Bob Goudzwaard Annotated Bibliography

A second edition of Bruce Wearne's annotated bibliography of Bob Goudzwaard's work is now available:

Bruce C Wearne Cultivating Care within a Vulnerable Economy: an annotated bibliography of the English writings of Bob Goudzwaard 1967-2008

[pdf 104+ xix pages (approx 1.1 MB)]

There are also a number of Bob's articles now on-line accompanying this monumental work. These can be accessed through the Goudzwaard pages on the All of life redeedmed site, or via the live links on Bruce's bibliography.

Jim Skillen annotated bibliography update

I am pleased to announce that Bruce Wearne's annotated bibliography of Jim Skillen's work has now been updated and added to the All of life redeemed website.

Public Justice for All: An Annotated Bibliography of the Works of James W. Skillen, 1967-2008 (2nd updated edn)

A bibliography for a Christian approach to mathematics - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: A bibliography for a Christian approach to mathematics

A Mathematician's Psalm

A Mathematician's Psalm

Gene Chase

Praise You, O Lord, for inverse square laws

By which You hold the earth to the sun

And warm us just enough.

Praise You, O Lord, for the exponential function

And its inverse the logarithm

So pain does not double with pressure,

But growth is proportional to capacity.

Praise You, O Lord, for the continuity of creation.

Cars don't break down in an instant without warning;

Eyesight dims without sudden blackness;

Memory and imagination link past and future with the present;

Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people.

Let all that has functional representation praise the Lord!

Praise ye the Lord.

Copyright © 1979. Gene B. Chase. All rights reserved.

Vocational Calvinism by Ray pennings

Ray Pennings has a fascinating piece in this week's Comment: Vocational Calvinism. He writes:

Reformed, Calvinist teaching regarding work can be summarized as follows:

1. God works, and we are called to bear His image;
2. God derives satisfaction from His work;
3. God provides for us through our work;
4. God has commanded man to work, and to work within the framework of His commands;
5. God holds us accountable for our work and expects to be acknowledged through it;
6. God provides particular gifts designed to meet particular needs in the advancement of His kingdom;
7. The Fall has radically affected our work. Work became toil;
   thorns and thistles frustrate our efforts. Fallen man seeks to glorify
   himself rather than his Creator through work;
8. Work is an individual as well as a social activity;
9. God takes pleasure in beauty, and the Scriptures do not focus simply on the functional and utilitarian aspects of work; and
10. Christ worked as part of His active obedience, and the believer's work through Christ is part of that obedience.

Everything is spiritual - a review

Everything is Spiritual
Rob Bell
DVD, Flannell, Zondervan, 2007
025986285562
Running time: 01:17:52.

Rob Bell is familiar to most through the short Nooma DVDs. This is different, there are no set pieces, no clever camera angles or tricks and it lasts much longer. This is a recording from his 25 plus city 'Everything is Spiritual' tour in 2006. The performance on the DVD took place in an Arts Centre in Grand Rapids, USA.

This is a cross between a sermon, lecture, performance art - at the end a huge white board is covered in notes - and stand-up. Bell is a gifted communicator and appears to be speaking without notes. He speaks for over a hour and a quarter but it seems like twenty minutes. Were that all church speakers were as absorbing.

The 'chapters' on the DVD are as follows:

In the beginning 00:00:00
100 billion galaxies 00:09:07
Atoms are small 00: 21:11
Flatland 00:31:42
You are here 00:57:50
Seasons 00:57:50
Everything is spiritual 01:11:10

Bell begins at the beginning, Genesis 1 - he calls is an ancient Hebrew poem - and draws out its implications. He adopts a framework hypothesis and explores the many times phrases and words occur in threes, sevens (eg the first verse has seven words, the second verse 14 words (7 x 2), earth occurs 21 times (7 x3), God 35 times (7 x 5), 'And God saw' 7 times) and tens (the following phrases all occur ten times: 'according to their kind', 'and God saied ...', 'let there be ...'), suggesting that the author have have had some [divine] help!

He then looks at the immense size of the universe from the very large (galaxies) to the very small (atoms and sub-atomic particles). In doing so he is able to draw out the incredible and awesomeness of the creation and brings glory to the Creator. The fine tuning of the universe is then briefly explained.

Edwin Abbot's Flatland analogy is then explored to make some excellent points. He suggests that it could unite science and faith, and predestination and freewill. Science is a circle in the 2D flatland, faith is a square; but in reality they may be 2D representations of a 3D cylinder.

He sees humans as being both spiritual and physical. We can't help but being spiritual - hence everything is spiritual. However, he doesn't really define what he means by 'spiritual'. I would like to have seen him develop this a little more. It is all well and good being spiritual (structure) but how are we to develop and embody it (direction).

There are a number of small errors that Bell makes in the science, these have been identified here. These don't however, detract from his main points. There is nothing new or ground-breaking on this DVD and there are numerous of resources that Bell has drawn upon, including Henri Blocher and Nahum Sarna on Genesis, Hugh Ross and George Schroeder on science and Genesis and Abbott's Flatland. But what Bell does is make it all accessible, fascinating, intriguing and very watchable and in the end it stirred up a response to worship our amazing Creator.

Available in the UK from
eden
wesley owen

Putting Jesus in His Place - book review

Putting Jesus in His Place The Case for the Deity of Christ
Robert M. Bowman Jr and J. Ed Komoszewski
Kregel Publications 2007
ISBN 978-0-8254-2983-5
£11.99; pbk; 392 pp

What do we think of Jesus? That is perhaps the most important question ever asked. There have been a myriad of answers: a rebel Pharisee (Hyam Maccoby), a failed Jewish revolutionary (H S Reimarius), a magician (Morton Smith), a great moral teacher and example (E Renan), a social worker (Edward Norman), a man who never was (G A Wells), the husband of Mary Magdalene (Barbara Thiering), a myth for our time (Don Cupit) or divine but not human (Docetism), human but not divine (Ebionitism) and God incarnate, human and divine.

No historian denies the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth, what is more controversial is his divinity. As F F Bruce wrote: "The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the 'Christ-myth' theories." The case for the deity of Christ is clearly presented in this book by Bowman and Komoszewski.

The authors use the acronym HANDS to examine the evidence for the deity of Christ:

Honours: Jesus shares the honours of God
Attributes: Jesus shares the attributes of God
Names: Jesus shares the names of God
Deeds: Jesus shares the deeds that God does
Seat: Jesus shares the seat of God's throne

The book is split into five parts, each part examines one of the aspects outlined above.

The honours shared by Jesus and God include: worship and prayer; the attributes shared include preexistence, being eternal, uncreated; the shared names include: I Am, first and last, alpha and omega, saviour, King of kings, Lord of lords; the deeds include: creating, speaking with divine authority, forgiving sins, ruling over the forces of nature; the seat includes: claiming to be equal with God, ruling over all things and ruling forever.

It provides an excellent overview of the divinity of Christ drawing upon biblical and non-biblical sources. It provides a powerful and compelling cumulative case for the deity of Christ.

