Canonical Conjuring — Brevard Childs, New Criticism, and the Death of Exegesis — Gary Buchholz (U. Chicago, 1985) argues that Brevard Childs' canonical criticism is a theological reinvention of dead 1940s New Criticism, and that the only real solution to the Childs-vs-Barr debate must come from outside theology — Habermas against Barr, deconstruction against Childs.
Casting Pearls Before Swine — On Matthew 7-6 and the Discernment of When to Share Holy Things — Peter Homeier's 1985 devotional exegesis of Matthew 7:6 — drawn from personal experience, the Sermon on the Mount context, and the Parable of the Sower — on why holy things must be shared with discernment, and why the angry reaction of one who is confronted with truth is itself a witness to its power.
Dance of Death — Entropy, Shiva, and the Theology of Dissipative Structures — Michael Ellis at Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, August 1985: a response to Paul Zimmerman's 'Damager-God' theology, connecting Shiva's cosmic dance, thermodynamic entropy, Prigogine's dissipative structures, and a line from Thomas Merton.
Dissolving Biblical Inerrancy — The Abiathar Question and the Greek Text — Gary Buchholz's 1985 essay using the Abiathar/Ahimelech discrepancy in Mark's gospel — and the four textual variants in the Greek manuscript tradition — to demonstrate that the question of biblical inerrancy cannot even be coherently raised once one begins from the actual text and its transmission history.
Encountering Evil — Five Theodicies and the Problem of Suffering — A 1985 survey of five Protestant theodicies from the book *Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy*, presented by a Duke physiologist who prompted the discussion with Walter Kaufmann's challenge to the goodness of God.
Faith — Peter Homeier's 1985 essay on the nature of Christian faith — what it is, where it comes from, how it grows, and the profound mystery at Hebrews 11: that the same faith which subdues kingdoms is also the faith that goes to the stake, and God is present in both.
Ghostbusting Brevard Childs — On Canon, Ideology, and the Salvation Syndrome — Gary Buchholz (U. Chicago, 1985) continues his critique of Brevard Childs: Childs is naive about systematic distortion in the canon, valorizes tradition selectively, and by continuing the mistake of 2000 years of Christian history, inadvertently becomes the best argument for the secular and post-Christian epoch already underway.
GhostBusting the Christian Tradition — Canonical Criticism, the Holy Spirit, and History — Gary Buchholz at the University of Chicago, Oct 1985: a challenge to canonical criticism's claim that the Holy Spirit guided church history, using Cyril of Alexandria's antisemitism, Tertullian's exclusion of women, and Constantine's burning of texts as evidence.
How I Became a Christian — The Testimony of Mike Wroblewski — A 1985 conversion testimony from Mike Wroblewski, an engineer at the Aerospace Corporation — how a summer carpool with a young Christian colleague named Lauren became the occasion for his faith, and what he found there that his Catholic upbringing had never shown him.
How I Came to Walk with Jesus — A Testimony — A 1985 conversion testimony from an engineer at John Fluke Mfg. Co. in Everett, WA — a gradual awakening through a televised film about Jesus, culminating in an overwhelming experience of the Holy Spirit while reading the Gospels in bed.
In Defense of St. Paul — A Duke Divinity School theologian defends Paul's theological genius against the 'give us Jesus, not Paul' tradition — arguing for his chronological primacy over the Gospels, his penetrating insight of human existence, and why every New Testament book is primarily interpretation.
Introduction to net.religion.christian — A scholarly introduction to net.religion.christian, one of the earliest online Christian communities, active in the mid-1980s within the original net.* Usenet hierarchy before the Great Renaming.
Machine-Readable Bible Text — A 1985 Survey — Howard Johnson at Cyb Systems collects Usenet reports on the state of digital Bible text in August 1985: commercial PC Bible software, BBS access, and the $20,000 cost of licensed Scripture on tape.
On Coming to Faith — A Guide for Seekers — Mike Andrews at John Fluke Mfg. addresses spiritual seekers directly: how to ask for faith, what to expect, how to grow. November 1985.
Prayer — A Fourth-Century Explanation — Jeff Gillette of Duke Divinity School shares Iamblichus’ fourth-century Neoplatonist theology of prayer — its three stages, its fruits, its union with the divine — and asks whether Christian prayer and Pagan prayer are ultimately the same thing.
