Letters To Lisa by John Van Dyk

Letters to Lisa
Conversations with a Christian Teacher
John Van Dyk
Dordt College Press: Sioux Center, Iowa, 1997.
ISBN 0-932914-37-3
paperback, 210 pages.



Although this book is almost fifteen years old it remains fresh and relevant and is still in print. It is an excellent introduction to teaching Christianly. It should be compulsory reading for all teachers who are Christian and want to be Christian teachers.

The quote on the back page states that 'Teaching Christianly may well be the hardest job in the universe'. If that is the case there is a need for resources to help us do that. This book is a great place to start.

It is a series of e-mail and letter conversations between John Van Dyk and his daughter, Lisa - between a Christian college education professor and a Christian teacher. In it Lisa raises the kinds of questions that confront all of us at the chalkface (or should that now  be interactive whiteboard face). In response we get the wisdom and insights of Van Dyk. The conversational format of the book means that it is highly accessible. This means the book is a great primer.

Issues covered in the 22 chapters include: what is teaching Christianly, learning objectives, academic excellence as a goal, the role of worksheets, should we be subject or student focussed, the role of questions, assessment, the role of competition, cooperative and collaborative learning, curriculum and classroom devotions.

The book will be of value to all teachers irrespective of the level they teach or where they teach.

I highly recommend the book.


Table of Contents
  1. Teaching Christianly: what is it?
  2. What learning objectives should I write in my lesson and unit plans?
  3. How important is academic excellence as a goal of Christian teaching?
  4. What is this discipleship that I should aim for?
  5. Do I teach subjects or students?
  6. Is there too much teacher-talk and note-taking in the classroom?
  7. Should I get rid of worksheets?
  8. Is there a Christian way to ask questions in the classroom?
  9. How important is the atmosphere in my classroom?
  10. How well should I get to know my students?
  11. Are my assessment and grading practices compatible with teaching Christianly?
  12. What about competition in my classroom?
  13. Is cooperative learning a Christian strategy?
  14. What if cooperative learning doesn't work?
  15. How can I meet students' needs in my classroom?
  16. When are students at risk in my classroom?
  17. What are some key questions about curriculum?
  18. What is a Christian perspective on curriculum?
  19. What types of Christian perspectives will I encounter?
  20. Can a Christian teach Christianly in a public school?
  21. How important are classroom devotions?
  22. Am I a professional Christian teacher?

Theodore R. Malloch - Doing Virtuous Business

Doing Virtuous Business
The Remarkable Success of Spiritual Enterprise
Theodore Roosevelt Malloch
Thomas Nelson, Nashville, 2008
ISBN 13-978-0-8499-4717-9
169 pp; hbk.


The terms human capital and social capital are familiar to those involved in business and entrepreneurship. Less so is the term 'spiritual capital'. In Doing Virtuous Business Theodore Roosevelt Malloch, explores this slippery concept. Malloch is "Chairman and CEO of The Global Fiduciary Governance LLC, a leading strategy thought leadership company" and has done much research on the role of values in business.

The main thesis here that faith changes businesses by injecting 'spiritual capital'. This spiritual capital is also available to atheists and agnostics.

The problem with business is that profits and success (usually measured in monetary terms) have becomes the bottom line. This chasing after profit can become self-destructing. The remedy is to look for spiritual capital. As we become aware of and promote spiritual capital then success and profits follow. For Malloch spiritual capital is not just the spiritual hunger we all feel, rather it is "faith and all that stems from it" (p. 22) and "spiritual entrepreneurship is ... the unsung route to growth in the modern economy" (p. 44). He maintains that spiritual capital has an economic function and an economic potential in the same way that human and social capital have.

He examines the concept of virtue (Ch 2) and how it applies to business. The virtues of business are: faith, honesty, gratitude, perseverance, compassion, forgiveness, patience, humility, courage, respect, generosity, discipline, chastity and thrift. The most important component in spiritual entrepreneurship is faith. Faith, hope and charity are the subject of chapter 3. The virtues listed in chapter 2 are split into two kinds: hard (Ch 4)and soft (Ch 5). Hard virtue include leadership, courage, patience, perseverance and discipline; soft virtues are justice, forgiveness, compassion, humility and gratitude. No justification was given for this distinction.

The question of whose spirituality and which spirituality is not fully addressed, though Malloch is writing from an unashamedly Christian perspective. It also presupposes that capitalism and the free market is good - I would have liked to have seen a fuller critique of capitalism. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating read and shows that in contemporary society spirituality cannot be ignored.

There are plenty of inspiring short illustrative vignettes from companies such as ServiceMaster, Herman Miller, Carghill and individuals such as Tom Monaghan, Jonathan Ruffer, Quinlan Terry and J. Irvin Miller. All those involved in business will find much of value here.

Disclosure: This book was provide by the book sneeze programme - the views are my own.

Beginnings

Beginnings - unlocking the OT

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Slides from my talk on Sunday morning

The Cultural Way of being - Geoff Hall

The Cultural Way of Being
(Spiritual Direction in a Postmodern Landscape)
Geoff Hall
Bristol: Upptackka Press, 2011
ISBN
pbk, 82pp

Available in kindle, pdf, print and iBook here.

How does the institutional church treat artists? By and large it doesn't! Art becomes a means of propoganda for evangelistic or advertising purposes, or it becomes a means of self-expression. Hall writes, in part, to try and alleviate this disdain for the artists' cultural calling.

Hall pleads for a collaboration between artists and angels:

It is interesting that Jesus' last days in the Wilderness involved being looked after by angels before His return to the public sphere. So if you are an angel investor, this may well be your service to the artist.

It is in this collaboration that artists can make art, art that becomes culturally formative, rather than mere personal expression. But it is not just with investors that this creative collaboration can take place, it can be also with gallery owners, publishers and educationalists. Primarily, though the collaboration must be with God: 'The life of the artist is an intimate walk with God' (p. 33). Through this walk with God artists can be 'sensitised to what is going on "around Christ"' (p. 34).

All in all this book is a vigorous and articulate call for artists to take their place in God's kingdom and for kingdom people to support them, so that art can be 'a communal expression for the public domain'. The church can then be transformed from a 'culturally reclusive institution'.  

It needs to be read by all who long for the artist to take their place in God's good creation.

Contents

Introduction                                   10
The spiritual direction of a calling (David) 15
Free design & propoganda            21
Cultural power and direction        29
Intimacy                                        33
Cultural evacuation                       41
Art & prophetic imagination         47
We are not alone                            53
Reference                                       56
Also in this series                           58
About the author                            61
Notebook                                        70

Hell, Rob Bell and What Happens When People Die

Hell, Rob Bell and What Happens When People Die
Bobby Conway
Multnomah Books: Colorado, 2011
ISBN: 9781601424075
eBook

Rob Bell has started a small cottage industry in the number of books that have responded to him. Tim Challies and Kevin DeYoung were among the first full reviews, we then had the first book response by Mike Wittmer and now this by Bobby Conway. Others recently released include God Wins by Mark Galli and Erasing Hell by Francis Chan.