There are 75 pages of notes, two pages of recommended resources and a 26-page Scripture index. There is also an accompanying website, here, with further resources.

The book is very accessible, in terms of reading, layout (lots of nice tables) and price!

Available in the UK from:
Amazon
Book depository
Wesley Owen

Apostolic Networks in Britain by William Kay - book review

Apostolic Networks in Britain
New ways of Being Church
William K. Kay
Paternoster: Milton Keynes, 2007
ISBN 978-1-84227-409-5
£29.99; pbk; xxii + 377 pp.

William Kay, Director of the centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies at Bangor, is a prolific author, editor of Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association and an ordained minister in the Assemblies Of God. He has written widely in the area of faith development of young people, religious education and on the Pentecostal movement. Here he turns his attention to a movement parallel to the Pentecostal movement: apostolic networks. He combines his extensive knowledge of the charismatic movement with empirical studies and has provided an almost exhaustive study of the contemporary so-called 'new church' scene.

When I was involved with the charismatic movement in the early eighties to mid nineties, these churches were called house churches - the name was indicative of its origins rather than descriptive, as most met in school halls, cinemas or sports centres. Now it seems they are calling themselves new churches. This too is a misnomer, the newer churches are those of the emergent movement. Kay uses the better description 'apostolic networks'.

Usually the last move of God is the worst enemy of the next. Pentecostals usually don't get on with charismatics - and here we have a Pentecostal putting the new churches under the theological and sociological magnifying glass, and it is done in a sympathetic and understanding way. No one can say that Kay has not done his homework, I would also find it hard to believe that any of those networks or apostles examined here would say that Kay has misrepresented them or misunderstood them - all of it resonates with my experience of apostolic networks.

First he traces their history (chs 1-2). Starting, as most histories of the charismatic movement do, with Smith Wigglesworth's prophecy to David Du Plessis, through Arthur Wallis and then the Fountain Trust to the streams associated with Restoration magazine (R1) and Fullness magazine (R2). Now we have a whole range of Rs!

Kay examines 12 apostolic networks in detail (chs 3-14); the 'apostles' are: Bryn Jones, Terry Virgo, Barney Coombs, Tony Morton, Roger Forster, Gerald Coates, Stuart Bell, Colin Dye, Noel Stanton, John Wimber, Colin Urquhart and Hugh Osgood. Here he provides a brief biography of the apostle some observations on the network and then some concluding remarks. Most of this section is drawn form interviews with the apostle and members of their churches. Kay isn't over-critical and is generally positive and I would have liked to have seen a little more constructive criticism and critique.

Several key themes are then explored in the 'Crossflows' section (chs 15-17), including the cell movement and the Toronto blessing. Most of the networks have cells but are not cell churches and all have to a greater or lesser extent experienced the Toronto blessing, that came out of the Toronto Airport Church in the nineties. Part IV (chs 18-20) contains a qualitative analysis. this includes a look at the theology, mission and sociology. With the exception of perhaps Terry Virgo's network the majority are arminian in outlook. There is a brief discussion on what is an apostle. The main emphasis is on being a church planter. The discussion is unlikely to persuade those who believe that Apostles disappeared with the early church. Is there a difference between NT Apostles and contemporary apostles? In Part V (ch 21- 24) is a summary of the results of an extensive qualitative analysis. This is based on a questionnaire sent to 647 leaders in the networks. There was a 48.8% response rate. The questionnaire was based on one Kay sent to Pentecostal pastors in the late 1990s.

Interestingly, Kay believes that the number of apostolic network churches are far fewer that have previously been estimated (around 2,000 according to Religious Trends no 3). The 12 networks Kay examines comprise 647 congregations. Obviously, there are a larger number than these, for example independent new churches such as those very loosely associated with South Chard (Sid Purse, Harry Greenwood, Ian Andrews, Roger Price) and with Brother North's (GWN) 'circuit' (eg, those in Liverpool, Lanark, Exeter, Reading and Rora House, Devon). North is an interesting and influential character - Kay describes his as a proto-apostle. Those who were originally associated with him were Dave Tomlinson, Alan Vincent, Peter Parris and Bryn Jones.

The questionnaires reveal some interesting results. The mean age of congregational leaders is 47, and the range of ages is 25-72. The vast majority are male (85%) and most do not hold with women elders. Most of the leaders had some Christian background and upbringing but had very little full-time or part-time residential training. 75% spoke in tongues everyday and 86% read their Bibles daily. Only five of the networks had more baptisms than funerals. One-fifth of the congregations contain more than 50 adults and 5.1% of the congregations are over 350 adults. Kay summarises: "The networks are more alike than different..." (p. 312). Church growth and charismata is the subject of ch 22. Here Kay concludes that Charismatic activity both from the leaders and the congregation is associated with church growth and that ministerial evangelism is important but is not associated with church growth.

There is an extensive (15 page) bibliography which is an invaluable resource - as is the whole book - for future researchers. Few other book length studies of his aspect of the contemporary scene have been published.

Kay has provided a comprehensive and extensive - if not exhaustive - study of apostolic networks and it is a must read for anyone involved in the networks and those researching the movement. It also has the added advantage of being very readable and accessible. I throughly enjoyed reading it. It forms part of Paternoster's excellent Studies in Evangelical History and Thought series.

Publisher's site here.
Wipf and Stock

Available from

• Wesley Owen
• amazon UK
• Book depository

The mystery of life's origins - free download

The King's promise

My mum died on Sunday - this is the reason for the lack of recent blogging. Among her things I came across an "Active Service" Testament, which must have belonged to her uncle who died in WWI. In it was this letter:It reads:

Windsor Castle

November 18th 1912.

Dear Sir,

I have had the honour of submitting your letter of the 15th inst; to the King, and I am directed to inform you, in reply. It is quite true that he promised Queen Alexandra as long ago as 1881 that he would read a chapter of the Bible daily, and that he has ever since adhered to this promise.

Your very truly,

Francis Brading Esq.

The King is Edward VII.

For Us and for Our Salvation - book review

For Us and For Our Salvation:
The Doctrine of Christ in the Early Church
Stephen J. Nichols
Crossway Books, Illinos, 2007
ISBN 978-58134-867-5


I bought this book on the strength of one effusive review. I wasn’t disappointed.

For many Christology and the early church is a boring topic – there are too many –isms (or should that be –wasms) to get confused with. If that is your view then a read of Nichols's book will be an ideal antidote. He has a habit of making complicated ideas and theories accessible and fascinating – boring it’s not. Church history can be fun!

The book comprises six chapters. Chapters 2, 4 and 6 consist of selected key documents from the proponents and advocates for the views he discusses in the odd numbered chapters.

