Cherishing the earth - a review

Cherishing the Earth: How to Care for God's Creation
Martin J. Hodson and Margot R. Hodson
Monarch Books, 2008
ISBN 978-1-85424-841
978-0-8254-6275-7 pbk
254 pp £8.99

US edition: 978 0 8254 6275 7

Books on the environment from a Christian perspective are a bit like buses. You can wait for ages for one to come along and then along come several all at once. This is one of them. The others published in late 2007 and 2008 include: Serve God Save the Planet by J. Mathew Sleeth, Planetwise by Dave Bookless, Christianity, Climate and Sustainability by Nick Spencer and Robert White, Saving Planet Earth by Colin Russell and Living with the Planet by Catherine Von Ruhland. All of them are written at a popular level.

This is a very British book, a gentle book that is irenic in style. It is very Anglican - and in this lies its strengths and weaknesses. Even when controversial issues are broached it is done in a sane way. For example, they are old earth - but of the opinion that the age of the earth is irrelevant in whether or not we care for it; they are theistic evolutionists, but are quick to point out that 'all Christians, whatever their views on origins will concede that our Earth originates with God and is rightfully his' (p. 92). On nuclear power: 'I do not feel comfortable with nuclear power, but I have a strong suspicion that we may need it.'

Occasionally the dualistic language grates: 'I hope to answer some of the spiritual questions that Christians might bring' p. 14,and they write of the '... supernatural effects of the fall in creation' p. 56. It's not a great start when the authors seem to adopt an independence view of science and religion and fail to see that all of life is spiritual - not just the theological bits. However, the message of the book is an important one: we urgently need to know how to care for God's creation.

It is a good introductory book, but they do skirt over some of the tricky biblical issues. For example, the two words translated as subdue (kabash) and rule (radah) in Genesis 1 are strong words - they don't seem to convey the connotation of care. Kabash is elsewhere translated as rape (Esther 7:8) and Westermann has translated radah as "to tread out the wine press" and von Rad as "trample". This can not simply be dismissed by describing it as 'a command to interact with nature and aid its fruitfulness' (p. 29) without further understanding of context and linguistics.

Sometimes the book reads like a patchwork quilt, the scientific and the biblical patchworks are attempted to be tied mosaic-like together. Sometimes this works at other times it jars. Often it gives the impression that 'spirituality' is an icing on the cake rather than the leaven for the whole cake.

'Climate scepticism' is briefly dealt with by reference to N Oreskes's Science 306 article. They are convinced that 'human induced climate change is real, and needs our urgent attention at all levels...' p. 61.

Chapter 5 looks at the 'seeds of history', this is a broad-brush overview of green Christian history and it inevitably oversimplifies. They rightly maintain that individuals can make a difference (ch 6) and highlight some things that can be done. One inspiring example is a Green semi in Oxford (see here for details). Transport and food are also examined in this chapter.

Chapter 7 looks at 'Caring communities' and what can be done through community involvement. Again a number of helpful case studies are included. In Chapter 8 on leadership - Job is used as an example of farming; Joseph as an example of climate care and Moses as a leader of change. Here they examine what effective leadership can do as well as take a look at energy and transport issues. Chapter 9 turns from local into global issues including debt, climate change and development. In chapter 10 'Dreams and visons' GM foods and international environmental agreements and reports are examined. Christian initiatives such as the impact of the Climate Forum 2002 which involved the Hodgsons and its effect on Richard Cizik are discussed. It was this forum that was instrumental in Cizik's 'conversion experience' to green issues. Cizik was vice-president of the National Association of Evangelicals in the States and has been instrumental in 'climate care'.

The final chapter looks briefly at the fate of the earth - a crucial issue for Christians - they conclude that it will be renewed not destroyed. But even if God does destroy it, this does not mean we should not protect what we presently have' (p. 202).

The strength of the book is that both authors write from complementary perspectives and we are provided a binocular vision of a number of important issues - they are strong on individual and group involvement at the grassroots level. However, there is little encouragement for Christians to get involved with politics - no sense that we can serve God in doing politics. Many of the issues require political change as well as the need for a grassroots movement.

The authors are obviously passionate about the environment; but unfortunately, it's not often that that passion comes through in the pages of the book. They are pragmatist rather than idealists - but perhaps that is not such a bad thing.

For me the highlight of the book was a brief discussion of rest - part of the jubilee and sabbath legislation. Environmental degredation means a loss of rest for many. Deforestation means that women and children have to go much further to find fuel for their fires - this results in a loss of rest. Sabbath should mean a rest for all not merely rest for the powerful at the expense of the poor (pp158-160): 'We need to act to implement Sabbath as a justice principle for our global community' (p. 160). As far as I'm concerned this section is worth the price of the book alone.

There are 24 pages of notes, 4 pages of useful websites and a 7 page index, but unfortunately, no bibliography.

It provides a useful introduction to light green thinking for Christians and one that could, because of its gentle tones, usefully be given to your local green-sceptic vicar.

Available in the UK from:
Amazon
Book depository
Eden

The book has an accompanying website.
Publisher's website

Music for a Sunday morning

Why we disagree about climate change

Mike Hulme - looks at this question on the Guardian's Science Weekly podcast: here

Mike is the fonder of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research. The centre is named after John Tyndall who was one of the first scientists to recognise the earth's greenhouse effect in 1859. There is a New Scientist article on Tyndall here.

Mike is the author of Why We Disagree about Climate Change.

Climate stewards

AIDS, malaria and swine flu

Mike Todd's hit the mark:

I think I've figure this out:

AIDS = The poor. Therefore, who cares?
Malaria = The poor. Therefore, who cares?
Swine Flu = Could be us. Better get on this one!

