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Gideon Strauss interviews me

One interesting thing that is doing the round on the blogs at the moment is the interview game. Rather rashly I asked Gideon Strauss to interview me. Here are his questions and my responses.

1. Why are you publishing the "All of life redeemed" web site?

The aim of the 'All of life redeemed' site is several fold: (i) to have fun messing about with a web site; (ii) to provide a resource for neocalvinists; and (iii) to provide a catalyst for other neocalvinists to get a website going - if I can do it why can't anyone else?

It certainly wasn't planned - as is probably obvious by the site structure etc. It started out as a place to put some of the articles I've had published. I then added a piece I was writing on reformational philsophy, I kept adding links to this page and then thought it would be a good idea to try and provide links to as many neocalvinist and Reformational sites as I could find. As an offshoot of the 'All of life redeemed' pages I've added the Clouser pages and the Wolters pages as well as the CPHM page, which will be a resource to develop Vollenhoven's approach to the history of philosophy. Both Roy and Al kindly agreed to me putting some of their stuff on-line. I've now added an index page that needs to be developed to pull all these different pages together.


2. How did you first encounter neocalvinist philosophy?

I first came across the work of Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven through Mark Roques and Richard Russell. Mark had just come back from studying at the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto and Richard was a vicar in Bath not far from where we lived. They came over and gave quite a few talks to a small group of us and 'radded us up'. I started to read Al Wolters' Creation Redeemed and Walsh and Middleton's Transforming Vision. Fortunately, Richard also ran a bookstall, so I was able to devour a lot of Reformational stuff!

3. What big questions are you asking at the moment?

The biggest one at the moment is: how on earth can I answer this question?

4. What has enticed your imagination most in the past year?

Apart from my website and the wikipedia, I suppose it is discovering a wonderful place in Devon that delivers via the Internet organic fruit and veg to the door - this has revolutionised our eating habits, making us more healthy and being better for the environment which is something I feel passionate about.

5. What good habits do you have that make your life better, and that you would recommend to others?

I'm not generally person of habits. I don't have a regular personal 'quiet time' as it used to be called (though I'd recommend that to others!). I suppose that I have been attempting to culivate what Brother Lawrence called 'practicing the presence of God'. I try to make it a habit to be continually aware of God in all and everything I do.

The other good habit my wife and I have been cultivating over the last few years is booking an evening that we can spend with each other over a nice meal - we send the kids to bed early. I certainly recommend that!



Anyone else interested in playing the interview game?

Send me a note or leave a comment. Here are the rules.


1. Leave me a comment saying "interview me". The first five commentators will be the participants.

2. I will respond by asking you five questions.

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)

Christian Studies Unit

At last an on-line Reformational bookstore in the UK. Richard Russell's Christian Studies Unit has been selling Reformational (aka neocalvinist) books for as long as I can recall. Richard was one of the people that introduced me to Dooyeweerd. Now he's put his bookstore on line. Check it out and tell him I sent you!

More on Wikipedia

A number of us neocalvinists have been working on entries on the wonderful Wikipedia site. There are now entires for a number of Reformational scholars including H. Evan Runner, Roy Clouser and Al Wolters as well as earlier generations such as: Hendrik Van Riessen, K. J. Popma, S. U. Zuidema, and J. P. A. Mekkes

High-minded machines

I received Steve Talbott's newsletter Net future today. In it he had this interesting piece:

High-Minded Machines

Consistent with the general deterioration of the environment for online exchange, NetFuture is increasingly waylaid by spam blockers. For example, some readers did not receive the last issue because (so the spam blocker blushingly informed me) the word "orgy" was used. A little surprised by the accusation of indecency on my part, I went to check, and it turned out I had referred to an "orgy of self-congratulation and utopian prediction" within the Human Genome Project. As I was eflecting upon my transgression and the spam blocker's display of programmed pure- mindedness, it suddenly struck me: Ray Kurzweil was right after all! We *are* entering an age of spiritual machines. It's just that he forgot to tell us they would be dumb as hell.

Vollenhoven on Wikipedia

My thanks to Reformatikos who has improved my meagre entry onVollenhoven on the Wikipedia site.

Reformational philosophy on Wikipedia

There is an new entry on Wikipedia: 'Reformational Philosophy' thanks to Rudi Hayward for an excellent, sucinct and concise overview. Spurred on by Rudi's efforts, I added a brief entry on Vollenhoven one of the main architects of Reformational philsosophy.

An unashamed plug

It's not very good to plug one's own work. So I won't. I'll let Gideon Strauss do it for me! Thanks Gideon.

Maclaurin mp3s

I have just spotted this excellent website:

http://www.maclaurin.org/mp3s.php

It contains mp3s of some great lectures; including ones by Calvin Seerveld and Dal Ratzsch.