Category Archives: Politics and sociology

I was directed to an interesting piece on First Things from 2007 by Richard Neuhaus, in which he coins the axion: “Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed.” A provocative proposition – have a look at the argument and see what you think. Incidentally the theme relates vaguely to a good book challenging the popular idea that the early Church had no orthodoxy – the familiar Dan Brown idea that there was a pot pourri of beliefs until nasty Constantine (or some other spoil-sport) forced everyone into line. It’s The Heresy of Orthodoxy by Kostenberger & Kruger.

The Biologos thread on the Ham-Nye debate has prompted good conversations there and in a few posts here – very few actually about creationism versus atheism, which is understandable enough as neither site is either creationist or atheist. One titbit was a very gentle dig at New Testament scholars by Ted Davis speaking as a historian, about the criteria they use to date the gospels: In the absence of hard evidence, I regard the date of the composition of the various gospels as highly conjectural, and if I were a biblical scholar (obviously I’m not), I would hesitate to be too dogmatic about such a theory-laden conclusion.