Angels and Demons: revisited

Dan Brown's Angels and Demons has recently been released as a film.

Thomas Hibbs provides a helpful review here.

The release of the film gives me the opportunity to recycle this post on the book:

Dan Brown is a publishing phenomenon. At present he has four books in the bestsellers list, including The Da Vinci Code at number one.

He has hit on a winning formula: short chapters that end with a hook, a conspiracy theory and an international media event such as the election of a US president, or the election of a new pope.


The Da Vinci Code has caused much stir among Christians. Though many seem to forget that Brown – despite what he says in the ‘FACT’ section at the front of the book – is writing fiction. It’s easy to confuse genres, something that postmodernism seems to encourage. Much less has been written about his other books.

What concerns me most about his Angels and Demons is his view of science and religion and how they relate – not least in one of the characters: Maximillian Kohler, the ‘director general of CERN’. Kohler has a totally out-dated positivistic view of science. It is a view not unlike that of the two evangelistic atheists Richard Dawkins and Peter Atkins. For Kohler science is the angel and religion the demon.

Brown’s Kohler talks with the 'hero' Robert Langdon:

'The men and women of CERN are here to find answers to the same
questions man has been asking since the beginning of time. Where did we
come from? What are we made of?’

‘And these answers are in a physics lab?’

‘You sound surprised’

‘I am. The questions seem spiritual.’

‘Mr Langdon, all questions were once spiritual. Since the beginning of time spirituality and religion have been called on to fill in the gaps that science did not understand. The rising and setting of the sun was once attributed to Helios and a flaming chariot. Earthquakes and tidal waves were the wrath of Poseidon. Science has now proven those gods to be false idols. Soon all Gods will be proven to be false idols. Science has now provided answers to almost every question man [sic] can ask. There are only a few questions left, and they are the esoteric ones. Where do we come from? What are we doing here? What is the meaning of life and the universe?’

Langdon was amazed. ‘And these are questions CERN is trying to answer?’

‘Correction. These are questions we are answering.’

Demons and Angels Corgi edition, 2001 p. 43

…Langdon added, ‘the unification of science and religion was not what the church wanted.’
‘Of course not,’ Kohler interrupted. ‘The union would have nullified the church’s claim to be the sole vessel through which man [sic] could understand God. So the church tried Galileo as a heretic, found him guilty, and put him under house arrest. …

Demons and Angels Corgi edition, 2001 p. 51-2

As well as repeating the god-of-the gaps fallacy and the Galileo myth, Brown’s Kohler is advocating a conflict model of science and religion. This idea that science conflicts with religion and thus makes religion redundant has its historical roots, at least in a popular form, in the writings of John Draper and subsequently by Andrew Dickson White's (1832-1918) two volumed book A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1897)Historians of science, such as Lindberg and Numbers, John Hedley Brooke, and Colin Russell have shown that the main thesis of White’s and Draper’s work was based on misinformation and half-truths, and have exposed the naivety of the conflict category. Nevertheless, the conflict metaphor is still prevalent. It provides a pertinent example of how worldview colours perception of reality. The combatants in the conflicts that did exist were not science and Christianity; rather the combatants were, as Brooke notes, the adherents of the new science and the adherents of the
sanctified science of the previous generation. Science and religion are not in conflict, neither are they totally independent.

The fallacious view of science as objective and value-free, and faith as subjective and value-laden, has long been demolished by philosophers of science. Unfortunately, these views are still propounded by the popular media. Faith is integral to the scientific enterprise. It is this that Brown’s Kohler misses.

Henry Van Til's Calvinistic Concept of culture

Henry Van Til's Calvinistic Concept of Culture is now available here. It has a chapter on Kuyper and one on Schilder's view of culture.


The Calvin is Tic Concept of Culture

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Books culture truth

Music for a Sunday morning

Anakainosis: a journal for reformational thought

Anakainosis the journal for reformational thought is now starting to be placed on line at allofliferedeemed.

It began publication in September 1978 and ceased in 1986. It was published by the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship in Toronto under the editorship of Al Wolters. It contained articles by Robert Knudsen, Danie Strauss, Roy Clouser, Herman Dooyeweerd, Andre Troost, Bennie van der Walt, Doug Blomberg, Henk Hart, Bernie Zylstra and many others.

At present volume 1 issues 1-4 and volume 2 issues 1, 2 and 4 are up. More will be added over the next few months.

Plantinga's Warranted Christian Belief - now on-line

Alvin Plantinga's Warranted Christian Belief is now on-line at CCEL.

Swine flu: cause and cure

Odds and sods

Tom Wright talks about his book Justification
Refwrite highligts a new book from the Pascal centre: Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions
Trevin Wax discusses how to preach the Sermon on the mount from memory!
15 useful Firefox extensions for bloogers
Dan Lambert shows good practice for dealing with an atheist's book
An interesting book on Christ and culture looking at it from an historical perspective: The Road to Eden [HT Between two worlds]
A Bruce Cockburn weekend with Brian Walsh
Kevin DeYoung on why he is a Calvinist

CPJ's new President

Gideon Strauss is to be the new President for the Center for Public Justice, succeeding Jim Skillen. Gideon writes:

I am grateful that I will not be doing this work on my own, or out of nothing! CPJ is built on rock, and has a rich legacy, a reliable constituency of partners and supporters, and a fabulous board (my best interview experience ever — and I have had some really great interview experiences!). In addition, Jim and Doreen Skillen are not abandoning ship but are instead remaining on board for the foreseeable future, to my great relief and delight. And in the deepest sense, none of us at the Center are doing this work of equiping citizens, developing leaders, and shaping policy on our own, because we know that we are not our own, but belong to our faithful saviour, Jesus Christ.