Many of the responses on blogs and twitter were knee-jerk responses. This brief book is more nuanced. Bobby Conway, the One Minute Apologist, realises that Bell is not a full-blown universalist. He describes him as holding a 'postmortem, nuanced purgatorial, inclusivist view of eternal destiny'. Such a view is also held by Clark Pinnock, John Polkinghorne, Gabriel Fackre - who prefers the term 'Divine perseverance' - and Donald Bloesch (at least according to Fackre) and by Marcion and Schliermacher; some have even suggested that Augustine held this view.

Conway provides a helpful critique of Bell's view of hell, but falls into the trap of polarising the many views of hell into two camps:  what he calls the traditional view - that unbelievers will suffer eternal conscious torment -  and Bell's more liberal view. He doesn't seem to realise that there are others biblical views, or if he does, does not consider them. Annihiliationism is never mentioned, for example.

The 'whatever happens when people die' - is only a discussion of the final fate, there is no discussion of what an intermediate state, if indeed one exists, might look like. His view of heaven is rather platonic. At least Bell avoids that. Conway writes: 'time does not exist in eternity. Eternity is a timeless reality that knows no end' (kindle loc 293).

Bell's approach is a soft target. His version of evangelical universalism is not well thought out. A more rigorous approach has been taken by Brad Jersak, Thomas Talbott, Jan Bonda and Gregory MacDonald (aka Robin Parry). Those who are unhappy with evangelical universalism would do better to look those views rather than Bell's popularisations; however, that might not sell as many books!

The book is accessible and well written and it is written with a passion. Conway sees hell as God's idea, it is no laughing matter, he sees it as an eternal lodging place, a place of conscious torment, he is certainly not embarrassed by the doctrine of hell and is not intimidated by 'a tolerance-based society' that has infiltrated the church. He understands Bell's position and provides a good defence of the so-called traditional view of hell. He writes with the heart and motivation of an evangelist. Watchman-like he warns the unwary of the unfortunate consequences of accepting Bell's argument if Bell is wrong.



Disclosure: this book was supplied by the Waterbrook Multnomah blogging for books program. The views are my own.

1 Cor 1:10-17 division part 3: stew

Recognise that differences need not be divisive

Church is not like Stepford wives or about producing clones where we all think and act the same.

We need to glory in our differences!

There can be unity without uniformity.

Two models for unity are a bowl of soup and a bowl of stew.

Soup is all the same – there is no variety, no difference, it is all blended together; but a bowl of stew has separate parts, yet it makes a whole. There are carrots and meat but together they make a whole, each mouthful is different but still a whole. We can see the different kinds, there is a boundary between carrot and meat. The carrot is not trying to be a piece of meat! But they work together.

We are not all the same and neither should we be!

God’s creation has many different aspects and yet it is still his creation. Why should the church be any different? Black and white is boring!

Unity within diversity – this theme is picked up late by Paul in this letter – the body is a whole but many different parts.

The danger comes when we take one aspect of creation and make it the whole. Partial truth becomes the whole truth. That’s what idolatry is. We don’t always have the whole truth.

Let’s learn the lessons of Corinth:

Let’s avoid divisions by thinking of boundaries, nuts and stews.

Let our desire be to bring glory to Jesus and not ourselves, or a particular Christian stream.
Be boundaried – but make the boundaries with fences with gates not with divisive walls.
Celebrate diversity – be a stew!
Be nuts for Jesus!
See that in him the whole thing holds together!

1 Cor 1:10-17 division part 2: nuts

Let’s go back to Corinth.

How did Paul deal with the factions? He brought them back to Christ. He asks a question: "Is Christ divided?" (Sometimes a key question can unlock situations.)

Recognise that we are one in Christ.

Christ is not split. He is the centre of all things

Lesslie Newbigin had a great phrase that sums it up: "Christ is the clue to the whole creation."

Jesus is the one that unlocks the whole creation. It is in him that everything has meaning.

Apparently, helicopters have one single nut that holds the rotors to the craft and holds the whole thing together. If that nut fails the helicopter fails. That nut is called the Jesus nut. The Jesus nut holds the whole thing together.

In Jesus the whole thing holds together. In Jesus is the whole meaning of creation.

1 Cor 1:10-17 division part 2: boundaries

One important word is boundaries

It’s a word we will need to look at again and again.

Susie and I have been reading this book on Boundaries by Cloud and Townsend – it is very insightful and helpful.

Boundaries are good – but not if they divide us.

Here in this passage boundaries became walls to divide.

But boundaries are also God-given. When God created he created different kinds. Each developed according to their own kind. If we look at creation we have a rich variety and diversity. That rich diversity and variety is what makes creation so great. So too in the church.

Each of us has a calling – that calling forms a boundary. It shows us where our limits, roles, authority, responsibilities and reach lies.

Boundaries are important – we need to know when to say No and when to say yes – boundaries can provide focus to what we do. It prevents us stretching beyond our responsibilities, going beyond what God has called us to do. We need to ask God where are our boundaries.

Boundaries are not meant to be walls to keep us in, or others out; boundaries can be fences with gates. To let the bad out and the good in. Boundaries provide freedom. The fall was the crossing of a boundary – God told Adam and Eve they could eat of any fruit but not one particular one, they were boundaried. But what did they do? Crossed the boundary – and the result was the fall.

Boundaries are important, but they should not be used to divide us.

A lot of people I’ve spoken to recently have mentioned boundary problems; though they haven’t expressed it in those terms; it might be work-home life balance, parent-child issues, job roles, the list could go on. I’ve a few boundary problems at work – I have two part-time jobs at which there is some overlap, I’m also a personal tutor for some students; the boundaries can become challenged. Everywhere I turn at the moment the question of boundaries comes up.

Another book I have been reading recently also dealt with boundaries. Richard Mouw’s brilliant book on Abraham Kuyper. Have I mentioned Kuyper before?

Anyway – as I read one section it made much sense to me and made some issues clear. I hope for some of you it will do the same – it may for some be a word in season, as it was for me, or it may be something to ponder, or it may be something you can disregard with the response He follows Kuyper!

Quote from page 25:

The way in which a parent exercises authority over a child should be different from the way a manager exercises authority over staff, or a professor over students, or a coach over team players. This means too that the skills associated with a specific mode of authority do not automatically transfer to other spheres.

Imagine a woman and a man who are related in three different ways. She is the young man's mother. She is also an elder in the church where their family worships. And she is the academic dean at the university where her son serves on the faculty. Suppose, though, that the young man commits a serious crime — using, for example, a university computer for illicit sexual purposes. As his dean she will be required to fire him. As his church elder she might participate in a decision to place him under some form of ecclesiastical discipline — requiring, say, some special expression of penitence to God and to the community as a part of a process of spiritual restoration, and if he is not repentant, she may have to agree to a decision to excommunicate him from church membership. But as his mother she continues to love him unconditionally as a member of the family; she never entertains thoughts of "disowning" him as a son.