The first chapter looks at the early centuries. The baddies here are the Ebionites, Marcion, Valentius, Theodotus the Cobbler, Paul of Samosa, ‘Praxeas’ and Sabbellius; the goodies: Ignatius, Irenaeus, Tertullian and Hippolytus. During this period the issue was the divinity of Christ (denied by the Ebionites, the adoptionists such as Paul of Samosa and Theodotus aka the Cobbler)) and the humanity of Christ (denied by the docetists such as Valentius and Marcion).

I particularly appreciated the placing of these heresies within the cultural milieu. The ground motive of Platonism has much to answer for. As Nichols puts it:

The docetists, imbibing too much Platonism for their own good, simply could not allow for a human, fleshly Christ. (p 33)

Before 312 AD the enemies of orthodoxy were largely without, since then the enemies of the church have also been within. Chapter 3 looks at the issues surrounding the ‘battle at Nicea’ (325).

Here the hero is Athanatius and the villain Arius. The debate seemingly over the inclusion or not of a single letter i: homoousias (Athanasius) or homoiousias (Arius).

Contrary to Dan Brown and the DaVinci Code the vote at the council of Nicea was not close – only three voted against, when between 250 and 300 bishops voted for. It did not mean that Jesus’ divinity was established by a vote; it confirmed and strongly affirmed what the vast majority of church fathers knew anyway.

The Council of Nicea didn’t fully settle the issue it was six decades before the Arian influence declined and orthodoxy triumphed. Fortunately Athanasius had some allies: the Cappodocians, Gregory, Basil and Gregory. Jesus' divinity and humanity was affirmed; this however led to a new set of problems which leads us to Chalcedon.

Chapter 5 looks at Leo the Great and Chalcedon. The Chalcedon Council brought together ' the two natures of Christ, his full humanity and his full deity, into one undivided, unconfused and unmixed person' (p. 99): two natures in one person. Leo was no stranger to danger - he faced Attila the Hun and came out unscathed. More intellectual enemies were the Appollinarians, who he faced in the lead up to the Council of Chalcedonin 451. Apollinarius (d 392) and his subsequent followers maintained that Christ has one nature and one person, 'a God-man without a clearly defined and distinct humanity and deity' (p. 103). The Cappodocian Fathers had battled with Apollinarianism, but despite that Apollinarius's teachings still found a stronghold among some. The Council of Chalcedon was to deal a death blow to the Apollinarians and Leo's formulation of two natures in one person' was to prevail. The story is well told by Nichols, who manages to make it live.

This is an excellent primer on the early Christians creeds and Christology. I highly recommend it as a great place to start. The addition of primary sources is an extra treat and this provides an accessible way into the Church Fathers.

Further details here

Available in the UK from:

• amazon
• book depository

Does science make belief in God obsolete?

The Templeton Foundation are asking big questions: Does science make belief in God obsolete?
The responses include: Yes, if by ... from Steven Pinker, No and yes by Cardinal Schonborn, Absolutely not! by William D Phillips, Of course not by Mary Midgeley, No, but it should from Christopher Hitchens and Yes by Victor J Stenger.

More on post-charismatic?

There is some debate on the origins of the term post-charismatic, the title of Rob McAlpine's book (see my review below). Apparently jonnybaker and Doug Gay used it in their book Alternative Worship and Gerald Coates used it in 2001, Timothy Miller edited a book with Postcharismatic in the title, but the first use could perhaps be traced back to John Wimber who used it in the eighties (unless anyone knows otherwise?).

Here are some reviews of Post-charismatic?:

• Brother Maynard - who gets a few name checks in the book and has provided a typology of what the term post-charismatic might mean.
• Charis Shalom
• Captain Collo
• Jason Clark
• Chrisendom
• whatever you do

Any others?

Post-Charismatic? Book review

Post Charismatic?
Rob McAlpine
David C Cook, Kingsway Communication, 2008
£9.99; 349 pp.
ISBN 978 1 84291 350 5



We have post-everything and post-anything, now we have post-charismatic. Post-charismatic has a range of meanings. John Wimber used it to mean the charismatic renewal was over. Here McAlpine – better known as Robby Mac - uses it to mean not non- or anti-charismatic or even post-Spirit, but moving on beyond the charismatic, beyond its excesses.

I would regard myself as a post-charismatic. I’ve been involved as a leader in a small independent house church and then moved to a much larger house/ new church that eventually became part of Gerald Coates's Pioneer movement. There were a number of reasons why I left, not least being the power struggles and latent dualism. I joined the local Anglican church – where I still belong. Most who have left the charismatic movement have become disillusioned and have given up on church if not God. It is to these people that McAlpine’s books is addressed. It is a timely message.

He starts by giving a brief overview of the history of the charismatic movement. A number of key people are omitted (this is inevitable in something less than a PhD thesis! Notable omissions are Edward Irving and Alexander Boddy). It is a good sympathetic overview. He traces its origins from Wesley, through the Keswick-holiness movements to the birth of the Pentecostal churches through the 60s/70s charismatic wave and then the more Reformed third wave of Wimber et al.

McAlpine then looks at several of the excesses of what could be called charismania. These include the Latter Rain movement, Prosperity and healing, and Covering and authority. Each of these takes up a chapter. What I found fascinating was the influence of the Latter Rain teachings in subsequent movements. The Latter Rain 'prophets' included William Branham, George Warnock and Franklin Hall; the teachings that had a lot of influence include:

• Restorationism - God is restoring to the church truths that have been lost for centuries
• Five-fold ministry - the restoration of the Eph 4 'ascension gifts' to the church
• Laying on of hands - to impart spiritual gifts
• Prophecy - the emphasis on the prophetic gift
• Recovery of true worship - ie the restoration of David's tabernacle
• Immortalisation of the saints - some would embrace immortality before the return of Jesus
• The unity of the church - the church will become a unity before the second coming
• The manifest sons of God - the church will become the ongoing incarnation of Jesus.

An interesting question would be where did the "Latter Rain" get these ideas from?

The final part, Spirit and praxis, seeks to reflect on these excesses and bring pastoral insight for those hurt by them. McApine writes carefully and irenically even when criticising the excesses - he does it out of a heart of love. There is no doubt that God has moved through the charismatic movement. He has used it to restore a sense of worship and intimacy. The danger is that these gains can easily be lost in the excesses that all too often it demonstrated. McAlpine writes to all those disillusioned with the charismatic and seeks to provide a way for them to reintegrate the Spirit and word. Without one we dry up and without the other we blow up.

Available from:
Equipping the Church (Kingsway)
Amazon.co.uk
David Cook Distribution Canada
Amazon.ca

Good technology, bad technology

This week's Comment has an interesting piece on technology by Wan Phek How of Regent College: 'Good technology. bad technology: how do we tell the difference?'. He asks:

Are these criteria—uninterrupted availability, personalization, standardization, modularity, ease of maintenance—sufficient to determine whether or not a particular technology is ultimately good?

Pagan Christians

This is a brilliant spoof advert for Frank Viola's book Pagan Christians.
See my review here.



[HT Nathan Gann]

Coming soon ...