Music for a Sunday morning

Seerveld on worldview

A Christian world-and-life vision like a biblical way of life, does not just drop out of heaven ready-made (p. 67).

[A] Christian world-and-life vision is a thetical orientation and not a judgmental condemnation, a program for doing good for the commonweal and not a plan of attack on enemies (p. 71).

Calvin Seerveld in After Worldview (Dordt College Press, 2009)

Ray Pennings on neo-calvinism and neo-puritanism

Ray Pennings is interviewed by David Murray on neo-calvinism and neo-puritanism.

Neo-Calvinism and Neo-Puritanism from Puritan Reformed on Vimeo.

Odds and sods

Scott McKnight starts to look at Wright and Piper's takes on the New perspective

Monegism has a list of complementarian resources - and the provocative statement that

The denial of complementarianism undermines the church's practical embrace of the authority of Scripture (thus eventually and inevitably harming the church's witness to the Gospel)

Peter Enns has a review of Paul Seely's book Inerrant Wisdom. I don't know the book but I have a lot of time for Seely's development of Calvin's accommodationaist approach to Genesis.

Mike Wittmer on Luther and swine flu

Al Wolters on allofliferedeemed

I've recently added to the Al Wolters pages at allofliferedeemed the following papers:

1989. “On the Idea of Worldview and Its Relation to Philosophy,” in Paul A. Marshall, et al., eds., Stained Glass: Worldview and Social Science (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1989), 14-25

1987. “Worldview and Textual Criticism in 2 Peter 3:10,” Westminster Theological Journal 49 (1987) 405-413.

1985. “The Intellectual Milieu of Herman Dooyeweerd,” in C.T. McIntire, ed., The Legacy of Herman Dooyeweerd (New York: University Press of America, 1985) 1-19

1983. “Dutch Neo-Calvinism: Worldview, Philosophy and Rationality,” in H. Hart et al., eds., Rationality in the Calvinian Tradition (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1983) 113-131

1978/ 1999 “The Foundational Command: ‘Subdue the Earth!’” in Year of Jubilee, Cultural Mandate, Worldview (Study Pamphlet No. 382; ed. B. van der Walt; Potchefstroom: Institute for Reformational Studies, 1999) 27-34. [Previously available as ICS Academic Paper, 1978.]

1975/ 1987. "Ideas have legs" The Guide July. Also in A Christian Union in Labour's Wasteland, edited by Edward Vanderkloet
(Wedge Publishing, 1978). Republished by Institute for Christian Studies, 1987

Vanguard articles:

1979. Breaking out of the evangelical world-view: a review of John Stott's latest work'

'Hallowed be thy creation'

1980. 'The centre and the circumference'

Anakainosis articles:

1978. In memoriam: Vollenhoven

1979. Vollenhoven on the 'word of God'

1983. 'Ground motives'

Keith Sewell in Leeds and Bristol

June 09 will see Keith Sewell in the UK. Keith is professor of History at Dordt College, Iowa. On the 5th and 6th June he will give the WYSOCS Summer lectures :

What are the shapers in the history of the church that produced what it is today?
And what shapes of today will gain a hearing tomorrow for the Gospel of the Kingdom of God?

Lecture One	Friday 5th June at 8 pm.
The Idea of a Christian Society - from the Reformation to the present time.

Lecture Two	Saturday 6th June at 10 am.
The Church of Today - the journey it took to arrive where we are.

Lecture Three	Saturday 6th June at 12 noon.
The Church of Tomorrow - new possibilities for bringers of transformation.

He will also be in Bristol at St Michael's Church, Stoke Gifford (near Parkway Station) on Sunday evening 7th June at 6.30 pm.

After Worldview part II

Part II: Concern and critiques, comprises essays by George N. Pierson, Aron Reppman, and Calvin Seerveld.

Pierson in a particularly insightful piece examines the worldview confusion among evangelicals. He argues, convincingly, that many evangelical scholars 'have misunderstood and, therefore, misuse the concept of worldview' (p. 29).

He sees four problem areas:
1. The failure to distinguish between theoretical and pre-theoretical thought
2. the failure to recognise the distinction between structure and direction
3. the failure to recognise the religious nature of all of life; and
4. the failure to distinguish between normativity and morality.

This diagnosis is spot on. It remains to be seen how evangelicals respond to this.

Aron Repman addresses the question: 'Does promoting a Christian worldview fulfill the mandate of Christian education?' His answers is yes and no! Yes in that some aspects have been remarkably fruitful and no in that aspects of worldview have not (yet) been fully recognised and developed. Again he comes back to the misunderstanding of the pre-theoretical. Worldview is a way of framing the question rather than a recipie for finding pre-packaged answers - 'a place to stand ... rather than a 'rocking-chair on which to sit' (p.51).

Seerveld looks at 'the damages of a Christian worldview'. He provides a timely reminder that a Christian world-and-life vision can become idolised and a shibboleth to determine who's in and who's out. He stresses that a Christian world-and-life view is not a 'cut and dried paradigm you can be cocksure about - one size fits all feet; it is also not just a tentative guess about what you should be duly hesitant' (p. 71).

Music for a Bank Holiday Monday

Music for a Sunday morning

Last April 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008

April 2005

Introduced Paul Robinson's blog and his New Critique website

April 2006

Looked at evidences for Jesus' resurrection

A brief biography of reformational scholar E L Hebden Taylor

It included links to:

• Kenn Hermanns's essay on teaching history backwards
• Albert Gedratis's reformational journalism project

April 2007

On hell as  annihilation

Rocky's favourite questions to ask atheists

Leonard Euler

Palm Sunday - why were the crowds so fickle?

