(This essay was first posted in June of 2023 on lovingnazarenes.com.) Disingenuous That’s the most charitable word to describe your actions in recent days. Disingenuous. The actions to which I am referring are characterized by quotes like the following: In your (Caleb’s) review of Why the Church of the Nazarene Should be Fully LGBTQ+ Affirming, […]

My daughter Alexa and I co-edited a collection of essays with the title, Why the Church of the Nazarene Should be Fully LGBTQ+ Affirming. The writers of the essays are current or former members of the denomination. And their writing is simply OUTSTANDING! The essays are divided into three sections: Queer Voices, Ally Narratives, and […]

I’m working on the final chapter of a new book called, The Death of Omnipotence… and Birth of Amipotence. In previous blogs, I’ve identified reasons we should stop saying God is omnipotent. The final chapter in this new book explains the word “amipotence.” Amipotence combines two Latin words ami and potens. The first means “love,” […]

Fifty years ago, a little-known theologian named Mildred Bangs Wynkoop published a provocative book. That book, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism, still sparks conversation and controversy today. It presents a powerful argument for love as Christian theology’s priority. Love as Central The first third of A Theology of Love offers the heart of Wynkoop’s […]

I’m happy to announce the publication of a new book, Partnering with God: Collaboration in Open and Relational Theology! The title itself will strike some readers as audacious. After all, who can really claim to “partner with God”?! Partnering with God answers that question by claiming collaboration with the divine is a real possibility! Seventy-seven […]

In a series of essays on this website and in books, I’ve argued that God requires creaturely cooperation for love finally to win. To put it another way, the ultimate victory of good over evil requires creatures to cooperate with God. I’m not saying God alone will right all wrongs and bring about universal salvation. […]

“The finally impenitent are hopelessly and eternally lost.” The Manual of the Church of the Nazarene includes these ominous words. The phrase “the finally impenitent” was in use prior to the denomination’s beginning. And other Christian groups currently include these words in their belief statements. “Impenitent” refers to those who do not repent from sin […]

My recent book, God Can’t, makes the claim God can’t do some activities. Although this strikes some as unprecedented, John Wesley said it before I did. God Can’t in the Bible Biblical writers said “God can’t” before John Wesley and me. In various books and blogs, I’ve listed biblical passages that explicitly say God can’t […]

If we took John Wesley’s use of the Bible as central to describing a Wesleyan doctrine of Scripture, what would we conclude? The answer to that question resides at the center of my living and thinking. Randy Maddox on John Wesley Perhaps the leading Wesleyan theologian of our time, Randy Maddox, explores John Wesley’s use […]

Both conservative and progressive Christians admire John Wesley. But his statements on the Bible may surprise people in both camps. I’m offering a free copy of Randy Maddox’s essay on John Wesley and the Bible. The essay was published in a book I co-edited with Richard Thompson, The Bible Tells Me So, and elsewhere. Those […]