A Light to the Nations - Michael W. Goheen

A Light to the Nations
The Missional Church and the Biblical Story
Michael W. Goheen
Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, 2011
ISBN 978-0-8010-3141-0, pbk, pp 242 + xiii, £14.20.


A full review is available in Koers as html and pdf.


The concept of mission has been shaped by nineteenth-century assumptions: mission is a matter of geography, it is a cross-cultural activity done by a select few individuals; some are called to mission others are not. This book book exposes these erroneous view and places mission in the context of Israel and the church. It provides a whistle-stop overview of 'the missional impulse in the biblical narrative'. It begins to explore the missional roots of the church in the Old and New Testaments. Many missional books neglect the Old Testament, Goheen does much here to redress the imbalance.


This book is inspiring and insightful - it should be required reading for all those who take the lordship of Christ seriously.

A website accompanies the book: www.missionworldview.com
There is a two page list of further reading, an eight-page subject index and a six-page Scripture index.


Contents
1. The Church's Identity and Role: Whose Story? Which Images?
2. God Forms Israel as a Missional People
3. Israel Embodies Its Missional Role and Identity amid the Nations
4. Jesus Gathers an Eschatological People to Take Up Their Missional Calling
5. The Death and Resurrection of Jesus and the Church's Missional Identity
6. The Missional Church in the New Testament Story
7. New Testament Images of the Missional Church
8. The Missional Church in the Biblical Story--A Summary
9. What Might This Look Like Today?
Indexes

It's Friday ....but Sunday's a coming!

I see a new city - Gerard Kelly

Reformational e-books (pdf) from Paideia books

The Reformational Publishing Company have been making a number of excellent reformational books available via paideia books. Thet can be found here.
Below is a list of almost 150 works in English that have been scanned and made into pdfs. There are just as many available in Dutch:

