Jared Diamond joins the choir of atheists

Jared Diamond, the professor of geography from the University of California, Los Angeles, and who got his fame from voluminous books like The Third Chimpanzee, Guns, Germs and Steel, and Collapse has recently published a new book, titled The World Until Yesterday.

I haven’t read this book yet, but the website Salon.com published an exerpt from the book dealing with religion. I want to share some observations…

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Does Theology Have a Method? An Interview with Paul Allen

Recently, the catholic theologian Paul Allen (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada) published a great book on theological method, titled Theological Method: A Guide for the Perplexed (T&T Clark 2012). For many, theological method indeed is something to be perplexed about. Is there really something like a theological method? Many atheists even argue that theology has no place at a university, because it has no method.

Allen apparently argues to the contrary. He gives a historical overview of how the development of theological method, describing key figures, both catholic and protestant. He shows how theological method has developed in a continous dialogue with developments within philosophy, science, and the wider culture.

So, to give readers an impression of what the book is about, I asked Paul some questions about his new book, about theological method, the relation between science and religion, and whether an atheist can be a theologian…

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New book: Did Jesus Exist? The answer: Yes he did

Bart Ehrmann is a very well-known New Testament scholar, and an atheist. But even though many atheists deny that Jesus is a historical figure, Ehrman is not one of them. He recently wrote a book Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth, that will be released tomorrow (March 20, 2012). Ehrman answers … Lees meer

Karl Giberson & Randall Stephens: The Anointed…

Today I ordered the new book by Karl Giberson and Randall Stephens, The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age, published by Belknap/Harvard University Press. I was especially struck by the following description: Exploring intellectual authority within evangelicalism, the authors reveal how America’s populist ideals, anti-intellectualism, and religious free market, along with the concept of … Lees meer