There was also parts of my series on Why Christians are reluctant greens:

• Introduction
• 1. A failure to grasp the full implications of the cross
• 2. Misunderstanding the message of the gospel of the kingdom
• 3. The size of the problems
• 4. Dualism
• 5. The New Age movement
• 6. Jesus didn't get involved in environmental issues
• 7. A defective eschatology
• 8. A failure to develop a Christian worldview

April 2008
Book reviews:

• Faith and Force by Clough and Stiltner
• Science and Grace by Morris and Petcher
• Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind by B J van der Walt

The kingdom as jubilee

Links to Dooyeweerd study guides

April 2009

Odds and sods

Philosophy to the max: Andrew Basden's new extreme philosophy website
Robert Minto has an interesting discussion of Bavinck's and Vollenhoven's view of faith.
Here's some more resources on Herman Bavinck
A new editionof Themelios is now on-line
Stanley Jaki physicist and theologian has died
Calvin's commentaries available for download for the e-sword

the blog of kevinstein: on worldviews

The blog of kevinstein is a new blog by Kevin McClain, from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has a great series on worldviews that is well worth checking out. There are 6 posts so far:

• Worldview is back
• The Modern Epistemic Debate
• Worldview: A Brief History
• Worldview: Acknowledging Faith’s Role in Knowledge
• Reductionism in Epistemology
• The Postmodern Switch

The biblical story using four images

You Are Here from ItLooksGood on Vimeo.

Just deserts

Help me to be humble
Even as you are humble

Didn't you deserve a mansion not a stable
Didn't you deserve a stallion not a donkey
Didn't you deserve loyalty rather then betrayal
Didn't you deserve a king-sized bed rather than a stone to put your head

And yet you chose to be one of us
To laugh and feast,
To weep and wait
To live and die, to rise again

Not a deserved life but a served one.

Help me to live like you
Help me to serve as you deserve

Susie Bishop April '09

Music for a Sunday morning

Brian Blade

Dooyeweerd on film

If only I could understand Dutch!

After Worldview Part I

My copy of After Worldview arrived this morning. I've read part I so far - so here are a few thoughts.

Part I: a historical overview of worldview comprises a paper by David Naugle, 'Worldview: history, theology, implication', and a response by Michael Stephens.

Naugle opens and closes with a quote from G K Chesterton: 'that the most practical and important thing about a person is still his view of the universe'. Naugle concurs and shows why he thinks it is the case. He draws upon his excellent book on Worldviews, but is not limited to that material.

He has some great one-liners:

Philosophy is the only unavoidable occupation (p. 12 - a view he attributes to Francis Schaeffer)

Any view of worldview, therefore, is worldview dependent. (p 14)

I submit that the notion of worldview is a valuable piece of '"Egyptian Gold." (p. 15)

Life proceeds "kardioptically," out of "a vision of the heart". (p. 16)

What a person deems to be rational or irrational appears to be a function of the reasoner's worldview (p. 22)

The great strength of this chapter is that he places the notion of worldview within the human heart: 'the biblical teaching about the heart in human life is a key to defining the notion of worldview.' It is this that sets apart the neo-calvinist approach from the misapproriation of worldview as a theoretical concept by many evangelicals. Worldview is a pre-throertical cosntruct. He has coined the term kardioptic to emphasis this point. He goes on to stress, correctly in my view the implication of worldview for rationality, understanding and epistemology. All are worldview-dependent activities.

Michael Stephens appreciates Naugle's paper and raises some important issues in his two-page response:

• How efficacious can our baptism of worldview be?
• Where does the philosophical enterprise enter in?
• Is worldview formation a task of kardia and maybe psuche but not of nous?

My response to this is that worldview is pre-theoretical - or in Naugle's terms kardioptic - it does require a transforming of the mind to think Christianly but it starts with the heart. I wonder if Stephens is making worldview into something more theoretical?

The bad plus

When neo isn't new (again)

A little while ago I looked at the confusion between neo-calvinism and new calvinism: here.

Refwrite has also been doing the same:

I have been an adherent of a 150 years-old Protestant movement, self-understood as neo-calvinism, for much of my life. The difference between "old Calvinism" and "neo-Calvinism" is dependent upon a prior distinction between "old old Calvinism" and "old Calvinism." It turns out that both varieties are predestinationist; they believe in predestination, and prioritize that doctrine as the heart of Christianity. Old old Calvinism was rather solidly cessationist; they believed in the cessation of the gifts of the Spirit after the Apostolic Age. The newer old Calvinists are said to be continuationist in regard to the gifts today.

Neo-calvinists, on the other hand, are sometimes predestinationists, sometimes not; sometimes cessationist, sometimes continuist, sometimes neither. What distinguished the world-historical transformative vision of neo-calvinism was its onward spur by Abraham Kuyper's study of "the ethical-theology." He created the reformational movement to welcome in the reign of Shalom in every sphere of life.

He was best at inspiring a largely poor community that received his discipline in order to equip themselves for upward mobility toward making their own contributions to the society, starting with their neighbours, all this their Christian calling, their cultural mandate. Neo-Calvinism generates institutions sovereignly disciplined to the distinct societal place and task of each: academics, industrial relations and representation, vocations, entrepreneurship, intimate life in marriage, friendship, psychotherapeutic clinics, church life, all of life.

Bob Robinson at Vanguard Church has started a helpful set of posts on the difference - see here, here and here.

After Worldview

After Worldview the collected essays from the Sept 2004 After Worldview conference are now available.

It contains papers by Calvin Seerveld, Jim Olthuis, David Naugle and Al Wolters among others.

Edited by J Matthew Bonzo and Michael Stevens
ISBN:978-0-932914-74-3
$13.00 paperback
Dordt College Press, 2009.