Schleiermacher and the Church — On the Flight of Professional Theology — Gary Buchholz at the University of Chicago, August 1985: a sharp polemic arguing that professional theology has always held the institutional church in contempt, from Schleiermacher's 1806 speeches to Altizer's death-of-God theology.
Self Worth — On Pride, Being Right, and the Child of God — Mike Andrews at John Fluke Mfg. shares a personal discovery: that tying self-worth to being right is a form of pride, and that a Christian's true worth comes simply from being God's child. November 1985.
Simple Faith — A Prayer Meeting Account — Mike Andrews at John Fluke Mfg. shares a moment of grace at a prayer meeting, November 1985: the recognition that faith is not grasped but received.
Something God Expects from Us — On Free Will and the Limits of Divine Intervention — A 1985 personal reflection on why God does not simply fix human problems — arguing that God's gift of free will is precisely the reason He does not override our choices, and that prayer is not a demand for intervention but an opening of a channel for grace.
Spirit, Soul, Body, and Salvation — Hebrew and Greek Anthropology in Christian Perspective — A two-part 1985 essay comparing ancient Hebrew (unified body-soul) and Greek (soul-imprisoned-in-body) understandings of human nature, and arguing that Christianity's salvation doctrine — justification, sanctification, glorification — is properly understood through the Hebrew framework.
The Canon as Ideological Weapon — On Pauline Christianity and Its Victims — Gary Buchholz (U. Chicago, 1985) argues that the New Testament canon is not an innocent document but an ideological weapon — the record of Pauline Christianity's political victory over rival Christologies, achieved by the systematic exclusion of Petrine, Gnostic, and other traditions.
The Cross of Christ — Peter Homeier's 1985 essay on the Crucifixion — Christ's agony in Gethsemane, the darkness on Calvary, the torn curtain, the Passover typology, and the Resurrection — written as evangelical theology for the early internet.
The Lord's Day and the Sabbath — Sunday in the Reformed Tradition — Chuck Hedrick at Rutgers, January 1985: a lucid theological history of how Sunday shifted from a free celebration of the Resurrection to the Christian Sabbath, tracing the debate from Calvin and Luther through the Westminster Confession.
The Love of God — Peter Homeier's 1985 essay on agape — the unconditional, decision-based love described in 1 Corinthians 13, which cannot be earned or lost, flows from God into the believer, and enables love for neighbor and enemy alike.
The Meaning of Salvation — Peter Homeier's 1985 essay on what Christian salvation actually consists of — forgiveness, judgment, the Book of Life, C.S. Lewis on living in Heaven or Hell now, what happens when you accept Jesus, and an invitation to those who have not yet done so.
The Story of a Captain and His Passengers — John Emery at John Fluke Mfg. shares an original Christian allegory: a great ship, a hidden captain, and passengers who must choose whether to trust what they cannot see. November 1985.
The Story of My Manger Set — On Providence in Small Things — John Emery at John Fluke Mfg. tells how building a manger set became an exercise in small miracles: scrap wood found behind the townhouse, hay borrowed from a pathway laid out for ducks. December 1985.
The Tragedy of Sin — Peter Homeier's 1985 essay on the Fall, original innocence, the nature of sin as the root of all suffering, and the liberation offered by the Cross — written with the warmth and directness of early evangelical Usenet theology.
The Trinity and the Fine Line — On Modalism and the Nature of God's Love — Chuck Hedrick's 1985 theological reflection on Trinitarian doctrine, warning against both tritheism and Modalism, arguing that the doctrine's deepest purpose is not about the number three but about affirming that Love is part of God's very nature — that relationship, and therefore Love, existed within God before any creature was made to love.
To Speak God's Truth in Love — On Argument, Witness, and the Mystery of Human Freedom — A January 1986 call from Mike Andrews of John Fluke Manufacturing for Christians to speak God's truth in love rather than endless argument — anchored in the theological claim that God does not need our defense and the mystery of why He gave us the freedom to reject Him entirely.
Who Are You to God — On Divine Care and the Parent Analogy — Mike Andrews at John Fluke Mfg. inverts the classic question — not 'who is God to you?' but 'who are you to God?' — to explore divine parental care, free will, and the paradox of divine dependence. November 1985.