Endeavoring Orthodoxy: Recent Episodes
Benjamin Kelly
Bringing topics of theology into cultural conversation. Meant to educate and empower Christians to use theological reasoning to understand the world around them.
Today I am talking about Marxist Theology. What is it? Does it exist? Is it Biblical? Join me as I explore some similarities between Marxism and theologies of Liberation and how both misunderstand biblical teachings of sin and salvation.
I just finished my post-graduate degree in theology and am now ready to give myself more to this channel and bring you better content!
A theological reflection on how much of a person's worldview is directly based on what that person believes about God.
Certain models of revelation in the 20th century were considered non-propositional and helped lead to the decline of the authority of the the scriptures.
Exploring the models of non-propositional revelation in the twentieth century and how they are still alive and well in churches and their members today.
Nash ties together how the work of Hume, Kant, Schleiermacher, and Ritschl turned theology in the 20th century towards a non-cognitive and non-propositional view of divine revelation.
A look how Immanuel Kant raised a philosophical wall between knowledge of God and the mind of man and how Protestant Liberal theologians furthered this separation.
A look at how Carl Henry declares Neo-Protestantism has broadened the Reformation doctrine of salvation of justification by faith alone to include epistemological considerations.
A reading of Ronald Nash's book The Word of God and the Mind of Man: The Crisis of Revealed Truth in Contemporary Theology. This week we will explore Nash's thesis and have a brief discussion on the first chapter featuring the philosophy of David Hume.
In this episode I ask questions about why we have a tendency of making many pastors into celebrities in our culture today. I also review some books from the last quarter.
Evangelical Theologian John Stott presented a theology of missions that upheld equal arms of gospel proclamation and service as elements of gospel love. Was he correct in doing this according to New Testament evidence?
In this episode, I am looking at the three main woke influences (therapeutics, social action, and deconstruction) and how they are attempting to infiltrate and fundamentally change orthodox theology.
An unscripted talk about the thoughts I am having about the Christian response to the overturning of Roe and suggesting some books I have read over the first half of the year.
An enigmatic figure has appeared on the landscape over the last several years. Many Christians dislike his message, wile others are drawn to him. How should Christians theologically approach Jordan Peterson? No politics involved.
One of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, and possibly the greatest since John Calvin, was Karl Barth. His work on calling the Church back to the Word of God for theological content cannot be denied. In Barth's book, Evangelical Theology, he lays out an interesting practice for theological work that seems meant for the local church to embrace through a process of prayer, study, service, and love. Listen to learn more about this process and why it is so important for placing the work of theology back into the local church.
Should we distrust language and label the stories of our cultural institutions as means of power? Do we have the ability to create any reality we want through our own stories? The story of the tower of Babel offers an interesting insight to the human endeavor of attempting to ascend to the place of God. It is the language of man that God confuses. Is our language confused today?
Abductive moral arguments for Christian theism seek to infer the truthfulness of Christianity by exhausting the explanatory power of of other worldviews for morality. In this episode I will put forth an abductive moral argument for Christian theism from a paper written meant to help students engage culture at a practical level with this type of thinking.
In this episode I look through the third chapter of Peter Scazzero's book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. I discuss the incomplete theological representation of sin Scazzero presents through an idea of migration of sin from generation to generation. Listen as I work to unpack the full account of what the Bible says about generational sin.
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero has seen some popularity among younger Christians looking for direction on how to overcome their own emotional difficulties in growing their spirituality. Scazzero tells readers that they must first know their authentic self before they can know God. It is type of theology that is a cause for a concern as it has all the makings to lead people away from Christ rather than to him. Listen to this theological challenge levied at Scazzero's work.
One of the most influential and sobering books on moral philosophy over the last 40 years has been Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue. Many people interested in understanding the political culture of today turn to MacIntyre to better understand the prevailing moral philosophy of today, Emotivism, and how to reasonably critique this philosophy. Yet, so many are mystified by MacIntyre's academic style of writing. Join me as I explain how MacIntyre points to the problem of moral justification in our culture and whether theologically sound Christians can accept his solution for moral justification.
There is a growing focus for younger Christians in becoming emotionally healthy before spiritual health is achieved. Is this distinction theologically necessary or biblically appropriate? There is a possible convergence between the practices of emotional spirituality and the theological method of mysticism. Charles Hodges demonstrates the dangers of using emotional spirituality for theological thinking and how this has historically resulted is misguided mysticism.
Critical Theory carries three primary presuppositions about God's revelation, the nature of man, and the nature of Christ. See those three presuppositions used against traditional orthodox theology to the point that the deity of Jesus is completely denied, the Bible is not the inspired word of God, and humanity's greatest sin is racism. This episode explores how contemporary theologians are using the antiracist ethic to deconstruct traditional Christian theology.
Critical Theory carries three primary presuppositions about God's revelation, the nature of man, and the nature of Christ. See those three presuppositions used against traditional orthodox theology to the point that the deity of Jesus is completely denied, the Bible is not the inspired word of God, and humanity's greatest sin is racism. This episode explores how contemporary theologians are using the antiracist ethic to deconstruct traditional Christian theology.
Can Christian theology use critical theories? What happens when certain presuppositions of critical theory are used to interpret scripture? This episode looks at the devastating effects three major presuppositions of critical theory have on classic orthodox Christian theology. These presuppositions of critical theory seek to undermine orthodox understanding of Christian doctrines such as revelation, sin, and the work of Christ. What is determined is that when critical theories are employed to do theology the result is a bad relationship for orthodox theology.
For several decades the contemporary American church has forced unbiblical images onto the role of the local pastor. These images include the pastor as CEO, therapeutic guru, and political agitator. These images have held local pastors in captivity and kept them from fulfilling their biblical mandate of exegeting the Word of God and teaching in order to spiritually feeds God's people.
Since the time of Plato, philosophers and theologians have asked the question: does God approve of what is good because it is what he commands or does he approve of what is good because it is independently good on its own? This question has classically been called the Euthyphro Dilemma and has considerable theological implications for the Christian.