... a new book on worldview by Mike Goheen and Craig Bartholomew:



[HT Dave Beldman]

Our World Belongs to God

Jon Swales has found an on-line version of this contemporary statement. (click on the image for the link)

In a Christian school I used to teach in we used to say the first part of this as part of our school assembly.

Preamble

1. As followers of Jesus Christ,
living in this world—
which some seek to control,
but which others view with despair—
we declare with joy and trust:
Our world belongs to God!

Current reading

Kuyper's Days of Glad Tidings - Pentecost

Jack Van Meggelen has translated Abraham Kuyper's Days of Glad Tidings - Pentecost (with Ascension Day) vol. III (translated from Dagen van Goede Boodschap -Op den Pinksterdag (Met Hemelvaart). J.A. Wormser: Amsterdam, 1888). It is now available on All of life redeemed at the Kuyper pages.

John Martyn

Searching journal contents

Searching journal contents suddenly got easier with:

• Index theologicus [HT Between two worlds] and
• James P Boyce Centennial Library [HT yet again Between two worlds]

Mark Roques

Mark Roques is interviewed by Amy Stock on schoolswork. If you click on the orange 'listen now' button, it will open up this - click on the may podcast - Mark starts about 3 minutes in.

Update: click on mp3 and you'll hear the full interview with Mark.

God and Richard Dawkins

BeThinking has a mp3 of John Lennox on God and Richard Dawkins (over 28 MB) from 2005. (HT Between two worlds)

Mike Goheen pages

I have now added the Mike Goheen pages to All of life redemeed. (My thanks for the help to Dave Beldman.)

Mike is professor of Worldview and Religion Studies at Trinity Western University, Langley BC, Canada. The site includes links to most of Mike's papers that available on-line. Including his PhD dissertation on Lesslie Newbigin.

Calvin Seerveld interview

Calvin Seerveld is interviewed by Comment. It is a fascinating insight into the life and work of an academic, an author, an artist and a pop song writer.

Faith and Force: Book review

FAITH AND FORCE: A Christian Debate about War by David Clough and Brian Stiltner. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2007. 304 pages, bibliography and index. Paperback; $26.95. ISBN: 9781589011656.

Faith and Force is an unfortunate title for this book. The “and” gives the impression of two separate areas of life; faith is not a separate area because it permeates all of life. However, this title was chosen, I suspect, for its alliteration rather than its theological purpose as both authors seek to show how their faith integrates with their different positions.

David Clough and Brian Stiltner have produced an excellent and innovative book. They come from different perspectives as well as different sides of the Atlantic. Clough, a Methodist at St. John’s College, Durham, UK, expounds and defends a pacifist position. Stiltner, a Roman Catholic at Sacred Heart University, USA, takes a just war position.

The impetus for this book is the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Two friends found themselves on opposing sides of the debate and long e-mail debates ensued. These debates formed the basis of Faith and Force. Each of the chapters is co-written and then followed by the e-mail type discussions which retain much of a conversational character and highlight agreements and disagreements.

The key questions addressed are: When, if at all, is it right for a country to go to war? Should a person serve in the armed forces? How much money, if any, is legitimate to spend on the military? These are urgent questions since millions of lives and dollars are at stake.
Along the way, clear and insightful discussions are directed at topics like developing a war-ethic (chap. 1), the issue of weapons’ proliferation (chap. 4), and the menace of terrorism (chap. 5).
It is a little disappointing for this neo-Calvinist not to see any major interaction with Reformed authors on the just war position as it avoids the problems of a natural law approach. Nevertheless, this book is highly recommended, not only for its ethical discussion, but also as a model for debate and discussion. Ethics involves a reflective and dialogic process and these aspects are exemplified in this book. The authors have provided useful resources in thinking about the ethical issues of war from two different Christian traditions.

Despite my reservations with the book’s title, it would be great to see a series of books using this as a model such as Faith and Global Warming, Faith and Evolution; though I suspect these debates might not be as cordial as this particular book.

Steve Bishop

Published in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith March (2008)

Publisher's details here

Book website here

Science and Grace: Book review

SCIENCE AND GRACE: God’s Reign in the Natural Sciences by Tim Morris and Don Petcher. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2006. 352 pages. Paperback; $17.99. ISBN: 1581345496.

Tim Morris and Don Petcher, professors at Covenant College, have had a long-term interest in the relationship between science and their Christian commitment. It was this interest that led them to create “Science in Perspective,” a course at Covenant College, and it was out of this course that this book developed. Both write from a Reformed perspective and yet this book would appeal to Christians of any persuasion and even to open-minded non-Christians.

The book is split into three sections. The first section looks at “Science and Christian belief in the postmodern context.” What is refreshing about this chapter is that the authors take postmodernism seriously and do not write it off as a philosophical aberration that science will eventually disprove.

Chapter 3 looks at five “dissenters,” Christians who have rejected the Enlightenment Project of the neutrality and objectivity of reason and therefore of science: Blaise Pascal, Johann Georg Hamann, Charles Hodge, Abraham Kuyper, and Herman Dooyeweerd. All of these dissenters agree that there is a need to reconsider the role of faith in relation to reason. Faith commitments are important in the development of science. If there are two different kinds of science—that of the believer and that of the nonbeliever—then how can we work together? Morris and Petcher answer: common grace.

Section two examines “Jesus Christ, the Lord of creation” and considers God’s relation to his creation. Chapter 4 looks at the Trinitarian character of God and his covenant with his creation. The extremes of immanentism or pantheism and transcendence or deism are avoided. The Trinitarian God works in the creation in a covenantal way. This means that the world is not a predictable machine. The next chapter looks at the concept of miracles and God’s freedom in the universe. Morris and Petcher rightly regard miracles as being part of God’s providence; a miracle is an “outworking of God’s purposes.” In the final chapter in this section, “The laws of nature and the gospel of grace,” they see the laws as a “faithful unfolding of God’s covenant promises” that reflect creation’s creatureliness and contingency.

The final section, “Investigating his dominion,” analyzes our place in the “doing” of science. The authors ask, “What does loving God and neighbor entail in the natural sciences?” They see science as an opportunity for obedience to the great commandment (Mark 12:30–31). It is a refreshing and inspiring perspective. Materialism and reductionism are resisted and they capture the wildness of creation that has been lost in the “Modern domesticated version” of science.

Throughout the final section is a lot of wisdom and wise advice, for example: “the use of scientific evidence in apologetics may inadvertently cede to science the ultimate truth authority” (p. 270) and “our ultimate allegiance as scientists is not to our scientific disciplines as such but to Christ’s church” (p. 191).

The penultimate chapter looks at “The kingdom of Christ and the culture of science”; science is seen as “a cultural enterprise that reflects God’s favor and yet calls for His judgment at the same time” (p. 306). The final chapter provides a clarion call for Christians to work out their science in the context of their Christian commitments. There are twenty-four pages of notes, a bibliography of 149 works and an eight-page index.