In each case her authority role is a different one, as is also the basis for her acceptance of him within each relationship. In the university she judges his fitness to remain a member of the community by some straightforwardly formal standards of vocational performance. In the church, she also enforces certain norms, but here with a pastoral openness to repentance and spiritual renewal. In the family, the ties go much deeper — so much so that the bond is not easily broken by either bad performance or unrepentant sin. In short, the authority exercised by a dean is different from that of an elder, and each differs from the parental role. And this is because families are families, churches are churches, and the academy is the academy. So if the young man were to complain to his mother, "How can you fire me from my teaching job? — I'm your son," he would be blurring the boundaries of the spheres.

Other important word is perspectives. We all see things from our own perspective, we can’t help but!

But we need to see that we don’t see it all.

We need to try and spend time in other people’s shoes.

Proverbs 17:18

The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.

Our view of things is only partial – as this advert for the Guardian newspaper shows.

1 Cor 1:10-17 division part 1: Introduction

The section we are looking at chapter 1: 10-17 is about division in the church – when we think of division three images come to mind: boundaries, nuts and stews! So, I want to look at this passage with those three images in mind.

As you all know Paul was a prolific letter writer. Here’s a story about another letter and letter writer:

A father was amazed to see that his son’s bed was made and everything was tidy, no discarded socks or clothes anywhere. Something was obviously very wrong!

Then he saw an envelope, on the pillow. It was simply addressed: ‘Dad.’

The father opened the envelope fearing the worst. He read:

Dear Dad:

It is with great regret and sorrow that I’m writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mum and you. I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice.

But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than me and works as a lap dancer.

But it’s not only the passion…Dad she’s pregnant.

 Stacy said that we will be very happy. She thinks that it could well be my child. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children. We hope to get married as soon as her divorce comes through.

In the meantime we are praying that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She deserves it.

Don’t worry Dad. I’m 14 and I can take care of myself. Someday I’m sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren.

Your loving son John

P.S..Dad, none of the above is true. I’m over at Andrew’s house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that’s in my desk drawer.

I love you. 
Call me when it’s safe to come home.

Paul wrote at least four letters to Corinthians. 1 Corinthians is actually the second letter.

Paul evangelised Corinth on his second missionary journey – he stayed there for about 18 months. The story is told in Acts 18.

Corinth is a major Greek city and it was a major trade city. It was a Roman colony in Greece and so Roman laws and customs were important.

It was mainly a non-Jewish church, most had a background in paganism. This letter was written in response to a letter written to him and some issues raised by others.

We can see the outline of the letter here: all beginning (sort of) with the letter D:

introDuctio, Division, Discipline, Difficulties, Division, Doctrine and enDings. (See slides)

It was written by Paul around 53-55AD at the end of his time in Ephesus.

The passage we are looking at this evening looks at some of the divisions that seem to have split the Corinthian church.

This time the outline if bought to us by the letter P:

Plea for unity,
Parties of division,
Principle of being one in Christ and the
Priority of preaching.

It seems they had split into different factions or cliques: Paul, Apollos, Cephas and Christ followers

The first group: I follow Paul

If I was Paul I’d be pretty chuffed at that – I could probably justify why they should follow me (for example, I’m always right! Ask my wife!!)

But Paul isn’t – he has more in view than self-glorification; his desire is for the glory of the risen Lord (a theme he picks up later in the letter)

What is it that motivates us? Who are we seeking to glorify in what we do?

I follow Apollos

I follow Cephas

I follow Christ – here are the 'super-spirituals' – but it’s said in a way that is condescending, they follow Christ because they can get one over on the others! It’s like playing the trump card.

But Paul is not having it – even such an attitude is divisive.

That was first century Corinth – what about 21^st century Bristol? What has that to do with us? There are just as many factions today – if not more:

What about I’m for Rob Bell, or I’m for Tom Wright?

Or even I’m for Spring Harvest, I’m for Greenbelt or I’m for New Wine?

Or dare I say it. I’m 9.00, I’m 10.30 I’m 6.30 service?

We have a tendency to compartmentalise or label people to put them in boxes! We should label jars not people!

Now diversity is good – but if those diversities divide us then that’s sin. And sin needs to be repented of.

Whose church is it? Is it the 9 o’clock’s, the 10.30’s or the 6.30’s? No – it’s Jesus’! let’s not forget that!

Dealing with division in Church: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 slides

1 cor 1:10-17 division

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J Oliver Buswell on Dooyeweer's Transcendental Problems of Philosophic Thought 1949.

Here, taken from The Continuing Story - a blog of the director of the PCA Historical Center, is an early review of one of the first translation in to English of Dooyeweerd's work. Buswell's review was originally published in The Bible Today 42 (7) (1949).

Transcendental Problems of Philosophic Thought : An Inquiry into the Transcendental Conditions of Philosophy, by Dr. H. Dooyeweerd, Professor of Philosophy, The Free University of Amsterdam. Eerdmans, 1948, 80 pages, $1.50.

The philosophy of Professor Dooyeweerd is called, “Philosophy of the Idea of Law.” The author explains that the words “idea of Law” are not an adequate translation of the Dutch word Wetsidee. The phrase is used, however, for lack of a better English term. The author has been noted for his writings in the field of jurisprudence. The list of his chief works, (page 79f), includes such titles as “The Cabinet in Dutch Constitutional Law” 1917, “The Struggle for Christian Politics” 1924, “The Structure of Juridical Principles and the Method of Jurisprudence” 1930, etc. This sounds interesting. I read the book very carefully, looking for the notion of the “idea of law,” hoping to find something corresponding to the thought which the words naturally convey to the reader. I thought I was to be entirely disappointed until I came to the next to the last page of the text. There I learned that “every concept of the different aspects” is founded upon three types of ideas, those which have to do with (1) “mutual relations,” (2) “radical unity,” and (3) “Origin.” Then the author gives this explanatory statement . . . these three ideas are bound together as a coherent complex and this complex we call “the idea of law” of a philosophical system. (Page 76)

Well, if that is what Professor Dooyeweerd calls “the idea of law,” then that is what he calls it.

The author has much to say against “the autonomy of human reason.” He regards those who believe in such autonomy as not among his “congenial spirits” (page viii). He says that “… the autonomy of scientific thought is self-refuted.” (Page 49) Nowhere does the reader find a clear definition of the word “autonomy” as Professor Dooyeweerd uses it. If “the autonomy of human thought” means that human thought is independent of God, human minds not created by God, and human thinking capable of proving God in error, then of course the autonomy of human thought must be rejected by all who believe in God.

However, such a definition of the term “autonomy” would be unjustifiable. The Kantian use of the notion of autonomy certainly does not exclude external standards of truth and right, or the grace of God. See, for example, Book IV, Apotome II, Section IV, of Kant’s Religion Within the Boundary of Pure Reason. The title of the section referred to is “That conscience is at all times her own guide,” and the title of the Scholion which follows it is “Of means of Grace.”

