Category: Theology
The Problem of Evil, Free Will and Philosophical Determinism
This is the single video version of this talk, broken into 6-parts on my YouTube channel. This is a complex and multi-faceted issue, including some of the most forceful attacks against the Christian f... Read More
Why Study Philosophy?
In this video I want to give an answer to that question generally by sharing my personal journey into philosophy that culminated in doing a PhD in Philosophy. I then consider why Christians specifical... Read More
Theonomy in Christian Ethics
Modern theonomy was primarily the work of two men, Rousas Rushdoony and Greg Bahnsen in applying Van Tillian thought to first the socio-political sphere and then more broadly.[1] Bahnsen was to refl... Read More
Jonathon Edwards and the Destruction of the Puritan Canopy in Early US History
As is well known to students of American history, the “Puritan Canopy” was a reflection of the New England Puritan’s desire to construct a society based on what they had found in the scriptures ... Read More
Epistemological Self Consciousness
After starting this journey by returning to study for a BD in 2006, MA in 2012 and then the PhD at the end of 2017, I finally graduated as Dr Macneil this week! My thesis is about what makes philosoph... Read More
Van Til and Plantinga, Comparison and Contrast
Appendix 1 – Van Til and Plantinga, Comparison and Contrast Our book examined the work of Van Til and Plantinga as it specifically intersected the major epistemological questions of our book, but th... Read More
Applying the Epistemological Self Consciousness Transcendental Critique to Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism
(This article cannot be considered an academic, comprehensive rebuttal of the claim but does highlight its problematic nature) We note that one of the unique features of reasoning regarding ultimate a... Read More
Why I Will Not Be Swearing an Oath of Allegiance to the King
After a long posting break owing to my preparation for submitting my PhD thesis and preparing for the viva (the oral exam that proves it is yours and you did not just buy it online – yes, that reall... Read More
Politics, Church and State in the Post-Trump Era
My blog has been quiet this year because I have been working on what turned out to be a 45000 word study on Politics, Church and State caused by the “chaos” in the Christian world regardin... Read More
Macneil’s Guide for the Spiritually Perplexed
How I unapologetically explained the Christian God to thoughtful, foreign, Muslim and Hindu student housemates when I was 21. A PDF version of this book is found here.... Read More
Dominion Theology – Its Origin, Development and Place in Christian Thinking
This was my Masters thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in Studies in Philosophy and Religion. This was marked at Distinction level and my supervisor recommended I publish it. This is primarily a ... Read More
COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus: God’s Blessing or Satan’s Curse?
Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils — William Blake c.1826 Estimated 6 minute read One of the biggest questions we can ever ask as Christians is who is behind a catastrophic world event like COVID-19,... Read More
Is COVID-19 a sign of Jesus’s imminent return and the Rapture of the Church?
This is a reprint (with a small prologue and addendum) of an article I wrote for a previous publication which I feel is particularly appropriate as a response to some of the speculation in the Christi... Read More
Abraham Kuyper, Culture and Art
Abraham Kuyper [1] (b.1837, d.1920) was described in a recent publication ‘as one of those rare intellectuals who actually led a popular movement. He thought it not enough just to articulate a wor... Read More
Scripture and the Post-Darwinian Controversy
Has the importance of the concepts of biblical inerrancy and infallibility changed for evangelical Christians today when compared to the end of the 19th Century? If so, why? At the end of the 19th cen... Read More
Augstine and Plantinga on the Problem of Evil
Augustine, otherwise known as St Augustine, is said to have returned “again and again, over a period of nearly half a century” to the “problem of evil” and is credited with clearly definin... Read More
The Problem of Evil
The Logical Problem of Evil if God is Good, Omnipotent and Omniscient – How Can He Allow Evil? John Polkinghorne in developing the scientifically responsible apologetic that he has spent his pos... Read More
Descartes showed there was no need for God in philosophy
With reference to Descartes’ key philosophical ideas and with particular reference to Descartes’ Discourse on the Method and related metaphysical works, discuss and critically assess this ... Read More
Orality and the Welsh Revival 1904-1906
“Orality” is defined as “interaction with the world by means of the spoken word” and contrasts with “conceptuality” which is defined as “interacting with the world by means of ideas and ... Read More
Fundamentalism as a modernism
Fundamentalism is often conceived of as a reaction against modern, secular society. This essay argued the opposite – it is a form of modernism but a modernism distinct from secular modernism.... Read More
For C.G Jung, the process of individuation is a spiritual journey or pilgrimage
I had the privilege of being taught by Professor Lucy Huskinson who is one of the top Jungian scholars. Her Psychology of Religion course was one of the most challenging (as she provided masses of r... Read More
The Doctrine of God
This was a 2300 word essay on one of the toughest subjects in philosophy and theology – the doctrine of God. Michael Palmer, author of the exceptional undergraduate philosophy textbook, “... Read More
Four thousand words on theological ethics
These were actually revision notes for these pre-released exam questions for my Theological Ethics examination in 2008: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of (1) Deontology and (2) Consequentialism... Read More
‘Thou Shalt Not Kill.’ Is this true in every case?