Bernard Zylstra pages on AoLR

I'm pleased to announce the launch of the Bernie Zylstra pages on allofliferedeemed. Bernie was the principal of the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto. He studied at the VU University under Herman Dooyeweerd. In 1968 he began lecturing at the ICS and beacme its principal in 1983. He edited Dooyeweerd's Roots of Western Culture and Kalsbeek's Contours of Christian Philosophy.

Articles available on-line are:

1956. Who was Groen Stromata (Nov): 7-8

1970. The Christian teacher and history: can history be approached normatively?

1970. The place of christianity in our times. International Reformed Bulletin 41 (Spring) pp 24-28.

1972. Do Christians have a political future? [Part 1 and Part 2] Vanguard March/ April and August/ September.
(Also published in Where are we Now? ed W A Harper and T R Malloch Washington, DC; UPA)

1972. 'The Individual gospel: sources and shortcomings' The Guide (April/ May)
(Also published in Where are we Now? ed W A Harper and T R Malloch Washington, DC; UPA and in Inside, July 1972).

1972. 'The Bible, justice and the state' International Reformed Bulletin (Also published in Where are we Now? ed W A Harper and T R Malloch Washington, DC; UPA; and in Confessing Christ and Doing Politics ed James W Skillen washington, DC: APJ pp 39-53.)

1976. 'Voeglin on Unbelief and revolution.' In Een Staatsman Ter Navoling ed W F Gaay Fortman et al. The Hague: ARP. pp 155-165.

1977. Modernity and the American empire. International Reformed Bulletin 20 pp 3-19

1979. The power of nuclear arms. Vanguard March/ April pp. 14-16. 1979.

1981. Three kinds of rights. Vanguard Jan/ Feb

The "one anothers" and the "each others"

How we should treat one another:


John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Rom. 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Rom. 12:16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Rom. 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

Rom. 14:13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.

Rom. 15:7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Rom. 15:14 I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.

Rom. 16:16 (1Cor. 16:20; 2Cor. 13:12; 1Pet. 5:14 ) Greet one another with a holy kiss.

1Cor. 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

Gal. 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

Eph. 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Eph. 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Eph. 5:19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,

Eph. 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Col. 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Col. 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

1Th. 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Heb. 3:13 But encourage one anotherdaily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Heb. 10:24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Heb. 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

James 4:11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.

1Pet. 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

1Pet. 3:8 Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.

1Pet. 4:9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

1Pet. 5:5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

1John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

1John 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

1John 3:23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

1John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1John 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

2John 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another

1John 3:23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

1John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1John 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

2John 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.



The "each others":

Mark 9:50 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

John 15:17 This is my command: Love each other.

1Cor. 7:5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

1Cor. 11:33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other.

1Cor. 12:25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

Gal. 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Eph. 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Col. 3:9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices

Col. 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

1Th. 3:12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.

1Th. 4:9 Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

1Th. 4:18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.

1Th. 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

1Th. 5:13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.

1Th. 5:15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

Heb. 13:1 Keep on loving each other as brothers.

James 5:9 Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

1Pet. 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

(All verses are from the NIV)

Another neo-calvinist jazz enthusiast

I've just come across a new(ish) blog by another neo-calvinist jazz enthusiast, Christopher Zodrow. He has recently been blogging about Christian philosophy. It's a blog well worth checking out and adding to google reader.

I particularly like the way he has organised his categories. He also has all of life redeemed as one of his links, so he is obviously a person of good taste and discernment!

Crossroads conference update

The mp3s of the talks from the Bristol Crossroads Conference are now available here.

Arvo Part: Spiegel im Spiegel

This is one of my favourite pieces of music

Spykman on the kingdom

'Nothing matters but the kingdom. ...
... But because of the kingdom, everything matters.'

Gordon Spykman cited in Goheen and Bartholomew Living at the Crossroads Baker, 2008, p. 156.

Living at the Crossroads Conference

Dave Beldman, Jon Swales, Jon Taylor and Lee Barnes are to be congratulated for organising this excellent conference. I hope it will be the first of many to come. Trinity College is a superb place for a conference and as Richard Russll commented it even has parking!

Mike Gohen kicked the conference off with a look at Gospel, Mission and Worldview. He noted that the term worldview wasn't used 100 years ago and despite the fact it has many pagan significances it has been well incoporated in the Christian vocabulary. He looked at some of the reasons for this. The Gospel is public truth and yet many evangelicals have viewed the gospel as doctrines and ideas and not as an event - the kingdom of God being accomplished. The gospel isn't like a play a world we inhabit for a few hours and then leave to go into the real world; the gospel is the real world. Everything has to fit in with the story of the gospel. If the gospel is true (and it is) then we need to ask, how will it be communicated to all people. Mission comes with the gospel. Jesus didn't write a book he formed a community and entrusted to them the message. Our call is to live in this story and make it known. Mission is not another thing to do, it is who we are. The church is a picture and a preview of the kingdom. We are not sent to do evangelism but to show that Christ is lord of all. We need to ask what would science and art look like on the new earth? This all comes under the mission of God's people.

One problem is that the gosple has become compromised by the idols of western culture. Can worldview help in this liberation? The origin of worldview is in German idealism, but it was taken on board by James Orr and Abraham Kuyper. Both of them had a deep need to protect Christianity form the hostile worldview of modernism and they saw that worldview could help this. Orr was concerned with defending Christian theology, but Kuyper was concerend with the cultural and public life all of life was to be lived under the lordship of Christ.

The issue is can worldview provide a tool to get our understanding of the gospel straight and to get our understanding of mission straight? If it can great, if not then we need to find other ways.

