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It could be the most recent baptism spat has developed precisely because of increased church cooperation. When Christians huddle in their own camps, there is little need to debate those views that have divided them for so long. Not so when other affinities draw them close together, as with groups such as Together for the Gospel and the Gospel Coalition. The camaraderie of these groups may lead some Christians to wonder what kept them apart in the first place. Now they know.

If no one has planted a church named Mars Hill in your community, just wait a few years. But apparently Russell Moore has had it with what he believes to be poor interpretations of Paul's visit to Athens, recounted in Acts 17. Rather than understanding Paul to baptize any use of cultural cues, Moore says Paul spoke polemically to demolish barriers to the gospel. "Paul's discourse on the Areopagus is strikingly different from many Christians' attempts to be relevant to popular culture," Moore explains. "He points to the Athenians' culture not so much to bring out what they know as what they deny."

Christians chase an impossible dream if they expect to be cool, Moore argues. But that doesn't mean we can ignore culture. He writes, "We must remember to listen beneath the cynicism to men and women who experience longings that can only be fulfilled in the reign of a Galilean Carpenter-King."

• Mavis Leung defends Carl Henry in Trinity Journal. Leung contends that younger evangelicals know little of this important theologian and his vision for cultural engagement. This vision has been obscured, Leung writes, by critiques of Henry as a "rational apologist" and foundationalist, nasty titles in a culture desperate to shed "modernist" notions of knowable truth.
  
  
• Scot McKnight wonders who does more harm to the church: kind leaders who teach questionable theology, or harsh leaders who know their stuff? (Don't Christians who deal unkindly with others necessarily have bad theology?)
  
  
• David Gushee challenges complementarians with four questions that he believes "expose weaknesses in complementarianism that cannot be mended from within that paradigm." Denny Burk responds to the ethicist: "Can you imagine if someone said the following: 'Civil laws are constantly broken by those who otherwise say those laws are just. Therefore, the hypocrisy of the lawbreakers invalidates the laws'?"
  
  

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.' And she prevailed upon us. (Acts 16:14-15)

Collin Hansen is a CT editor at large.

Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Previous Theology in the News columns include:

What's Not Coming to a Bookstore Near You | How competition to publish celebrity Christians crowds out theology. (September 14, 2007)

From the Seminaries to the Pews | The 'new perspective on Paul' gets the popular treatment. (August 31, 2007)

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September (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51