• Antonides, H. A Christian Union in Labours Wasteland
• Antonides, H. Multinationals and the Peaceable Kingdom
• Antonides, H. Stones for Bread: The Social Gospel and its Contemporary Legacy
• Bartholomew, C. Christ and Consumerism
• Bavinck, H. Calvin and Common Grace
• Bavinck, H. Christ and Christianity
• Bavinck, H. Christological Movements in the Nineteenth Century
• Bavinck, H. Presbyterian and Reformed Review: No. 10-April 1983
• Bavinck, H. Resbyterian and Reformed Review: No. 17-January, 1894
• Bavinck, H. The Certainty of Faith
• Bavinck, J.H. The Riddel of Life
• Beets, H. Johanna of Nigeria
• Boersma, T. Is the Bible a Jigsaw Puzzle
• Bolt, J. Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis in the Reformed Community Today (Christian Reformed Perspectives)
• Bolt, J. Anakainosis Volume Six, No. 2: The Imitation of Christ Theme in the Cultural-Ethical Ideal of Herman Bavinck
• Bolt, J. Christian and Reformed Today
• Christian Teachers, . Bible Studies Grade 4
• Christian Teachers, . Social Studies Grade 1
• de Graff, S.A. Christ and Government
• De Jong, N. The Separation of Church and State: The Myth Revisited
• De Jong, P.Y. The Church's Witness to the World
• DeGraaf, S.G. Promise and Deliverance I: From Creation To The Conquest Of Canaan
• DeGraaf, S.G. Promise and Deliverance II: The failure of Israel's Theocracy
• DeGraaf, S.G. Promise and Deliverance III: Christ's Ministry and Death
• DeGraaf, S.G. Promise and Deliverance IV (Christ and the Church)
• DeGraaff, A.H. The Nature and Aim of Christian Education
• Dengerink, J. The Idea of Justice in Christian Perspective
• Dengerink, J.D. The Necessity of Christian Universities
• Dengerink, J.D. The Power of the Reformation in Political Life
• DeVries, A. Story Bible for Older Children (New Testament)
• DeVries, A. Story Bible for Older Children (Old Testament)
• Diemer, J. Nature and Miracle
• Dooyeweerd, H. A New Critique of Theoretical Thought I-II
• Dooyeweerd, H. A New Critique of Theoretical Thought III-IV
• Dooyeweerd, H. Creation and Evolution
• Dooyeweerd, H. Introduction to a Transcendental Criticism of Philosophic Thought
• Dooyeweerd, H. Reconstruction and Reformation
• Dooyeweerd, H. Roots of Western Culture: Pagan, Secular, and Christian Options
• Dooyeweerd, H. Secularization of Science
• Dooyeweerd, H. Sociology of Law and It's Philosophical Foundations
• Dooyeweerd, H. The Analogical Concepts
• Dooyeweerd, H. The Contest About the Concept of Sovereignty in Modern Jurisprudence and Political Science 1
• Dooyeweerd, H. The Criteria of Progressive and Reactionary Tendencies in Histrory
• Dooyeweerd, H. The Theory of Man: Thirty-two Propositions on Anthropology
• Evan, H.E. Christian Philosophical Enterprise in the Light of Biblical Prophecy
• Frey, B. At Work and Play
• Goudzwaard, B. Capitalism and Progress: A Diagnosis of Western Society
• Goudzwaard, B. Economic Stewardship Versus Capitalist Religion
• Gousmett, C. Anakainosis Volume Seven, No. 1 and 2: Bavink and Kuyper on Creation and Miracle
• Gousmett, C. Anakainosis Volume Six, No. 2: Descartes Theory of Contingency
• Groen van Prinsterer, G. Selected Studies
• Groen van Prinsterer, G. The History of the Revolution in its First Phase: The Preparation (till 1789) (His Unbelief and Revolution; a Series of Lectures in History, Lecture
• Groen van Prinsterer, G. Unbelief in Religion and Politics: Unbelief and Revolution Lectures VIII-IX
• Hultink, J. A Prayer Recital
• Ingram, W. At Work and Play
• Jager, O. Meditations on the Christian Holidays
• Knudsen, R.D. Sociology
• Kuyper, A. Biblical Doctrine of Election
• Kuyper, A. Bibliotheca Sacra: Calvinism: The Origin and Safeguard of our constitutional Liberties
• Kuyper, A. Bibliotheca Sacra: The Biblical Criticism of the Present Day
• Kuyper, A. Christianity and the Class Struggle
• Kuyper, A. Implications of Public Confession
• Kuyper, A. Lectures on Calvinism
• Kuyper, A. Sphere Sovereignty
• Kuyvenhoven, A. Daylight
• Marshall, P. Labour of Love Essays on Work
• Marx, K. The Roots of His Thought
• McKendree, R. The Practice of Political Spirituality: Episodes from the Public Career of Abraham Kuyper, 1879-1918