If Professor Dooyeweerd has in mind some group of writers or teachers who have used the words “autonomy of reason” in the sense which I have described above, or in some sense inconsistent with the Calvinistic doctrine of the Sovereignty of God our Creator, then he should certainly give references for the guidance of his readers. The ordinary student who looks things up in encyclopedias, dictionaries, and works of writers with whom he is familiar, finds the phrase “autonomy of reason” to mean simply that God has created human reason with real but limited powers, just as He has given dogs and cats the power to walk alone.

The notion that human reason is not autonomous, in the sense that God has created it so, is, in this little book from Amsterdam, quite suggestive of a basically pantheistic attitude. In fact the denial of the autonomy of reason seems to imply that God has not created anything which is not actually a part, or an aspect, or an emanation of His own substance. The impression of pantheism is increased by such statements as the following

What is structure? It is an architectonic plan according to which a diversity of “moments” is united in totality. . . . Thi6 structure has a modal character, because the different aspects are not reality itself, but are only modalities of being. There does not exist a purely “physical” or “biotical” or “psychical” or “historical” or “economic” or “juridical” reality. There exist only physical, biotical, psychical, historical, etc. aspects of reality. (Page 41)

But if there does not exist a purely physical reality as such, how can the doctrine of creation be anything but a myth?

This little book contains a vast amount of generalization, as of course might be expected in a brief condensation of a “new philosophy which has been developing during the last twenty years.” (Page 15) A considerable number of the historical generalizations seem to me unjustifiable. Many are clearly erroneous, and some are fanciful. Some of the flourishes
seem very frothy. For example, in the last chapter which is entitled, “The Religious Motives of Western Thought and the Idea of Law,” we read

The fourth fundamental motive is that of “Nature and Liberty,” introduced by modern Humanism . . . The dialectical character of this humanist motive is clear. “Liberty” and “nature” are opposite motives, which in their religious roots cannot be reconciled. (Page 73)

Very exciting, but I cannot quite figure out whether this was written for the drums or for the flutes. Certainly it was never intended to be intelligible to an ordinary sensible born-again child of God who believes that the doctrine of creation is really true. My Bible does not harmonize with the notion that liberty and nature are irreconcilable. It teaches quite the opposite.

I say, Professor Dooyeweerd, if you can hear my voice from across the Atlantic, some of us Calvinists over here really mean business when we say that God created the world, and that He created man in His own image. We do not object to orchestration in its proper place, but when we make statements, our subjects and predicates are distinguishable. God is One, and the world which He has created is other than He. The tiny creatures which He has made to inhabit the world are endowed by Him with certain autonomous functions, sustained always by His power, and enabled by His common grace, or by His special grace, as
the case may be.

Even the brutes He has endowed with a certain kind of intelligence suitable for their natural state. Man, created in His image, is endowed with reason, through which in part God has chosen to work, in His sovereign grace, to accomplish the salvation of a people for the glory of His name.

With the background of Hodge and Warfield on this side of the Atlantic, we have learned much from Abraham Kuyper and Bavinck, the great Calvinists of your noble tradition. We prefer their straight-forward appeal to objective facts in the created world, and we regret that some of you younger scholars who have inherited great things from them, have failed
to build upon the four-square foundations of their rugged, consecrated scholarship.

J. Oliver Buswell

Resources for a Christian approach to law - updated

Herman Dooyeweerd, the pioneer of reformational philosophy, was a legal scholar. He wrote a number of books on a Christian approach to law. However, they may not be the best place to start!

Encyclopedia of Legal Science (Collected Works of Herman Dooyeweerd) Edwin Mellen, 1997-1998.
More details and excerpts are available here:


Others who have utilized many of Dooyeweerd’s ideas include:

E. L. Hebden Taylor
The New legality in the Light of the Christian Philosophy of Law. Philadelphia, Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co., 1967

The Christian Philosophy of Law, Politics and the State: A Study of the Political and Legal Thought of Herman Dooyeweerd of the Free University of Amsterdam, Holland and the Basis for Christian Action in the English-Speaking World.  Nutley, N.J.: Craig Press, 1966.



Alan Cameron, recently retired from Victoria University has written a number of articles available on www.allofliferedeemed.co.uk:

1995. Coase on law and economics (previously unpublished) [pdf]
1997. Implications of Dooyeweerd's legal philosophy for political theory. Nuances [electronic] 5 (August) Pt 5. (offsite)
1997. 'A Reformational Perspective on Law and Justice', Chapter 13 in Signposts of God's Liberating Kingdom: Perspectives for the 21st Century Vol. 1, 1997 (Potchefstroom: IRS.) , pp 189-204
1998. Dooyeweerd's jurisprudential method: legal causality as a case study. ALTA 1998 Conference Proceedings vol 2: 595-634.
1998. Dooyeweerd on law and morality: legal ethics - a test case. Victoria University of Wellington Law Review 28 (1): 263-281. [pdf]
1998. 'Law, justice and ethics'
2000. 'Implications of Dooyeweerd's encyclopedia of legal science' in D F M Strauss and M Botting (ed.) Contemporary Reflections of the Philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd (Edwin Mellen, NY)
2000. Between norm and fact: the jurisprudence of Herman Dooyeweerd.
This article is an edited version of a paper delivered at the Annual Conference of the Australian Society of Legal Philosophy, Australian National University, Canberra, 2000 under the conference theme of “dissenting jurisprudence.”
2004. The Encyclopedia of the Science of Law: a provisional assessment of the Legal Philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd
A paper prepared for presentation as a public lecture at Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, 27 September 2004.
2006. 'Integrity as a jural concept'. Journal for Christian Scholarship 42 (Special Issue No.1) 37-48

2023. Dooyeweerd's Critical-Empirical Theory of Law. In D.F.M.Strauss (ed.) Discovering Dooyeweerd. Jordan Station: Paideia Press, Ch 39.

2023. The Relationship between Dooyeweerd's Systematic Philosophy and his Theory of Basic Concepts of the Science of Law. In D.F.M.Strauss (ed.) Discovering Dooyeweerd. Jordan Station: Paideia Press, Ch 40.

Philosophia Reformata
http://www.philosophia-reformata.org/
Van Eikema Hommes, H. J. “The Functions of Law and the Role of Legal Principles” 1974 39 77-81
Van Eikema Hommes, H. J. “The Limits of the Legal Competence of the State”.1976 41 39,714

Journal of Christian Scholarship
D.F.M. Strauss 2005 Can Legal Rights be Assigned to "Natural Objects" such as (Plants and) Animals J. Chr Schol
S. de Freitas 2006 Religion, Legal Scholarship, and a Christian Response
S. A. de Freitas 2001 The fragility of life within the secular law sphere
Prof A.W.G. Raath 2004 The Idea of the State Subject to Law: Lessons from the German Experience 1840 – 1940.
Prof A.W.G. Raath 2005 Divine Law, Natural Law and Reason in Dutch Jurisprudence: The Rise of Moral Relativism in the Jurisprudence of the Dutch "Golden Age"

John Witte Jr
Christianity and Law: An Introduction Cambridge University Press, 2008
The Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature: vols 1 and 2. Columbia University Press 2006
The Teachings of Modern Protestantism on Law, Politics, and Human Nature. Columbia University Press 2006


