an atheistic organization that is meeting a real need.  For $110, Eternal Earth-Bound Pets will rush to your house within 24 hours of the rapture and rescue your beloved pet which is left behind.  The only flaw in their business model is that many dispensationalist pretribbers were taught…

  • cuts both ways

    Sometimes I’m told that I shouldn’t be critical of Pete Rollins for denying revelation and the resurrection of Christ because his message can reach people that I can’t.  My response is that’s probably true, but what message is he reaching people with?  It does no good to jump into the quicksand to rescue your friend…