This was a short, 1500 word coursework essay examining the interpretation of this commandment in a Judeo-Christian, ethical context. It packs in Exodus and Leviticus, War and Peace, Abortion and Eut... Read More
Anti-Semitism and the Gospel of John
One of the commonest criticisms levelled at the gospel of John is that it is “anti-Semitic”. This view derives from John’s repeated use of the denominator “The Jews” th... Read More
The Justice of God and the Story of Job
Job is one of the most ancient pieces of literature known to humanity and is an outstanding example of what is known as the “wisdom literature” of the ancient world, to which the books of ... Read More
The Ethical Teaching of the Prophet Isaiah
It is a remarkable historical fact that in 800BC the prophet Isaiah had developed a keen sense of ethics directed at the lay, political and religious life of his contemporaries in the nation of Israel... Read MoreThe Hour of Glorification
How and why does John depict the death of Jesus as “His hour of Glorification”? The Gospel of John offers a radically mature presentation of Jesus when compared to the dramatic and often e... Read More
John G Lake – A Man of Dominion
John G Lake is one of the pioneers of the message of the early Pentecostal Church – the gift of tongues, healing, deliverance, miracles, raising the dead; that is, the full range of spiritual ... Read More
Christianity and Postmodernism
Postmodernism is an amorphous term that started to appear in the middle of the 20th century and was first applied to a particular school of Art that rejected the normal and conventional conceptions of... Read MoreWhat is Distinctive in the Christian View of God?
It is well known that there are three great monotheistic religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism. One stream of thought wants to unify these conceptions as different expressions of the sam... Read More
The Resurrection in the Christian Faith
There is no doctrine within the Christian religion that provokes such intellectual ridicule as the Resurrection and it was one of the first to be “reinterpreted” in the post-Darwinian rati... Read More
The Hebrew Scriptures in the Book of Revelation
John, the writer of the Apocalypse (traditionally thought of as the Apostle John, this is hotly contested in liberal scholarship but seems well supported by the Johannine theology of the book and its ... Read More
The Christology of Mark
Mark’s Gospel is often mischaracterised as shallow and a “young man’s excited report about this cool dude Jesus” – this is because the Greek used in its composition is ve... Read More
Kant’s Moral Argument for the Existence of God
Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) is considered by many philosophers to be one of the most important of Western philosophers, if not the most important. His Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 2nd edi... Read More
The Council of Nicea
The Council of Nicea in 325CE following the Roman Empire’s Edict of Toleration of 313CE was one of the first and most important of the councils ever held by the Church presided over by the Emp... Read More
Understanding Deuteronomy
One of the hardest modules of my undergraduate theology studies was Old Testament studies. I did not like the lecturer (professor for US readers!) and had frequent clashes. He was, it seemed to me... Read More
Hume and the Argument from Design
David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scots philosopher who developed empiricism in opposition to the continental Rationalism. More than any other thinker of his time, perhaps with the exception of Immanuel ... Read More