The second session Mark Roques help us to think about mission , stories and subversive questions. In his own inimitable way Mark helped us to think about the ways in which Christians are mugged. Many 'celebrities', including Ricky Gervais, Jonathan Edwards and Derren Brown had a Christian background and now have had their faith taken in a mugging. Materialsim is an effective mugger. We need to understand these worldviews that are attempting to mug Christians and once we have understood them we need to subvert them. One way is to ask subversive questions. Questions such as: Boffins think that we are no batter than bacteria, what do you think?' or "Boffins think that Hilter wasn't evil, what do you think?'. Mark's list of questions to ask an atheist is here. By tellings tories and asking questions we can get people thinking in a way that is not embarrasing.

Lunch was followed by two parallel sessions. The first was a choice between worldview and church planting by New Frontiers pastor Simon Walker and worldviews and youth culture by Frontier Trust's Dave Wiles. The session on worldview and church planting was focused on church planting rather than worldviews. Simon was 'mugged' in the session - in the best possible way - and he was only able to get part way through his notes, most of the time was devoted to questions and observations.

The second set of seminars was a choice between Rocky on stories and Trinity College's Andrew Goddard on sexual ethics. Here in small groups we were challenged to think of the secular worldviews that lie behind sexual ethics and then to look at how sexual ethics could be viewed through creation, fall and redemption.

Mike Goheen's second session asked the question Why worldview is important for the local congregation?'. And here is the rub. Worldview has become popular in Christian academia, but what about the local congregation. Goheen is perhaps unique in that he is both a pastor and church planter and an academic. He is well placed to speak to this issue. He looked at comments and needs of some trypical Christian in a local congregation. How does worldview affect them? The key question every pastor needs to ask and address is: How can I equip congregations for their callings? Where are the resources to enable pastors to do this? Goheen uses two toolboxes: worldview tradition (Abrahm Kuyper) and missiology (in particular Lesslie Newbigin). Both share a commitment to the scope of the gospel and to the church's mission. The kuyperian traition is wider, but the missionary tradition is a whole lot deeper. Newbigin nce said of the kuyperian tradition in the UK that is was unknown but it needed to be a powerful voice. We need these resurces to see the biblical story as public truth, to be able to analyse culture and to be the dynamic of being in the world.

There is a need for a theological education that equips leaders and a need for pastors to understand worldview isssues.

The final session was a Q&A, which unfortunately had to be curtailed due to time constraints.

Check out the conference blog as mp3s of the main session may appear shortly.

Bloom piece 09040222

This is a piece composed on the ipod touch using Bloom created Eno and Chilvers for the ipodtouch [HT jonnybaker].
Bloom is bloomin' marvellous and well worth every penny of the £2.39 it cost. I've always wanted to play an instrument - and now I can! Now I can also be a composer - this is my first piece unpretentiously called bloom piece 09040222.


Watch out for my first CD!
For more details on bloom see here and here.

Salvation: a wide open space

Salvation comes from the word to save. To save has the meaning of to be roomy, to have space, to not be closed in, to have a broad and wide open space to live in. It’s the very opposite of being confined and constricted, or being oppressed.

Harry Bout

Reasons not to wash

1. I was forced to as a child.

2. People who make soap are only after your money.

3. I wash on special occasions like Christmas and Easter.

4. People who wash are hypocrites - they think they are cleaner than everyone else.

5. There are so many different kinds of soap, I can't decide which one is best.

6. I used to wash, but it got boring so I stopped.

7. None of my friends wash.

8. The bathroom is never warm enough in the winter or cool enough in the summer.

9. I'll start washing when I get older and dirtier.

10. I can't spare the time

[HT Si Jones]

When neo doesn't mean new

Ever since the Time Magazine decided that "new calvinism" was the no 3 idea that was changing the world many have been confusing the so-called "new calvinism" with neo-calvinism.

On new calvinism:

Mark Driscoll, one of the new calvinists describes it as follows:

• Old Calvinism was fundamental or liberal and separated from or syncretized with culture. New Calvinism is missional and seeks to create and redeem culture.
  

• Old Calvinism fled from the cities. New Calvinism is flooding into cities.
  

• Old Calvinism was cessationistic and fearful of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. New Calvinism is continuationist and joyful in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
  

• Old Calvinism was fearful and suspicious of other Christians and burned bridges. New Calvinism loves all Christians and builds bridges between them.
  

He then goes on to say

The New Calvinists are committed to complementarianism in the home and church.

This is certainly no neo-calvinism. Neo-calvinism goes back (at least ) to Kuyper.

Those that confuse the two include:

• Timothy Stanley


• Best of Both worlds


• Pastoral Musings from the Rain City
  


• Unfinished Christianity


• Axxess


• Alan Hirsch

Neo-calvinism has several distinctives - several I outlined here. These are a far cry from the often pietistic and puritan emphasis of the 'new calvinists'.

• Jesus is lord over all of creation


• The idea that all of life is to be redeemed


• Cultural mandate


• Creation, fall and redemption


• Sphere sovereignty


• A rejection of dualism


• Structure and direction


• Common grace


• The antithesis


• Worldviews


• The role of law

So, in this case new calvinism is not equal to neo-calvinism.

In fact, R Scott Clark has argued that Mark Driscoll isn't even a calvinist!

Odds and sods

Doug Groothius has a guest post on Debunking Christianity: 'The straw God: understanding the new atheism'
Cal.vini.st has a shed load of resources on cessationism (the idea that charismata have ceased).
Jesus' use of humour at Best of both worlds.
Jake Belder has an excellent and thought-provoking series on 'Mortifying Modernity'.

