A Thinking Reed

  • Incarnation anyway

    I was struck recently by a passage from Catholic theologian Karen Kilby in the entry on “evil” in the St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. Kilby is discussing how Christian theology envisions God responding to evil, but notes that not that theologies vary in how central a place they give to the response to evil: Christian theologies…

  • What we talk about when we talk about God

    Christopher Insole, If God Is the Answer, What Is the Question? (Oneworld, 2026) Insole is a philosophical theologian in the UK, but this is not your typical philosophy book. He says up front that he doesn’t really think people’s fundamental convictions about God, morality, the meaning of life, politics, etc. are moved by rational argument.…

  • The broken mosaic of truth

    Learning from Other Religions, David Brown (Cambridge University Press, 2024) Arguments about how to understand the relationship among humanity’s various religious traditions have often run in well-worn grooves: Exclusivists hold to the absolute and unique truth of their religion; inclusivists regard the differing faiths as approximations of the one true religion; and pluralists view all…

  • Keith Ward: An appreciation

    As longtime readers are aware (if there are any of you left!), Anglican philosopher-theologian Keith Ward has been a big influence here at ATR. I think the first book of his I read was What the Bible Really Teaches, which at the time was extremely helpful to me by articulating a theology that was open…

  • Is love always uncontrolling?

    I recently re-read Thomas Jay Oord’s 2015 book The Uncontrolling Love of God, which made a bit of a splash in certain circles when it first came out. While it’s a stimulating read, I found myself once again not fully convinced by the argument. In brief, Oord argues that God cannot — because of the…

  • Consider the beasts

    Death Before the Fall: Biblical Literalism and the Problem of Animal Suffering, Ronald E. Osborn (IVP Academic, 2014) Much traditional Christian theology has taught that death and suffering entered the world when Adam and Eve fell into sin. Prior to the fall, many theologians have assumed, the world was free from suffering, sickness and death…

  • Best Theology Books I Read This Year

    Continuing the experiment of dusting off this creaky old blog, here are the best theology books I read this year (not necessarily published this year!): Teresa Morgan, Trust in Atonement: Teresa Morgan is a scholar of classical antiquity as well as New Testament and early Christianity, and she brings this perspective to bear in developing…

  • The Cross as God’s Word

    Adam Hamilton, Why Did Jesus Have to Die? The Meaning of the Crucifixion (Abingdon Press, 2025) Adam Hamilton is the pastor of the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS, one of the largest Methodist churches in the country. He’s also the author of numerous books and bible studies where he’s tried to carve out…

  • A ransom for many

    I just finished reading Deceiving the Devil: Atonement, Abuse, and Ransom by feminist theologian Darby Kathleen Ray, partly at the suggestion of someone on Twitter. It’s essentially a critique of traditional models of the atonement from a feminist and liberationist perspective, but it creatively mines the tradition for a constructive counter-proposal. One strength of this…

  • Only a crucified God can help

    Is the Christian gospel about the life and teachings of Jesus, or is it about his death and resurrection? These two poles of the Christian message have often been pitted against one another, sometimes in the form of St. Paul’s “theology of the cross” vs. “the Jesus of the gospels” (particularly the synoptic gospels). In…

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