WELCOME,..some of u already know who Richard Mouw is...in general..u have heard he was the president of fuller seminary...a former phhilosophy professor at calvin college,...did a few things at the free university in amsterdam, etc. well, thats all good, but I know Mouw a little better from seeing him in action in Grand Rapids (when he was teaching at calvin,and also a member of our church with his family) and then later when he was teaching at Fuller (while also president)...and he writes articles,publishes books,tried especially to reach out to mormons,and now apparently catholics,and most recently i saw him speak at the missiology lectures at fuller.
Last year he spoke at calvin's january series,and now apparently he's back teaching a class at fuller,after retiring from the presidency,and a stint teaching at pepperdine. He just keeps POPPING UP when u thought he might be getting tired, and ready for some R&R, and a comfortable retirement.
What makes him tick? That's my question..my quest to find out. One thing that surprised me when I came to fuller from calvin seminary ...i assumed he was a traditional Christian, but then found out he allegedly is a "physicalist", and doesn't actually believe in soul (similar to one of his colleagues,nancey murphy, with whom I am at odds ). Mouw doesnt advertise his position on soul. He relies on people assuming he's a traditional guy , traditional CHristian, that is.
I had to dig deep to discover this, accidentally for that matter, and its buried so deep I still say "allegedly"...and i will post links to that evidence here in the near future.
but for now I decided I needed to keep a blog about Mouw because he shouldn't be taken for granted by traditional Christians. We need to keep him accountable. Not to say he's living a bad life or anything scandalous . But do we REALLY know what he truly believes down deep, beyond all the "psycho babble" or "philosophy babble" as it may be.
If he's not really a true blue traditional Christian, per Reformed doctrine, it's a bit concerning to me. At least he should say it, not try to keep it below the radar . If he's teaching our young people ,most of whom come to seminary as trusting young Christians , we have a right to know what our teachers truly believe.
And yet he won't answer to me. He's old school and if I were to get point blank with him he would call me a "punk" or "too big for my britches" (he might even act scared & call police,even though I can assure you I am not a danger to anybody) despite the fact that I have a lot of education (BA/BA/M.DIV),even if not a lofty doctorate like him.
And yet a doctorate is not proof of what one truly believes. One is from the head, the other is from the heart.
Anyways, because he has been so close to my tradition for so long I want to believe the best about him, and hope I am able to confirm the best, not the suspicions otherwise.
So for the time being, lacking lots of evidence one way or the other, I will simply keep him on the radar and see what happens. For some reason he doesn't want to ride off into the sunset. He still has "something to prove". What will he prove? We'll find out. I hope.