Extreme shepherding

Odds and sods

Doug Groothius's paper from Think on Dawkins.
Peter Enns on Influential books and authors
Commontary.com - an open-source wiki-style commentary. [HT sets 'n' service]
The outsider test for faith by John Loftus

Earth hour 2009: 28th March 8.30 pm

Tom Wright on heaven: it's not the end of the world

Ruse on Dawkins

The trouble with Richard Dawkins from CPX on Vimeo.

Goheen and Bartholomew - Living at the Crossroads

Living at the Crossroads
An Introduction to Christin Worldview
Michael W. Goheen and Craig G. Bartholomew
Baker Book House, 2008

ISBN 978-0-8010-3140-3
pbk xvi + 205 pp

Do we need another worldview book? The last decades have seen the proliferation of excellent worldview books:

• J. Mark Bertrand. 2007. (Re)Thinking Worldviews: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World. Wheaton: Crossway Books.
• David Naugle. 2002. Worldview: The History of a Concept. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
• Paul A. Marshall, et al eds. 1989. Stained Glass: Worldview and Social Science. Lanham MD: University Press of America.
• John Peck and Charles Strohmer. 2001. Uncommon Sense: God's Wisdom for our Complex and Changing World. London: SPCK.
• James W. Sire. 1976. The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog. Downers Grove: IVP. 4th revised edn 2004.
• Brian J. Walsh and J. Richard Middleton The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview. Downers Grove: IVP.
• B. J. van der Walt. 2008. The Eye is the Lamp of the Body:Worldviews and their Impact. Potchefstroom: Institute for Contemporary Christianity in Africa.
• Al Wolters. 1985. Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Second edition 1988. Revised and expanded 2005 (with Mike Goheen)

And now Goheen and Bartholomew's contribution. However, what marks this book as different is its missional focus and its clear setting within the biblical story. Both these reflect the interest of the authors. Goheen's PhD was on Lesslie Newbiggin, and Bartholomew's on Ecclesiates.

This is a sequel to their excellent Drama of Scripture. This hopefully, will mean that evangelicals and those with an interest in biblical studies will read this; it will thus appeal to others other than reformationals. This is an important message and needs to be grasped by Christendom at large rather than kept in the small reformational corner.

The book begins by setting worldviews in the context of the gospel, story and mission. We find ourselves at the crossroads of two totalising narratives - the biblical story of creation, fall and redemption and the post/modern western story. This book is written to help us live faithfully as Christians at the crossroads.

The second chapter examines 'What is a worldview?'. They begin with a brief history tracing the concept to Kant, Schelling, Kirkegaard and Dilthey. They note that its origins carry with it associations 'to be affirmed and others to be awry of' (p. 13). They go on to look at and address criticism of the 'appropriation' of worldview. these objections are:

• it intellectualises the gospel
• it relativises the gospel
• it may become disconnected from scripture and thus vulnerable to the spirits of the age
• it may lead to an unhealty messianic activism
• it may entrench a compromised middle-class Christianity

This discussion is helpful as it serves to act as a warning, we need to be aware of the temptations so we can avoid them. They see worldview as a foundation for 'vigorous cultural engagement' and as providing 'tools to carry out our task in the world' (p 30) - worldview correctly understood has a missional thrust. It is a great strength of this book that it continually emphasies this.

Inevitably the book traces the contours of a Christian worldview through the framework of creation, fall and redemption. And this is the topics of chapters 3 and 4. They then look at how modernism and postmodernism shape society. Chapter 5 looks at the roots of modernity, the worldview underlying Western culture. This is, in the words of Corliss Lamont, 'the task of being our own savior and redeemer' (p. 68). The roots of modernity were to some extent Christian but this became mixed with Greek humanism and from this arose scholasticism and a separation of reality into two storeys: grace and nature. Chapter 6 examines the growth of modernity. The Renaissance's secular humanism and the Enlightenment split apart the synthesis of the gospel and humanism, they led to a conversion of the West from a faith in the church to a faith in reason. The world would be bettered through science and reason. A synthesis of gospel and humanism became an antithesis.

In chapter 7 they adopt Tom Wright's addition to Walsh and Middleton's worldview questions: What time is it? Here postmoderism, consumerism and globalisation, the renascence of Christianity and the resurgence of Islam are scrutinised.

Chapter 8, the title chapter, explores how we can be both faithful and relevant in culture; they pose and answer the question: 'how can a christian remain faithful to the biblical story while living in a culture that has been shaped by a very different story' (p 132). To do so we must become 'critical participants'. The distinction between structure and direction is utilised to help distinguish between creational design and cultural idolatry.

The final chapter looks at six areas where worldviews are fleshed out: business, politics, sport, creativity and art, and scholarship. These provide tantalising teasers. It would be great to have each of these developed as chapters in another book! (Hint! Hint!)

This is a brilliant book its strength is that it provides a missional focus for a reformational worldview. It is replete with wisdom and insight. So, do we need another book on worldview? If its one as good as this, then Yes! Buy it, read it, act on it.

Publisher's website
Book website

Available in the UK from:

• Book depository
• Eden
• Amazon
• Wesley Owen
• St Andrew's Bookshop
• SPCK

Living at the Crossroads Conference in Bristol April 4th

Only 3 weeks to go! Get those registration forms in!



Details here.

Responding to secularism conference

The Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics and The Gospel & Our Culture Network present:

Responding to Secularism:
Christian Witness in a Dogmatic Public Culture
Friday 24th April 2009
10.00am – 5.00pm
Tyndale House, Cambridge

• TRACING secularism from its origins to current developments
• DEFINING the secularist worldview and its depiction of religion
• ENGAGING secularist public policies and polemics

SPEAKERS:

• John Stackhouse (Regent College, Vancouver)
• Elaine Storkey (Tearfund)
• Andrew Kirk (formerly University of Birmingham).
• Dominic Erdozain (King’s College London)

Details here.