David McIroy A Biblical View of Law and Justice (Paternoster, 2004)

David S. Caudill:
http://works.bepress.com/david_caudill/
"Christian Legal Theory: The Example of Dooyeweerd's Critique of Romanist Individualism and Germanic Communitarianism in Property Law" Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy 5 (2007): 33
"A Calvinist perspective on faith in legal scholarship" Journal of Legal Ed. (1997)
"Law and belief: critical legal studies and the philosophy of the law-idea" in Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought ed. M. W. Connell et al. (Yale University Press, 2002).
Property: Cases, Documents, and Lawyering Strategies (with David Crump and David Charles Hricik) (2008)
Radical Philosophy of Law: Contemporary Challenges to Mainstream Legal Theory and Practice (1995)

Updates:

Michael P. Schutt 2007. Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession. InterVarsity Press

Redeeming law blog

Cross and Gravel bibliography 

Journal of Christian Legal Thought vol 1 (1) - edited by Michael P. Scutt


C. Scott Pryor 2000. "Mission Possible: A Paradigm for Analysis of Contractual Impossibility at Regent University," St. John's Law Review 74. 

C. Scott Pryor 2005-06. "Consideration in the Common Law of Contracts: A Biblical-Theological Critique," Regent University Law Review 18:1.

C. Scott Pryor on integrating faith and law:

via regent.edu

Resources for a Christian approach to history - updated

These titles deal specifically with a reformational approach to history.
I have not included titles on a history of X, or biblical history, or specific periods – that is a task for another time (and probably another person).
My thanks to Paul Otto for helpful suggestions.

There are several reformational scholars who have worked in the area of history. These include:

• George Harinck
• C. Thomas McIntire
• Paul Otto
• M. C. Smit
• Keith Sewell
• Harry van Dyke

See also the resources at  reformational cliosophy



Herman Dooyeweerd 

1996. Christian Philosophy and the Meaning of History. Lewiston NY USA: Edwin Mellen Press. A compilation of four articles:

• 1956 Christian philosophy: an exploration. Scientia
• 1942 The meaning of history. De Zin der Geschieden
• 1958 The Criteria of Progressive and Reactionary Tendencies in History. First delivered in 1958 to the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
• 1957 The dangers of the intellectual disarmament of Christianity in science. Geestelijk Weerloos of Weerbaar?

Kevin Flatt 2026. Our Stories Are Part of God's Story: A Reformed Perspective on the Discipline of History. In Creation Regained: Disciplinary Perspectives. Dordt Press.

Harry J. Groenewold 2000. A vision of history for students. Pro Rege. 28 (4)

Harry J. Groenewold 2010. A Christian View of History: From Antiquity to the Reformation PageMaster

Kenn Hermann (nd) The Pedagogical Strengths of Teaching History Backward. 

Ben House 2008. Punic Wars & Culture Wars: Christian Essays on History and Teaching.  Covent Media Press.

Robert Knudsen 1976. History: The Encounter of Christianity with Secular Science. Cherry Hill, NJ: Mack Publishing Co.

C. Thomas McIntire
1985. Dooyeweerd's philosophy of history. In McIntire (ed.) The Legacy of Herman Dooyeweerd: Critical Philosophy in the Christian Tradition (University Press of America, 1985)
2004. Herbert Butterfield: Historian as Dissenter (Yale University Press)
1992 "History". In Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith (Westminster/John Knox,)
1977. The Renewal of Christian Views of History in an Age of Catastrophe. In McIntire (ed), God, History and Historians: Modern Christian Views of History. Oxford University Press.
1974. The Ongoing Task of Christian Historiography (Institute for Christian Studies, distributed by Wedge Press)
1976. Historical Study: A Christian Approach. Institute for Christian Studies Perspective, Supplement.
1975. God's Work in History:  The Post-Biblical Epoch. Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship Papers)
1981. The Focus of Historical Study: A Christian View. Fides et Historia 14 (1): 6-20
1984. Historical study and the historical dimension of our world,” in History and Historical Understanding, ed. C.T. McIntire and Ronald Wells (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984)
1987. Christian Views of History. In Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.) (Macmillan Free Press)

Paul Otto 2006. The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley. New York: Berghahn Books.
2004. Teaching history as creational development. Fides et Historia 36, no. 1 (Winter/Spring): 118-124.
2005. Historical studies and creational development: constructing a history program in light of a Reformed perspective. Pro Rege 34, no. 1 (Sept): 6-15.
2000. (editor) Global history or Western civilization: a symposium Pro Rege 28 (4)

Willem Ouweneel 2016. Probing the Past: An Introduction to Christian History. Paideia Press. 

K. J. Popma 

2020. Scriptural Reflections on History. Translated and edited by Harry van Dyke.  Aalten: Wordbridge.

2021. God and History. Translated by Harry van Dyke. Aalten: Wordbridge.

Keith Sewell
The Eclipse of History and the Crisis in the Humanities
2004. Fortunes of history: Historical inquiry from Herder to Huizinga. Pro Rege. 32. March 2004. 43-44.
2000. "History wars" - "Holy wars" or, history in contention. Pro Rege. 28 (4). 2-10.
2005. Herbert Butterfield and the Interpretation of History. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Calvin Seerveld 1975. The pedagogical strength of a Christian methodology in philosophical historiography. Koers 40: 269-313

Calvin Seerveld 1991. Footprints in the Snow. Philosophia Reformata 56: 1-34

M. C. Smit 2002. Toward a Christian Conception of History.  Edited and translated by Herbert Donald Morton and Harry Van Dyke

M. C. Smit 2021 (2nd edn) Writings on God and History. Edited and translated by Herbert Donals Morton and Harry Van Dyke. Dordt Press.

Harry Van Dyke 2000. Defining moments in western-global history. Pro Rege. 28 (4)

Louis J. Voskuil 2000. Western civilization or world history: a true dilemma? Pro Rege. 28 (4)

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



More general evangelical / Reformed books/ resources on history include the following

The Conference on Faith and History

The Conference on Faith and History is a community of scholars exploring the relationship between Christian faith and history. We welcome members from a variety of Christian traditions around the world. We also seek to learn from scholars outside the Christian tradition. Our primary goal is to encourage excellence in the theory and practice of history from the perspective of historic Christianity.

Fides et Historia

is a refereed journal of history that appears twice a year. Submissions are welcomed on a wide variety of topics and themes related to the intersection of Christian faith and historical inquiry. It should be stressed that FIDES ET HISTORIA does not deal only with religious or church history; the editors welcome scholarly research that is relevant to the journal’s core readership of historians who teach at Christian colleges, universities, and secondary schools. The journal also publishes reflections on theories and methods of history from a Christian perspective.

David Bebbington Patterns in History Leicester: IVP.

Maxie Burch 1996. The Evangelical Historians: The Historiography of George Marsden, Nathan Hatch and Mark Noll. Lanham: University Press of America.