This is one of the best books on science and Christianity I have read. If you only read one book on science and Christianity this year, make it this one. The authors take seriously Kuyper’s claim that there is no inch of secular life that Christ does not declare, “It is mine.” They look at what this claim might mean for the biological and physical sciences, but as they do so, it has implications for all of the sciences—theology included. This is a book that demands slow, careful, and prayerful study for any Christian involved in academic study.

Steve Bishop

Published in Perspectives on Science and Faith March 2008.

More details here.

John Calvin rediscovered

James Bratt discusses a book he co-edited: John Calvin Rediscovered: The Impact of His Social and Economic Thought (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2007): mp3

The religious heritage of rights talk: Witte and Wolterstorff

John Witte Jr and Nicholas Wolterstorff discuss religion and human rights. Quicktime movie (228 MB) and mp3 (59 MB). This was a CCCS sponsored event.

The kingdom as Jubilee

‘Jesus’ concept of the kingdom was borrowed extensively from the prophetic understanding of the Jubilee year’ J H Yoder (Politics of Jesus p. 36)

God’s work in creation set a precedence: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, rest; this is seen in the Sabbath day Deut 5;12-15 and the Sabbath year Lev 25:17

Barnabas (Paul’s apostolic companion) takes it further in The Epistle of Barnabas 13: 3, 4, he writes:

‘... And God made in 6 days the work of his hands; and he finished them on the seventh day, and he rested the seventh day, and snctified it. Consider my children, what this signifies he finished them in six days. The meaning of it is this; that in
6, 000 years the Lord God will bring all things to an end.’

Sabbath year of sabbath years = Jubilee Lev 25:8ff extra rest!

4 themes characterise Jubilee:
(i)rest
(ii)forgiveness of debts
(iii) liberation of slaves and the oppressed
(iv) redemption of property

Jesus and jubilee
Lk 4: 18,19 Jesus’ first public sermon – announcing the arrival of the kingdom – couched in jubilee terms

It is claimed that AD 26 was the actual year of the Jubilee – the jubilee age has arrived.

1. Celebration (jubilation) (Lev 25 v 9) - sounding of the trumpet: a proclamation everyone around knew about it.
2. Atonement (v 9) - all that we do rests upon what Jesus has accomplished in and through the cross.
3. Family (v 10) - all returned to their families; the oppressed go free
4. Work/ rest (v 11) - our work is shaped by obedience to God; the importance of rest - no workaholism here!
5. Reliance upon God (v 12) unless God blesses we starve!
6. Economics (v 14ff) land (v )- the gospel is for all of life, it affects how we buy and sell, the economic powers etc: all of life is to be redeemed.
7. Release from debt - 'forgive us our debts'. Debts were forgiven. Good news for the poor.
8. Stewardship of the land (v 23) - environmental concern
8. Care (v 35).
9. Above all it was a restoration - people were restored, redeemed.

Release and restoration characterises the jubilee themes - a message taken up when Jesus declared jubilee (aka the year of the Lord's favour) in Lk 4.

Eschatalogical anticipation - a foretaste of the 'not yet' now. Echoes of the exodus too (v 8, 55, etc)

Rest

Lk 12:22-31 cf Lev 25: 20-22.
There is much emphasis in our society on work – but not enough on rest. Paul Marshall writes:

This rest is more than recuperation and preparation for work. It is a God-given human response in its own right.

We are the image of God – God works and then he rests.

Rest is not just what we do in our spare time, it’s not just a holiday, or a day off; it is so much more:

Hebrews 3:7-4:10
sabbath rest

We rest from out labours – in more than one sense of the word. Rest is a reminder that we can’t do it in our own strength.

When most people ‘rest’ we consume; the numbers in the mall are testimony to that fact. I’m no different, I hate the mall, but I love amazon!


Forgiveness and liberation

Lk 11: 4 release (aphiemi) our debts (opheilema = monetary debts); as we release everyone that is indebted to us ie practice Jubilee

Mt 18: 23 the kingdom of heaven is like... Jubilee!
verse 27 aphiemi
(aphiemi LXX in Lev 25)

Redemption of property
land = wealth, capital
Lk 12: 32-34 sell your possessions and give to the poor
Mk 10:21 rich young ruler ‘ practice jubilee’
Lk 19: 8-10 Zacheus

The implications of Jubilee

1. It is God’s new order bursting in
economic, social, religious, political, ... cf Gal 3: 28

All areas under the influence of Jubilee – hence and image of the kingdom.

2. It shows God’s concern for the poor and oppressed

Provision for the poor:
(i)0% interest rate
(ii) third year tithe given to the poor
(iii) debts were cancelled every seven years
(iv)debtors sold into slavery were to be released every seven years
(v)fallow land was available for the poor

Jubilee prevented exploitation of the poor and oppressed – it not only provided for them it gave the a new start.

Early Israel was an egalitarian society. Later the gap between rich and poor increased; they moved away for the jubilee principles (Is 58; Amos 2:6)
It prevented Israel becoming permanent slaves.

3. It shows God’s concern for the earth
‘the land is mine’ underlines the Jubilee
It is a reminder that we are stewards
It enabled the land and the animals to rest.

4. Restoration
Amos 3:21 restoration of all things
Rom 8, Rev 21 the whole earth is to experience release and liberty – at the Jubilee of Jubilees!



Bibliography

R.B. Sloan, Jr, The Favourable Year of the Lord: A Study of Jubilary Theology in the Gospel of Luke. Schola Press: Austin, Texas, 1977. Pp. 213

Dooyeweerd study guides

I have recently resumed my study guides to two of Dooyeweerd's books:

• The Christian Idea of the State and
• A Christian Theory of Social Institutions

I also intend to return to Roots of Western Culture guide shortly.

Two other study guides in progress are:

• Roy Clouser's Knowing with the Heart by Gregory Baus and
• Jim Skillen's The Scattered Voice by Derek Melleby

Odds and sods

• The soon to be released ESV Study Bible has a web site and more details.
• Doug Groothuis on the "new" atheism.
• UK Christian bookshops now have a blog
• so too do the Evangelical Philosophical Society.
• For the latest Accordance news click here.

A brief musical interlude ....

From the new DVD.
The UNcon was the first time that Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage, Tim Blake, Gilli Smyth, Mike Howlett, Miquette Giraudy and Didier Malherbe had all been together on stage and performed since the 1977 Gong reunion in Paris.

J P A Mekkes on Reformational wiki

Rudi Hayward has posted a useful brief biography of J P A Mekes (1898-1987) and an outline of his thought on Reformational wiki. After a spell in a POW camp, Mekkes worked for the Dutch equivalent of the FBI and then became on of the first professors appointed by the Association for Calvinistic Philosophy. He influenced Bob Goudzwaard, Dick Stafleu and Egbert Schuurman among others.

McKnight on work

Scot McKnight is working through Darrell Codsen's excellent little book on work: The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work.

I'm really pleased that Scot is drawing this book to people's attention. It's one of the few books that treats work as being worthwhile in itself and not viewing work as a just a mission field, a place to share the gospel.

