Calling all Theoblogians.

Go and find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

Then add your identity in the comments.

This was seen at Mere Comments, a blog by the editors of Touchstone magazine.

The search for ancient and condemned heresies continues in the evangelical church today as we go on to examine if any of the ancient Christological heresies are alive and well today. Are you a heretic? Go ahead, take the heretic challenge! Don't settle for just being like Mike, be like Apollinarius! Or maybe Nestorius! Or even (drum roll), maybe you can be like Eutyches!

I recently bought some college classes on MP3 (through The Great Courses) for my wife and me to listen to together. We bought American History, the Early Middle Ages and the Greek civilization (my wife and I have a continuing debate about whether the Greeks or Romans were better: she reminds me that the Greeks had creativity and brains, but I remind her that the Roman civilization conquered the Greeks, had great logistics and lasted for a very long time). Anyway, we listened to the first American History lecture and I came across a gem of a “big picture jewel.” The teacher was discussing how the Crusades taught the Europeans a variety of things, including how to send out big expeditions and the potential for trade. The Italians controlled the Med, and the Arabs controlled the land routes, so the Western Europeans were forced to go a different direction: by sea. The Portuguese went around Africa, so the Spanish were left with going west, which resulted in the famous expedition of 1492. And all of this because of the Crusades! Since I am intrigued with the Crusades (it is the clearest place where military history and church history collide) in a dark sort of way, this connection with American history made me all the more interested in that dark period known as the Crusades.

I have been out of the loop recently because we just moved to Wheaton (Hello across Chicago, Sam!). We drove across country and have been busy packing and now unpacking all our worldly possessions (4500 pounds of them, half of which were my books). And besides that I have a German test on Friday. I don't know how much I'll be writing now that I have started my PhD program, but I'll still be contributing sometimes. Here is a thought from a book I read over the summer. I've attached my full book report if you want to read it.  

Anything by Roger Olson is worth reading in my opinion. The Mosaic of Christian Belief is a fascinating new way to present systematic theology to students and I think it could be revolutionary to the way we teach theology and write doctrinal statements. The basic content of the book is not all that interesting, but the format is fascinating. Each chapter is a theological topic and is divided into several sections. One section surveys those views that are outside orthodoxy, then another section surveys the various options within evangelicalsim. The reason I think that this is great is that it gives a new model for statements of beliefs which are layered: the first layer is the essential layer, and then the second layer is the debated layer. For example, the belief that Jesus is coming back would be the first layer, while the second layer would be that his coming is premillennial. This format allows us to state what we believe without being dogmatic and condemning. I think that great potential lies in this direction.