Ian Clary 2015. Evangelical Historiography: The Debate over Christian History Evangelical Quarterly 87(3)

John Fea, Jay Green and Eric Miller (ed.) 2010. Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.

John Fea 2013. Why Study History? Reflecting on the Importance of the Past. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic

Nathan Finn 2016. History: A Student’s Guide: Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition Series, edited by David Dockery. Crossway.

Robert Tracy McKenzie 2019. A Little Book for New Historians: Why and How to Study History.  Little Books series. IVP.

Vern S. Poythress 2022. Redeeming Our Thinking about History: A God-Centered Approach. Crossway 

Jay D. Green 2015. Christian Historiography: Five Rival Versions. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.

Contents

Part I.
"Why study history?" Mused Clio / Dirk W. Jellema
A Christian perspective for the teaching of history / George M. Marsden
The ongoing task of Christian historiography / C.T. McIntire -
The muse meets the master : Clio and Christ / Donald A. MacPhee
History as a social science : a Christian's response / Edwin J. Van Kley

Part II.
Herbert Butterfield : the legacy of a Christian historian / William A. Speck
Kenneth Scott Latourette's vocation as Christian historian / William A. Speck -
Dooyeweerd as historian / Dale K. Van Kley
Christianity and history : a bibliographical essay / M. Howard Rienstra.

C.T. McIntire and Ronald Wells (editors) 1984. History and Historical Understanding, ed. C.T. McIntire and Ronald Wells (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984)

Scripture, history, and the quest for meaning / Langdon Gilkey --
Historical study and the historical dimension of our world / C.T. McIntire --
The difference in being a Christian and the difference it makes--for history / Martin E. Marty --
Common sense and the spiritual vision of history / George Marsden --
History, objectivity, and the Christian scholar / M. Howard Rienstra --
Christian faith and historical method : contradiction, compromise, or tension? / Robert T. Handy --
Social science history : an appreciative critique / Robert P. Swierenga --
Christianity, Christian interpretation, and the origins of the French Revolution / Dale Van Kley.

Mark Noll, George Marsden and Frank Roberts (ed.) 1975. A Christian View of History? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

W. Standford Reid 1973. The problem of Christian interpretation of history Fides et Historia 5: 96-106
W. Standford Reid 1980. Is there a Christian approach to the writing of history? Fides et Historia 12:104-113.
Ronald Wells (ed.) 1999. History and the Christian Historian. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans
Ronald Wells 1989. History Through the Eyes of Faith. HarperOne

Perspectives on Dooyeweerd's view of history

Earl William Kennedy, 1973. Herman Dooyeweerd on History: An attempt to Understand Him. Fides et Historia 6

Nick van Til 1973. Dooyeweerd’s ‘History’ and the Historian. Pro Rege 2 (1): 7-15

Dale K. Van Kley 1975. Dooyeweerd as historian in Marsden and Roberts (ed.)

The story of everything

[HT jonny baker CMS Pioneer mission blog]

Temptation 5: examples 3 oranges not peaches?

• The temptation to be oranges and not peaches


An orange is segmented – a peach is a peach all the way through.

How do we see our Christianity? The temptation is to segment it – rather than let it go all the way through.

The temptation is to split life up into sacred and secular.
The temptation is to say that Christianity is only for certain areas.

But as we know

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

If we take the lordship of Christ seriously we can’t live like oranges, we can’t split our lives up by putting a Christian icing on our secular cake.

When it comes to our work – are we confessing Christians but practicing atheists?
Christianity is more than a leisure activity: what we do on Sundays and some evenings. Our faith has to permeate all of our lives. Our thinking, our behaving and our desiring.

Let’s avoid the temptation to live as if God doesn’t exist in our business, our politics, the way we spend our time, the way we spend our money, the way we save our money, the way we spend our working hours ….

We need to be peaches not oranges!

Temptation 4: examples 2 ambulance drivers or tunnel builders?

• The temptation to be ambulance drivers rather than tunnel builders.

Let me tell you a story:

A group of devout Christians once lived in a small village at the foot of a mountain. A winding, slippery road with hairpin curves and steep precipices without guard rails wound its way up one side of the mountain and down the other. There were frequent fatal accidents. Deeply saddened by the injured people who were pulled from the wrecked cars, the Christians in the village’s three churches decided to act. They pooled their resources and purchased an ambulance. Over the years, they saved many lives although some victims remained crippled for life.

Then one day a visitor came to town, Puzzled, he asked why they did not close the road over the mountain and build a tunnel instead. Startled at first, the ambulance volunteers quickly pointed out that this approach (although technically quite possible) was not realistic or advisable. After all, the narrow mountain road had been there for a long time. Besides, the mayor of the town would bitterly oppose the idea. (He owned a large restaurant and service station halfway up the mountain.)

The visitor was shocked that the mayor’s economic interests mattered more to these Christians than the many human casualties. Somewhat hesitantly, he suggested that perhaps the churches ought to speak to the mayor. Perhaps they should even elect a different mayor if he proved stubborn and unconcerned. Now the Christians were shocked. With rising indignation and righteous conviction they informed the young radical that the church dare not become involved in politics. The church is called to preach the gospel and give a cup of cold water. Its mission is not to dabble in wordily things like social and political structures.

Perplexed and bitter, the visitor left. As he wandered out of the village, one question churned round and round in his muddled mind. Is it really more spiritual, he wondered, to operate the ambulances which pick up the bloody victims of destructive social structures than to try to change the social structures themselves?

Are we tempted to go for the short-term option of driving ambulances – or do we want to make a real difference in building tunnel?

Are we tempted to go for the easy option? For status quo plus?

Temptation 3 examples 1: cruise ship or battleship?

For most of us temptations can be classified into three types: money, sex and power.

But there are some more subtle temptations that we face. It’s those I want to finish by looking at.


• The temptation to see church as a cruise ship and not a battle ship

The temptation is to see church as a cruise ship – where we are entertained, where our needs are met; but a better image of the church is as a battleship – where we have to play our part, where we are equipped and trained, where what we do is not for ourselves but for others? The temptation is to think: what can I get out of it but it should be: what can I give?

Temptation 2 Lessons in dealing with temptation – or taking the LID off!

Lessons in dealing with temptation – or taking the LID off!

1. Temptation is not sin

As we saw in Matthew 4 Jesus was tempted.
Heb. 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin.

Temptation is not a sin – giving in to it is!
As Martin Luther once said, we can’t stop the birds flying over our head, but we can stop them nesting in our hair.


2. We can’t always resist temptation by separation from it

Charles Spurgeon: “What settings are you in when you fall? Avoid them. What props do you have that support your sin? Eliminate them. What people are you usually with? Avoid them

There is good advice here. But if taken to an extreme we will disengage from the world – and that’s not what God wants!

But it may be for some that you are in situations that you need to avoid.

However, Origen discovered that removal doesn’t always work!
He castrated himself – and yet still found he had the desires. The problem is the mind. Our mind is a battleground.

The key is to renew our minds. Be reliant upon the Spirit and on Scripture.