B J van der Walt Transformed ch 4

Taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ

This is the fifth in a series of posts looking at B J van der Walt’s Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind (ICCA: Potchesftroom, 2001)

• Overview
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3

In this chapter van der Walt attempts to ‘explain what Christian scholarship entails’. It is not an easy task – either explaining it or doing it. However, it is an essential task!

He starts by looking at the importance and character of education. He describes it thus:

Education ... always implies a deliberate and conscious attempt on the part of the educator to lead the child, student or adult to a particular goal according to certain norms. To educate means to exert real formative power and to give actual direction to the development of the individual. Education, therefore, is a normative task – even in the case of those who deny this fact in their propogation of so-called neutral education (p. 131)

He then looks at the nature of higher (tertiary) education and the difference between everyday pre-theoretical thought and scientific thought. A simple but apposite illustration shows the difference:

Who knows more about the sick baby: the mother or the medical doctor? The answer of course that neither knows more: the mother and doctor have different forms of knowledge of the sick baby. Intuitively and pre-scientifically the mother suspects that her baby has chickenpox. The doctor’s scientific training, however, enables him to diagnose it definitely as chickenpox.(p 135)

Before looking at how to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ, van der Walt examines some common misconceptions in practising Christian scholarship: the dualistic, modernistic and postmodernistic approaches.

In the dualistic view the Christian is both a Christian and a scholar. It is not always easy to keep these together. In the moderistic approach science is viewed as being neutral, the application of the correct scientific method will guarantee neutrality. However, as van der Walt shows, this is false: religious presuppositions are part of every scientific process. The postmodernistic approach with its emphasis on a pluralism of stories is a far more subtle and dangerous than the previous two. Christianity is now merely one of the many different ‘acceptable’ approaches. This means sacrificing the word of God on the altar of postmodern relativism.

Dualistic approaches seek to unit Christianity and the sciences, a modernistic approach rejects Christianity for the sake of science and postmodernistic approaches accept Christianity as one of many equally valid approaches. Whereas, a Christian approach seeks to transform the sciences. Christianity is not an icing on the cake (to evoke the title of another book) but permeates the whole of the cake – like salt or yeast. Every science should be practised in the light of God.

He identifies five stages in Christian scholarship which are summarised in the diagram below.


Christian scholarship should be ‘marked by fidelity to God’s revelation’. This is the light that illuminates our ‘scientific filters’.

In the next section he looks at the role of the Bible and how it is authoritative and how it is a light. He concludes this chapter with a look at the place of theology in its relationship to philosophy. Theology is an ordinary scientific discipline with limited authority.

Tom Wright in the NewStatesman

Tom Wright is interviewed in the NewStatesman by Sholto Brynes:

Tom Wright's literal belief in the Resurrection makes him a hero to conservative Christians worldwide. Here he declares war on militant atheists and liberals, and explains why heaven is not the end of the world.

Sunday's coming ....

[HT Christian thinker]

André Troost 1916-2008

André Troost was one of the second generation reformational scholars. He died on 19th March 2008.

He was born in 1916 in the Netherlands. He studied theology at the Theological Seminary in Kampen and at the Free University (VU) in Amsterdam. His PhD, obtained in 1958, was on casuistics and situation ethics (casuïstiek en situatie-ethiek). He was a pastor from 1946. From 1958 to 1967 he looked after the pastoral needs of students in Rotterdam. In 1964 he became a professor in socila ethics at the VU and then in 1967 as professor of general ethics. He became the professor for Calvinistic philosophy at Rotterdam in 1972.

He is the author of The Christian Ethos (translated into English by Kobus and Yvonne Smith) (Bloemfontein: Patmos, 1983).
'The idea of creation order in Western thought' Theological Forum XXI (4) (1993).

Tom Wright: heaven is not our home

More from Tom Wright on heaven and bodily resurrection - this time from Christianity Today.

There is no agreement in the church today about what happens to
people when they die. Yet the New Testament is crystal clear on the matter: In a classic passage, Paul speaks of "the redemption of our bodies" (Rom. 8:23). There is no room for doubt as to what he means: God's people are promised a new type of bodily existence, the fulfillment and redemption of our present bodily life. The rest of the
early Christian writings, where they address the subject, are completely in tune with this.

AoLR update

The following have recently been added to All of life redeemed:

Mark Roques and Arthur Jones:

• What is Distinctive about the Reality Bites Approach to Schools Work? I. Telling the Stories of Culture-Transforming Christians


• What’s Distinctive about the Reality Bites Approach to Schools Work? II. Engaging in ‘Immanent Critique’ of Secularism

Duncan Roper 'The earth as a garden for all creatures' (2008) Stimulus

Craig Bartholomew on AoLR

I have now added - thanks to Dave Beldman - the Craig Bartholomew pages on All of life redeemed. Craig is the H. Evan Runner Professor of Philosophy and Biblical Studies at Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada.

At present there is a list of Craig's articles and books with links to several of his papers on the web.

Why was Jesus crucified?

Introduction
One of the questions that has occupied the "Third Questers" is: Why was Jesus crucified? A myriad of ideas have been proposed. Almost all agree that Jesus was "crucified under Pontius Pilate".

Of one thing we can be sure the cross was not a mistake! It was essential to the purpose and plan of God in redeeming his creation. Why did Jesus die? "Because God willed it!" The answer to our question will also depend upon who we ask: the crowd, the Jewish leaders, the Romans and Jesus (as well as the myriad of theologians and historians through the ages) would all give different answers. Reality is multifaceted.

Martin Hengel (1977) summarises his survey of crucifixion as follows:

• Crucifixion was widespread in the first century
• Crucifixion was a political and military punishment
• It was used because of its powerful effect as a deterrent
• It satisfied the lust for revenge
• It represented the uttermost humiliation, aggravated by the fact that the victims were rarely buried
• The Romans used it on all dangerous criminals and members of the lower classes.

We can be sure then that Jesus died the death of a victim of a political system. The death of Jesus marks God's solidarity with the oppressed. Commenting on this Richard Bauckham says: "It is as one of the victims that in his love he reaches all of us."

An Overview of the Literature
S. G. F. Brandon (1967) regarded Jesus as a revolutionary sympathiser who was killed as a messianic pretender. Hyam Maccoby (1986), who claims Jesus was a Pharisee, thinks that by asking why a Jew from Galilee would meet an end on a Roman cross. Galilee, perhaps because it was not under direct Roman rule, had been a centre of rebellion (a point also made by Vermes). This leads Maccoby to conclude that Jesus was the latest in a line of rebels; he therefore suffered the same fate as Judas of Galilee and his supporters: he was crucified by the Romans on a charge of sedition.

Ed Sanders totally undermines Brandon's and Maccoby's arguments when he notes that Jesus' disciples weren't rounded up and likewise executed. The disciples remaining free implies that Jesus was not crucified for revolutionary intent against Rome.

