Mike Wittmer

Category: Theology

  • by George, I think I’ve got it

    Last Wednesday I had the privilege of meeting George Marsden, the author of Jonathan Edwards:  A Life and elder statesman of evangelical historians.  George came by to speak to the faculty at Cornerstone University—which I should say is poised to become a significant Christian school with Joe Stowell and Rick Ostrander (provost and author of…

  • theological chastity

    My assessment of Pete Rollins’ argument is NOW HERE, which probably means for Pete that it is NO WHERE.  See what he did there?  It’s cute, but it’s not terribly helpful to give an argument/explanation/illustration for God’s non/existence that only works in the English language.  I wonder what argument Pete would use in China.  Perhaps…

  • theological porn

    I have spent the past few days reading Peter Rollins:  How (Not) to Speak of God, The Fidelity of Betrayal, and The Orthodox Heretic.  I say it’s like reading theological porn because it’s titillating, it makes you feel dirty, and you could lose your soul doing it.  I suspect that Pete would happily agree with…

  • enlarge my borders (and start with this blog)

    My present study of evangelical fideism led me yesterday to revisit the gift book that rocked our pre-9/11 world, the “little prayer with the giant prize” (17), The Prayer of Jabez. I first noticed 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 in 1989 when Howard Hendricks used it as an example of the importance of observation in my hermeneutics…

  • protestant tetzels

    In honor of the indulgence seller Johann Tetzel whose famous jingle “When the coin in the coffer clings a soul from purgatory springs” angered Martin Luther and helped to ignite the Reformation,  here is a N Y Times article which demonstrates that buying salvation never went away, it just went Protestant.  My friend and student…

  • adventures in fideism

    I am enjoying our first and perhaps last full week of summer in Michigan (every day sunny and in the 80s), so I am trying to get outdoors as much as possible. Since I don’t have a research assistant, and if I did he or she would be at the beach anyway, I’d like to…

  • do either of these work for you?

    Thank you all for your help on my last post.  I would like to explain my thinking for each of these titles, but since I won’t have that opportunity in real life, here goes.  With apologies to Eddie Van Halen, does anyone have any noteworthy reaction to either of these?  1. Don’t Jump:  How Doubt…

  • leap of faith

    I want to research something but it’s summer and I don’t want to waste my one warm weekend of the year in the library, so could those of you who are willing and have an opinion answer two questions for me? 1. What does a “leap of faith” mean to you?  What words or phrases…

  • evangelical ecclesiology

    Mark Noll, the former Wheaton historian who is now teaching at Notre Dame, jokes that “The main difference between us and the Catholics is ecclesiology. They have one and we don’t.” There is a new book which seeks to remedy that, and I am so taken with it that I’ll be using it as a…

  • beer is not the answer

    In his excellent book, Unpacking Forgiveness, Chris Brauns makes the point that forgiveness means reconciliation, and it’s impossible to be reconciled with someone who has not repented and asked for forgiveness. Since no party has yet admitted they were wrong, I am not sure what Obama’s beer party on Thursday afternoon is going to accomplish.…