Jesus in the wilderness when tempted by Satan quoted scripture at him. All the scriptures Jesus quoted came from the book of Deuteronomy. No doubt that was what he was reading and meditating on. Like Jesus Get the word of God into us. Use that.

There are 5 things we need to do with scripture:

Read
Study
Hear
Memorise
Meditate- much neglected part; it helps it become part of us.

Philippians 4:8 whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.


3. Temptation is a problem for all Christians

We all face temptation. Usually it comes in three categories: Money, Sex and Power. Money might be stealing, fiddling or gambling; Sex might be pornography, sex outside of marriage; Power might be an oppressive use of it, a desire to dominate and so on.
We need to guard our hearts and minds in these areas.
No one is exempt form temptation. Even the most spiritually mature.

Jesus faced it

1Cor. 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

4. There is a limit to temptation - not beyond what we can bear 1 Cor 10. 13


5. We are to pray not to be tempted - prayer is a powerful weapon; it is the most subversive thing a Christian can do! Particularly when tempted.

Mark 14:38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation

If you are tempted pray! It’s the best defence against temptation.


6. Accountability – we have each other. If you are faced with temptations that you give into confess it to a friend. Ask them to pray for you. Ask them to ask you how’s it going?

If your problems come through the Internet – use accountability software.

7. We mess up – deal with it!
What if we do give in? Don’t let the enemy accuse us. Confess it to God – and maybe someone else - and ask forgiveness.

God has provided a way out. On the cross he dealt with our sin and our sins.
Our sin – the hardness of our hearts, our old self, has been dealt with – put on our new self, a new heart in Christ.

Also our sins the ones we continually commit that come from that sinful heart have been dealt with.

Sin and sins have been covered by what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Confess and ask for forgiveness.


There are two lies we can succumb to:
Once won’t hurt – falling down the slide may look like fun, but it hurts at the bottom!

You have blown it – giving into temptation means that that’s it. God doesn’t love you. That’s a lie of the enemy. Nothing you can do can separate you from God if you confess and ask his forgiveness.

Temptation - the slides

Temptation

View more presentations from Steve Bishop

Temptation 1 - the source

We are working our way through the disciple’s prayer and we have now come to the section: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Temptation is a bit like a kid’s slide.
We stand at the top thinking I don’t need to go down – but the look of it, the thrill of it can be attractive – then when we do give in it can be a little painful.


In many ways we think it’s like this – when in fact it’s like this or even this.
(see the slides)

Let’s look at the slide of temptation:

Source
Lessons
In  
Dealing with it
Examples of temptations we might not know we have fallen in.



The source of temptation

Lead us not into temptation – is the phrase from the disciple’s prayer. Is it then the Lord then that leads us into temptation?
This verse almost seesm to imply that.
However, the key to understanding the scriptures is to let the scriptures interpret themselves. Let’s look at the book of James:

James 1:13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;

James 1:14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

So, temptation, in part, comes from our own desires. It is from our hearts, our won desires.

There is however, another source:

Matt. 4:1  Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

Matt. 4:3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

The devil is a source of temptation. We are in a battle – we have an enemy.
The good news is that he has already been defeated!

The verses we are looking at tonight are a couplet:
Lead us not into temptation BUT deliver us from evil.


The devil is the tempter. We need to be aware of his wiles.

But we should remember that the devil is not the opposite of God – the devil is a creature but God is the uncreated, self-existent and eternal creator. God has no opposite. God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent; the devil isn’t omni anything!

He is the one who comes and tempts us and then when we fall into the temptation he says – see look how bad a Christian you are, look what you have done. He is the tempter and the accuser.

So, how can we deal with temptation? I'll deal with this in a subsequent post/

Thinking in Tongues by James K. A. Smith - a review

James K. A. Smith, Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2010, 155 pages. ISBN 978-0-8028-6184-9

What has Azusa Street to do with Geneva or even Amsterdam? Is it possible to integrate pentecostal and Calvinist or even neocalvinist views? Smith maintains that it is and with this manifesto he tries to do just that.

Reformed charismatic is obviously not an oxymoron. However, most Reformed charismatics tend to be pietist in outlook. Smith writes from a neocalvinist perspective, a perspective that rejects pietism but embraces a transformational perspective on culture and society. Smith taking his cue from Alvin Plantinga's seminal paper 'Advice to Christian Philosophers' here issues advice to pentecostal philosophers; advice that comes with more than a neocalvinist assist. Smith makes no claim to being exhaustive or comprehensive but claims to be offering an outline, a manifesto.

I must confess that the Pentecostal/ charismatic perspective sketched by Smith here is one I don't fully recognise - I wish that it were. I left a charismatic house church two decades ago because it was dualistic and had a tendency towards neo-gnosticism; if Smith is correct things have changed over the years. Smith's program[me] for pentecostal philosophy strangely warmed my heart. He identifies five 'key aspects of a pentecostal worldview'; aspects which owe much to neocalvinism:

1. A position of radical openness to God

2. An 'enchanted' theology of creation and culture

3. A nondualistic affirmation of embodiment and materiality

4. Affective, narrative epistemology

5. An eschatological orientation to mission and justice.

To each of these I would shout a loud 'Amen, preach it!' If this is pentecostal philosophy, then give me pentecostal philosophy! Smith has ably shown that a charismatic neocalvinism is a viable option. Pentecostalism is often caricatured by an escapist world-denying mentality, one that stresses the heart over the head, emotions over the rational and is profoundly anti-intellectual. Smith has adequately demonstrated that it need not be.

In chapter 3, the longest in the book, he sketches a pentecostal epistemology, making a good case for understanding it as resonating with a "'postmodern' critique of autonomous reason" (p. 52). It is not antirational, but antirationalist (p. 53). His 'core claim is that 'pentecostal worship constitutes a kind of performative postmodernism, an enacted refusal of rationalism' (p. 59). I love the way he describes a Pentecostal epistemology as being 'more like dance than deduction' (p. 82).

Chapter 4, subtitled 'Science, Spirit, and a Pentecostal ontology', takes a look at a pentecostal contribution to metaphysics. Smith maintains that a pentecostal ontology is one of 'radical openness and thus resistant to closed, immanentist systems of the sort that emerge from reductionistic metaphysical naturalism' (p. 88). He describes it as an 'enchanted naturalism' and contrasts it with reductionalistic naturalism and naive supernaturalism. He views naturalism as a spectrum from the reductiuonistic naturalism of Dan Dennett to the interventionist supernaturalism of naïve pentecostalism, passing through non-reductionistic rationalism of Arthur Peacocke, and Philip Clayton and the enchanted or non-interventionaits supernaturalism advocated here by Smith. This is a rich typology and one that will bring clarity to the discussions on naturalism(s). Smith is arguing for a supernatural materialism that contests the natural/ supernatural distinction. Here he draws, perhaps predictably considering Smith's previous works, on radical orthodox's 'participatory' ontology (p. 100).