For Geza Vermes (1973), Jesus is a first-century charismatic Jew, a "paramount example of the early Hasidim or Devout", others included Hanina ben Dosa and Honi the Cirle-Drawer. Vermes in an attempt to exonerate the Jews comments:

It was not on a Jewish religious indictment, but on a secular accusation that he was condemned by the emperor's delegate to die shamefully on the Roman cross.

That accusation was that "Jesus was a political agitator with pretensions to being the king of the Jews".

Ellis Rivkin (1984) thinks that we should not ask who but what crucified Jesus. His answer: "it emerges with great clarity, both from Josephus and the Gospels, that the culprit is not the Jews, but the Roman imperial system".

E. P. Sanders (1985), "a liberal, modern, secularized Protestant, brought up in a church dominated by the social gospel", in his seminal study Jesus and Judaism affirms two "facts": "Jesus was executed by the Romans as would-be 'king of the Jews', and his disciples subsequently formed a messianic movement which was not based on the hope of military victory". For Sanders two phrases are important: "physical demonstration" and "noticeable following". The physical demonstration was Jesus' "cleansing" of the temple: "simply speaking against the temple - prophesying its destruction - would lead to punishment and at least the threat of death". His noticeable following made it "expedient to kill Jesus, rather than flog him simply as a nuisance and release him".

Francis Watson (1985) with Sanders sees Jesus' attitude and actions towards the temple as the reason for his death. He regards the idea that Jesus was convicted on a purely religious charge and was condemned only reluctantly by Pilate as "historically highly unlikely", he contends that it was fabricated by Gentile Christians "who did not wish either themselves or their master to be regarded as political subversives". For Watson then, "The answer to the question of why Jesus was crucified seems to be his threat against the temple". He justifies this answer by examining the examples of other eschatological prophets that met with the same fate: John the Baptist(c AD30), Jesus the son of Ananias(c AD62), Theudas(c AD44/5), unnamed prophets that appeared during the procuratorship of Felix (AD 52-60) and an unnamed Egyptian.

It is highly unlikely that the threat to the temple is the only cause of Jesus' death; though it is one very important factor. If it were the controlling factor it is certain Luke would have made much more of the incident in the Temple.

N. T. Wright (1989) develops the view of Schweitzer. Schweitzer held the view that Jesus' death was a direct consequence of him taking upon himself the "messianic woes"; for Wright Jesus' death was the result/fulfilment of Jesus' outworking of his mission as a prophet, as announcer of the kingdom, as messiah, as the son returning to the vineyard. Jesus dies Israel's death and so is enthroned as Israel's king.

Wright offers the most convincing arguments for the death of Jesus. It is Jesus desire to redeem Israel (and the rest of creation) that sets him on a collision course with the Jewish leaders and the ruling Romans: his death was inevitable. For the Romans he represented a threat to the stability of Israel. For the Jews he attacked almost everything that made them Jewish: the temple, the sabbath, the laws of separation; his increasing popularity meant that he had to be disposed of. And for Jesus he was fulfilling the will of his Father who had sent him for such apurpose: he was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

Gustaf Aulen addressed this issue from the theological angle. In his seminal work he outlined two theories of atonement that dominated theological discussion for centuries: an objective model and a subjective model; associated with Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury (c.1033-1109) and the Frenchman Peter Abelard (1079-1142) respectively. Aulen also restated a third type of view the Christus Victor model, which received scant attention for centuries; this was largely because of the vehement controversy between the classic and the Latin models - each were only interested in scoring theological points off each other, hence a possible third - and more dramatic - view was ignored and neglected.

The Anselmian Latin model
This model was first formulated in Anselm's Cur Deus homo (Why Did God Become Human?). Put simply this "objective" view of the atonement sees God as the object of Christ's work on the cross: God is reconciled to humanity, by the substitutionary death of his son. Jesus died in our place, he suffered our punishment.

The Abelardian model
The subjective Abelardian model places the emphasis on the example of Jesus. The cross is a demonstration of God's love; and Jesus provides us with a perfect pattern for moral development. This model became dominant in the nineteenth century with the advent of rationalism and the accompanying scepticism of the miraculous.

The "classic" Christus victor model
This classic model was dominant for the first thousand years of Christianity. In it God is the reconciler and the reconciled: God in Christ is reconciling the world to himself. As in the Anselmian model humanity is in a desperate situation, they cannot save themselves. Unlike the Anselmian model the force from which humanity needs deliverance is not God's wrath, rather the bondage of demonic forces. Jesus' victorious conflict on the cross over the devil and his cohorts brings a new state of affairs: God is now reconciled with his creation.

Each view contains some grain of truth. The Anselmian view on its own is far too exclusively individualistic: emphasis is placed on personal sin but the presence of structural evil (e.g. sexism, racism, exploitation of the planet) are ignored. The Christus victor model is required to remedy this deficiency. The powers that lie at the heart of much of the structural sin are defeated by the cross on this model; thus enabling structural disobedience to be confronted. This view is also far too anthropocentric; again this deficiency is remedied by the Christus victor model: this provides theological justification for a cosmic reconciliation. Another deficiency in the Anselmian view is that it underestimates Jesus' life and ministry - this is the strength of the Abelardian view. Although taken alone the Abelardian view fails to deal adequately with the presence of evil (personal or structural).

None of the above theological views should be rejected they are all to varying degrees biblical (Christus victor more so and the Abelardian least so). However, it seems that neither view does justice to the corporate nature of the death of Christ: in Christ we all died, in Christ the cosmos is reconciled. Ultimately the cross is a paradox: in apparent defeat victory is completed; humanity in accepting the once-for-all death of Jesus is redeemed, the penalty paid, and creation can be once more reconciled to God It is fully appropriate that the cross has become the symbol of Christianity.

Blah: Walsh and Keesmat

Authors@Google: Tim Keller

[HT Reformissionary]

Why did Jesus [have to] die?

John Piper in his book available here lists 50 reasons:

The Past Accomplishment of Christ’s Work

Salvation From, Through, and to God

Chapter 1 – To Absorb the Wrath of God
Chapter 21 – To Reconcile Us to God
Chapter 24 – To Give Us Confident Access to the Holiest Place
Chapter 25 – To Become for Us the Place Where We Meet God

The Work of a Perfect Saviour

Chapter 2 – To Please His Heavenly Father
Chapter 3 – To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected
Chapter 4 – To Achieve His Own Resurrection from the Dead
Chapter 43 – To Unleash the Power of God in the Gospel

The Redemption of God’s Own Possession

Chapter 8 – To Become a Ransom for Many
Chapter 20 – To Deliver Us from the Present Evil Age
Chapter 23 – So That We Might Belong to Him
Chapter 42 – To Disarm the Rulers and Authorities

The Vindication of God’s Righteousness

Chapter 9 – For the Forgiveness of Our Sins
Chapter 10 – To Provide the Basis for Our Justification
Chapter 11 – To Complete the Obedience That Becomes Our Righteousness
Chapter 12 – To Take Away Our Condemnation