Barna survey looks at changes in worldview among Christians

The Barna survey defines a "biblical worldview" as:

believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today. In the research, anyone who held all of those beliefs was said to have a biblical worldview.

They found that 9% of all American adults have "biblical worldview".
They comment:

Ongoing research by The Barna Group on these matters consistently demonstrates the powerful impact a person’s worldview has on their life. A worldview serves as a person’s decision-making filter, enabling them to make sense of the complex and huge amount of information, experiences, relationships and opportunities they face in life. By helping to clarify what a person believes to be important, true and desirable, a worldview has a dramatic influence on a person’s choices in any given situation.

And find that:

* One-third of all adults (34%) believe that moral truth is absolute and unaffected by the circumstances. Slightly less than half of the born again adults (46%) believe in absolute moral truth.

* Half of all adults firmly believe that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches. That proportion includes the four-fifths of born again adults (79%) who concur.

* Just one-quarter of adults (27%) are convinced that Satan is a real force. Even a minority of born again adults (40%) adopt that perspective.

* Similarly, only one-quarter of adults (28%) believe that it is impossible for someone to earn their way into Heaven through good behavior. Not quite half of all born again Christians (47%) strongly reject the notion of earning salvation through their deeds.

* A minority of American adults (40%) are persuaded that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life while He was on earth. Slightly less than two-thirds of the born again segment (62%) strongly believes that He was sinless.

* Seven out of ten adults (70%) say that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe who still rules it today. That includes the 93% of born again adults who hold that conviction.

Review of Blackwood Multisensory Preaching and Teaching

The Power of Multisensory Preaching and Teaching
Rick Blackwood
Zondervan, 2008
ISBN978-0-310-28097-2 hbk
US $19.99
207 pp

The sermon has been described as one of the most ineffective teaching tools ever invented and in 1857, but sounding very contemporary, Trollope wrote in Barchester Towers:

"There is perhaps no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilised and free countries than the necessity of listening to sermons. No one but a preaching clergyman has, in these realms, the power of compelling an audience to sit silent, and be tormented."

And yet we continue to use the sermon as the main teaching tool in churches on a Sunday. Blackwood, senoir pastor of Christ Fellowship in Miami, Florida, writes to help us make the sermon more effective, "to increase attention, comprehension and retention"; and thus make it easier for us to become doers as well as hearers of the word. He wants good preachers to become great prachers. He maintains that it is not just talent, but also technique.

This is a distilled but easily-digestible version of Blackwood's PhD empirical research into the effectiveness of multisensory preaching.

The book is split into three parts. The first part (Chapters 1-6) look at the effects of a multisensory preaching. Multisensory preaching engages the ear, the eye and the hand. He found that in terms of making his message memorable it increased by 62.2% when visuals were added and by 74.6%when visuals and interaction were added to the verbal communication.
It has long been known that not everyone learns in the same way.

Blackwood points out that multisensory teaching is not new and even has biblical precedents. Hosea, married an adulterous woman; Jeremiah, walked around with an ox yoke around his shoulders; and Jesus used vines, coins, water, wheat and many other visuals to communicate his message.

In part 2 (Ch 7-9) looks at the "how?" Here is practical instruction to make us multisensory preachers. In part 3 (Ch 10-12) he provides some examples. These range from getting a recently married couple to come in full wedding regalia and show a video clip of them proposing to each other. This is to illustrate the public nature of baptism.

Other ideas include giving the audience penlights, key rings and this may be above the budget of a small UK church. And much of what Blackwood proposes assumes that resources are available. resources such as a stage, stage hands, technicians, digital projectors and screens and so on. Nevertheless, this book will provide food for thought and some useful ideas for teachers who want to increase attention, comprehension and retention.

Blackwood's message can be summed up as:

Who are we?
Punters.
Where are we?
On a pew in a church.
What's the problem?
We are being bored by a flat one-dimensional sermons.
What's the solution?
Multisensory preaching; getting your local preacher to read and act on a copy of this book.

Publisher's website

New edition of Dawkins's book

[HT Thinking Christian]

Mike Wittmer on Al Wolters's Creation Redeemed

A new tract

[HT Contemporary Calvinist]

Kuyper lecture for 2009

2009 Dr Alvin Plantinga
John A O’Brien Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame

Dr Plantiga will give his Prize Lecture in Princeton on Thursday 16th April 2009. It will be followed by a conference on the theme of ‘Philosophy and Revelation’ marking the 100th anniversary of Herman Bavinck’s Stone Lectures, for which paper proposals are invited.

Notes on the Kite Runner

The film, directed by Quantum of Solace's Marc Forester is based on the book of the same name by Kahled Hosseini. It is a story of redemption - but redemption achieved by self. It is a beautifully crafted film. The photography is amazing.

The story is of two Afghan boys Amir and Hassan. It is also a tale of forgiveness.

Where are we?
In a world torn apart - a country that is raped first by Russia and then by everyone else as the world watches on and does nothing.

What's wrong?
Amir lets Hassan down by watching him be raped by a bully Assef. Amir didn't stand up for his friend. He then falsly accuses Hassan of stealing his watch, this is the catalyst for the two to be separated and to never see each other again.

What's the solution?
There is a way to be good again. Go and rescue Hassan's son. In doing so he has to face the bully Assef. Redemption comes by facing up what he did wrong and being prepared to face his own giants and do the right thing by Hassan's son, to be good again.

The film ends with Amir running after the kite for Hassan's son as he calls out 'for you a thousand times' which echoes Hassan's call as he chased down a kite for Amir just before his rape.