Voting: the worst theological invention

Thanks for all your nominations for the worst theological invention. There were plenty of thought-provoking and entertaining suggestions, and it has been hard to decide on the finalists. I vetoed some suggestions (e.g. historical criticism, “all forms of Protestantism”) because of my own personal biases; and I vetoed others (e.g. theology blogs, technical terminology) because they hurt my feelings. There were some other good candidates like the prosperity gospel and “the purpose-driven anything” – but these are so embarrassing that I thought it best to pass over them in silence.

There were plenty of close runners-up as well: male headship, Augustine’s doctrine of original sin, Christian Zionism, the norm of “sola cultura,” timeless eternity, God as a male, the German language, etc. But alas, we can’t include them all! So here are our seven finalists:

• Biblical inerrancy
• Double predestination
• The rapture
• Papal infallibility
• Arianism
• Christendom (not to be confused with Chrisendom, which is also one of the worst theological inventions...)
• Just war theory

The poll is now up in the sidebar – so come and cast your vote for the worst theological invention!