The Fulfilment of God’s Law

Chapter 7 – To Cancel the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us
Chapter 13 – To Abolish Circumcision and All Rituals as the Basis of Salvation
Chapter 26 – To Bring the Old Testament Priesthood to an End and Become the Eternal High Priest
Chapter 31 – So That We Would Die to the Law and Bear Fruit for God

The Present Experience of Christ’s Work

A New Self


Chapter 14 – To Bring Us to Faith and Keep Us Faithful
Chapter 15 – To Make Us Holy, Blameless, and Perfect
Chapter 30 – That We Might Die to Sin and Live to Righteousness
Chapter 34 – To Enable Us to Live by Faith in Him

A Living Faith

Chapter 32 – To Enable Us to Live for Christ and Not Ourselves
Chapter 33 – To Make His Cross the Ground of All Our Boasting
Chapter 36 – To Create a People Passionate for Good Works
Chapter 37 – To Call Us to Follow His Example of Lowliness and Costly Love

A Relationship of Love

Chapter 5 – To Show the Wealth of God’s Love and Grace for Sinners
Chapter 6 – To Show His Own Love for Us
Chapter 27 – To Become a Sympathetic and Helpful High Priest
Chapter 35 – To Give Marriage Its Deepest Meaning

A Freedom and Liberty in Life

Chapter 16 – To Give Us a Clear Conscience
Chapter 28 – To Free Us from the Futility of Our Ancestry
Chapter 29 – To Free Us from the Slavery of Sin
Chapter 39 – To Free Us from Bondage to the Fear of Death

A Hope for the Whole World

Chapter 38 – To Create a Band of Crucified Followers
Chapter 44 – To Destroy Hostility Between Races
Chapter 45 – To Ransom People from Every Tribe and Language and People and Nation
Chapter 46 – To Gather All His Sheep from Around the World

The Future Consummation of Christ’s Work

Final Victory Over Sickness and Death

Chapter 17 – To Obtain for Us All Things That Are Good for Us
Chapter 18 – To Heal Us from Moral and Physical Sickness
Chapter 40 – So That We Would Be with Him Immediately After Death
Chapter 41- To Secure Our Resurrection from the Dead

Eternal Life in the Presence of God

Chapter 19 – To Give Eternal Life to All Who Believe on Him
Chapter 22 – To Bring Us to God
Chapter 47 – To Rescue Us from Final Judgment

Eternal Joy in the Glory of Christ

Chapter 48 – To Gain His Joy and Ours
Chapter 49 – So That He Would Be Crowned with Glory and Honour

Logos for Mac alpha version

Logos for Mac is now out in alpha version. I downloaded a copy but all the resources I copied over have come out locked and I can't find a way to unlock them!

Odds and sods

Convert web pages to mp3 [HT Digital Inspiration]
Free G K Chesterton Orthodoxy mp3 [HT free Christian Resources]
The Passion timeline
10 essential Mac apps to install after a reformat to that list I'd want to add the brilliant pdf reader skim

Tim Keller on 'Belief in an age of skepticism' at the Veritas Forum:


[HT Reformissionary]

Music for a Sunday afternoon

Food for thought

[HT CRM]

Tyndale toolbar

At last a tool bar for Mozilla or ie (does anyone still use ie?)for biblical scholars and theologians; click on the image for a link:

The supremacy of Christ

John Piper on the prosperity gospel

Powerful stuff:



[HT reformergent]

Sigur Rós 'Heima' [At home]

A 97 min film of Sigur Rós playing live concerts 'at home' in Iceland:



[HT reformissionary]

Pagan Christianity - re-review

The nice people at http://www.ptmin.org/ have sent me a review copy of the new and expanded edition of Frank Viola’s Pagan Christianity. I reviewed the first edition here.

At first glance there are one or two changes – the cover now boasts a large ‘Pagan’ with roots growing out of it and is a major improvement on the bland green cover of the previous edition. George Barna is now a co-author, there is now a eleven-page bibliography (though only five have been written since the first edition – and of the five, four are by Barna or Viola; the rest reveal a distinct lack of primary sources). Other useful additions include a ‘delving deeper’ section at the end of each chapter, this is a brief Q&A – questions arising from the chapter are posed and answered.

The substance of the book is largely unchanged. They argue that many of church practices have their roots in paganism (he still doesn’t define what he means as pagan). There is much in this book that is insighful and helpful – he rightly identifies that much of what we do in what passes for church is not conducive to participation and interaction between fellow members of the body of Christ. My concern is that in the polemical tones of this book this message will be lost and ignored by those we need to hear it most.

The new edition has done nothing to alleviate my concerns stressed in my previous review:

It seems to me, though, that at times Viola is guilty of the genetic fallacy; it is wrong to condemn a practice based on its history, however dubious that history may be. The origin of something does not necessarily have any bearing upon its truth. Clothes are the direct result of rebellion against God – does that mean that wearing clothes is wrong? Practices must be damned or praised on their present merits not their previous history.

Why should we return to New testament models of church services or (non)buildings? Are the models intended to be normative or are they merely descriptive? Is Viola embracing some form of reverse chronological snobbery? It also assumes that we know what the first century church was like! The few glimpses we have in the New Testament hardly provide a blueprint; though they do provide some helpful pointers. And it does seem far away from what we have in the institutional churches today.

Elsewhere Viola has described what he perceives to be a NT church pattern it is broadly one that is modelled on 1 Corinthians. And I have great sympathy for this model. But how do we know if the the Corinthian model was used at Rome, Athens or Jerusalem? I suspect that the first-century practices are not quite so uniform as Viola thinks.

That said, I do believe Viola, despite the populist and polemical approach, has an important message for the body of Christ – I only hope those that need to hear it hear it and respond.

Christian Pat and his charismatic cat

[HT Paul Roberts]

Principles and positivization: Dooyeweerd and rational autonomy

Glenn Friessen replies to Michael J Moor:

This is a response to Michael J. DeMoor’s article “Rational Autonomy and Autonomous Rationality: Dooyeweerd, Kant and Fichte on Subjectivity, Objectivity and Normativity,” Philosophia Reformata 72 (2007) 105-129. DeMoor argues that although Dooyeweerd opposed Kant’s idea of the autonomy of thought, he nevertheless relied on the idea of rational autonomy for the active positivizing of norms. DeMoor finds similarities between Dooyeweerd and Fichte with respect to these three issues:

1. Our consciousness depends on reflexivity or self-consciousness;
2. The correlation between subjectivity and objectivity;
3. The autonomy or spontaneity of the agent, by which “binding norms are freely applied to oneself.”

Odds and sods

Bishop Tom Wright on 'What happens when you die?" and interview with Martin Bashir on ABC News. [HT Jon Swales]

A list of Genesis resources at Monergism

The poverty and justice Bible from the Bible Society [HT Tullian Tchividjian]

Tullian also has a summary document on what Christian schooling 'is having so little culture influence'.

The webware 100 finalists

Living green slides

These are the slides that accompanied my talk below.

| View | Upload your own