The philosophy of religion comes under scrutiny in chapter 4. The contemporary paradigm is that doctrine is prior to worship and that ideas trump practice (p. 111). Pentecostalism challenges this. Chapter 5 is perhaps the most explicitly pentecostal, it takes a look at glossolalia (speaking in tongues) and the challenge with which it confronts the philosophy of language. Smith side steps the theological issues and focuses on the philosophical. This chapter provides a model for how pentecostals can do philosophy.

The book concludes with a heart-felt plea for others to take up the baton and so see, as Smith has stated elsewhere First Things (April 2008), pentecostals at the academic table rather being on the table as a topic of study.

Al Wolters once wrote: 'I believe that neocalvinism, if it remains true to its radical original intuition, can truly embrace the riches of other traditions, even as it shares its own with others.' Smith has done just that with this book.

 [First published in Philosophia Reformata 76 (2011): 160-162]

Philosophia Reformata 76 (2011) is now out

PHILOSOPHIA REFORMATA volume 76 (2011), no. 1

---

CONTENTS


Bruce Wearne, Introduction by guest-editor


 Articles

Jacob Klapwijk, Creation Belief and the Paradigm of Emergent Evolution

John Satherley, Emergence in the Inorganic World

Henk Geertsema, Emergent Evolution? Klapwijk and Dooyeweerd

Russ Wolfinger, Whence the Question Mark?

Bruce Wearne, Some Contextual Reflections on ‘Purpose in the Living World?’

Gerben Groenewoud, Augustine and Emergent Evolution

Chris Gousmett, Emergent Evolution, Augustine, Intelligent Design, and Miracles

Harry Cook, Creation and Becoming in Jacob Klapwijk’s Theory of Emergence



 Book Reviews

Henk Jochemsen and Jan van der Stoep, Different Cultures, One World: Dialogue between Christians and Muslims about globalizing technology (M. Verkerk).

Willem Drees, Religion and Science in Context: A Guide to the Debates (J. de Ridder)

Nicholas Wolterstorff, Inquiring About God: Selected Essays Volume I and Practices of Belief: Selected Essays Volume II (J. Smid)

James Smith, Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy (S. Bishop)



Bibliography

Gospels as eye witness accounts by Peter Williams

Williams looks at the names in the Gospels and compares them with names in the apocryphal gospels and the names in use at the time in Palestine:

The Gospels have the pattern of names we would expect them to have if they are reporting what real people said and did.

The pattern would be too complex for an ancient forger to produce.

He also looks at the geography and botany in the Gospels.

He concludes:

Can't prove everything to be historical
But if the Gospels result from conspiracy or incompetence this is not what you would expect
If the Gospels were produced on basis of stories several steps removed from eyewitnesses this is not what you expect

Bell's hell?

There are obviously two versions of Rob Bell's Love Wins book that are available. The one in which he is a universalist and the one in which he isn't.

The furorer started with Justin Taylor's post about Bell's promotional video. Piper responded with a tweet: "Farewell Rob Bell". What he meant by that is anybody's guess -- farewell from Christianity, from evangelicalism, from new calvinism, from Zondervan (the book was Bell's first from Harper Collins)? I don't know about love winning but the publicity certainly meant that the publishers won!

Why the fear? What is wrong with posing questions? I don't agree with all Bell's answers, but the questions he raises are important and need to be addressed.

How biblical is the so-called 'traditional' view of hell? Many evangelicals have taken different views on this topic - does that stop them being evangelicals or even Christian? Why the concern over boundaries - who is and who isn't an evangelical? Since when has a correct view of hell been an indicator of whether one is 'in' or 'out'? Since when has a literal reading of the Bible been an indicator of whether one is an evangelical or not?

There are many types of universalism - some may have some biblical warrant others clearly do not. Likewise, there are many views of hell - some may have biblical warrant others don't.

Here's my rough draft of a range of views:

1. Hell as a place of eternal torment/ punishment (either mental or physical or both)

2. Hell as a place of separation from God

3. Annihilation

   3.1 Conditional immortality
     3.1.1 Those in Christ are resurrected the rest are annihilated
     3.1.2 All are resurrected – then face judgment those not in Christ are then annihilated
    3.2 All are created immortal after the resurrection the unbelievers are punished and then annihilated.

4. Purgatorial view

  4.1 Hell as a place of discipline
  4.2 Hell as the opportunity for post-mortem decision

5. Inclusivism – some may be saved - even if they have not heard of Jesus - based on the revelation they have received

6. Universalism

   6.1 Christian universalism: all will be saved through what Christ has done
   6.2 Pluralistic universalism:  all will be saved – no matter what


Bell seems to hold to a version of 6.1; for example:

What Jesus does is declare that he,
and he alone
is saving everybody (p. 155)

but and it’s a big but with a form of 4.2. But it seems that human free will trumps all that God has done:

God gives us what we want, and if that's hell, we can have it.
We have that kind of freedom, that kind of choice. We are that free. (p. 72)

and

And that's what we find in Jesus's teaching about hell - a volatile mixture of images, pictures, and metaphors that describe the very real experiences and consequences of rejecting out God-given goodness and humanity. Something we are free to do, anytime, anywhere, with anyone. (p. 73)

Bell is then no universalist - we have the freedom to reject what God has done.
On the other hand he seems to be arguing as follows:

1. God is sovereign and in control of all things
2. God wants all to be saved
3. Therefore, all will be saved.

If 1 and 2 are true then 3 must follow. However, Bell seems to want to add

4. Unless we want to reject the offer of salvation

Bell is obviously questioning evangelical shibboleths- he is an iconoclast, and doesn't mind whose toes he steps on - more power to him!

The focus of the criticism has been on Bell's view of hell. This misses some of the excellent points he makes, particularly in chapter 2. This is a brilliant chapter: for example this extract:

Honest business
redemptive art
honorable law
sustainable living,
medicine,
education,making a home,
tending a garden --
they're all sacred tasks to be done in partnership with God now, because they will all go on in the age to come.
(p. 47)

Ultimately, Bell's message is that free will is sovereign: we get what we want.

Tom Wright for Everyone by Stephen Kuhrt - a review

Tom Wright for Everyone
Putting the theology of N. T. Wright into the practice of the local church

Stephen Kuhrt

SPCK, 2011

ISBN 978-0-281-06393-2

160 pp; £9.99

Theology shapes practice. Here Stephen Khurt, a vicar in New Malden, has shown how Tom Wright's theology has shaped his church. His aim in this book is to 'encourage a greater engagement with Tom Wright's theology'. 

This book works on many levels: it is an excellent introduction to the largely pietist contemporary evangelicalism in the UK (ch 2); it is a great bird's-eye summary of Tom Wright's career (ch 1) and theology (ch 3); and it shows how the latter can change the former with positive results (ch 4-7).

Khurt has written before briefly of sssh-free church and the impact Wright's ideas have had on that. Here he shows further how Wright's ideas have shaped his church's approach to pastoral care, mission and church life. Ideas really do have legs!

For ordinands this book will be a God-send. Not only does it introduce them to one of the most stimulating theologians of our age but it shows how theology can really shape practice with positive results. May the lessons Khurt has gleaned from Wright shape other congregations for the better.