Category: Theology
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Can Anyone Explain To Me Why People Should BURN in Hell FOREVER?
The debate around hell and damnation continues apace. Rob Bell is about to launch Love Wins, and the arguments about whether he is apostate or a Universalist or worse (filth, as one commenter puts it, an egotistical heretic as another says) are making one thing for certain: His Publisher Wins. But one question keeps coming…
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The Empathetic Civilisation | Dirty Heaven [4]
Rumbling in the background of these posts has, of course, been the debate about Rob Bell’s views on hell – which have been picked apart by everyone despite the fact that his book has yet to be released. What is so interesting is that the reaction to the press releases about the book go a…
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The Empathetic Civilisation | Dirty Heaven [3]
I’ve been thinking about Jeremy Rifkin’s talk on ‘The Empathetic Civilisation’ which he gave at the RSA last year. It sparked my interest because of this quote: “There is no empathy in heaven, because there is no mortality. There is no empathy in utopia, because there is no suffering.” This made think a little about…
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The Empathetic Civilisation | Dirty Heaven [2]
Jeremy Rifkin’s talk about empathy leads us to some interesting conclusions about heaven. Because empathy is about engaging with those who are other, and experiencing some of their pain, heaven – as traditionally seen – must be a place where there is no empathy, because pain cannot be experienced. The typically Christian view of heaven…
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“Lord I just…” | Do you believe in Prayer? | Speaking into the unknown
A couple of times recently I’ve been in situations where people have said ‘let’s pray together.’ It’s struck me that there are some interesting group dynamics going on when we do that, which I thought would be good to air. Firstly, if God is God, then why do we need to pray aloud? The answer…
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Who Do You Say That I Am? | Should Christians be ‘Non Self-Identifying’?
When was the last time someone questioned you about your faith? Whereas once the question would have been ‘are you a Christian,’ the phraseology is now more often along the lines of ‘would you call yourself a Christian.’ The first is an objective statement of being, an absolute. The second a subjective assessment – you…