• McWhertor, T.E. At Work and Play
• Moritz, T. Christ and Consumerism
• Olthuis, J. Anakainosis Volume Seven, No. 1 and 2: John Calvin on Creation
• Olthuis, J.H. Must the Church Become Secular
• Olthuis, J.H. Reality of Societal Structures
• Olthuis, J.H. The Word of God and Science
• Ouweneel, W. Heart and Soul a Christian View of Psychology
• Polman, A.D.R. Modern Thinkers Series: Barth
• Popma, J.K. Calling, Task and Culture
• Popma, K.J. Anakainosis Volume Six, No. 3: First the Jew but also the Greek
• Praamsma, L. Before the Face of God I-XXIV
• Praamsma, L. Before the Face of God XXV-LII
• Praamsma, L. Let Christ Be King: Reflections on the Life and Times of Abraham
• Praamsma, L. The Church in the Twentieth Century -- Elect From Every Nation (Volume VII)
• Ridderbos, H. Modern Thinkers Series: Bultmann
• Ridderbos, H. Studies in Scripture and its Authority
• Ridderbos, H. The Coming of the Kingdom
• Ridderbos, H.N. When the Time Had Fully Come: Studies in the New Testament Theology
• Romanowski, W.D. At Work and Play
• Roper, R.L. An Ancient History Review
• Roper, R.L. NaiveExperienceNarrativeScriptureReligiousGroundMotivesandScientificHistoriographyConcernedwiththeAncientPast
• Rowe, W.V. Anakainosis Volume Six, No. 2: On the Distinction Between Continental and Analytical Philosoohy
• Runner, H.E. Christian and the World
• Runner, H.E. Christianity and Humanism
• Runner, H.E. Life is Religion
• Runner, H.E. Point Counter Point
• Runner, H.E. Radical Christian Facing Today's Political Malaise
• Runner, H.E. Scriptural Religion and Political Task
• Runner, H.E. The Christian and the World
• Runner, H.E. The Development of Calvinism in North America on the Background of its Development in Europe
• Runner, H.E. The Relation of the Bible to Learning
• Schutte, G.J. Groen van Prinsterer: His Life and Work
• Schuurman, E. Christian in Babel
• Schuurman, E. Reflections on the Technological Society
• Seerveld, C. Anakainosis Volume Seven, No. 1 and 2: The Status of Aesthetic Theory in English-speaking Canada
• Sietsma, K. The Idea of Office
• Smit, M.C. Writings on God and History
• Spykman, G.J. Christian Faith in Focus
• Steen, P.J. The Structure of Herman Dooyewerd's Thought
• Strauss, D.F.M. Being Human in God's World
• Strauss, H.J. Politics, Economic Dilemmas and Trade-Unionism
• Strausss, D.F.M. Man and His World
• Taljaard, J.A.L. Social Theory & Practice
• Taylor, E.L.H. Reformation or Revolution
• Taylor, E.L.H. The Christian Philosophy of Law, Politics and the State
• Taylor, H. The New Legality
• Teachers Manual, . Introduction to Biblical Studies
• Teacher's Manual, . Social Studies Grades 1-3
• Teacher's Manual, . Social Studies Grades 1-3, Unit 1
• Van Brummelen, H. Mathematics in the Christian School
• Van Riessen, H. Modern Society in the Light of the Lordship of Jesus Christ
• Van Riessen, H. Modern Thinkers Series: Nietzsche
• Van Riessen, H. The Society of The Future
• Van Riessen, H. The University and its Basis
• Vanden Berg, F. Abraham Kuyper
• Vander Stelt, J.C. Church in Society
• Vanderwaal, C. Hal Lindsey and Biblical Prophecy
• Vanderwaal, C. Search the Scriptures Vol. I Genesis-Exodus
• Vanderwaal, C. Search the Scriptures Vol. III Samuel-Esther
• Vanderwaal, C. Search the Scriptures Vol. IV Job-Song of Songs
• Vanderwaal, C. Search the Scriptures Vol. IX Corinthians-Philemon
• Vanderwaal, C. Search the Scriptures Vol. VI Hosea-Malachi
• Vanderwaal, C. Search the Scriptures Vol. VII Mathew-Luke
• Vanderwaal, C. Search the Scriptures Vol. VIII John- Romans
• Vanderwaal, C. Search the Scriptures Vol. X Hebrews- Revelation
• Vanderwaal, C. Search the Scriptures Vol.II Leviticus-Ruth
• Vanderwaal, C. Search the Scriptures Vol.V Isaiah-Daniel
• Veenstra, J. Pioneering for Christ in the Sudan
• Veldkamp, H. Waiting for Christ's Return: On Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians
• Venema, C. P. The Promise of the Future
• Vollenhoven, D.H.Th. Faith: Its nature and structure, and its significance for science
• Von Meyenfeldt, F.H. The meaning of Ethos
• Vrieze, M. Introduction to Sociology
• Waterink, J. Basic Concepts in Christian Pedagogy
• Wolters, A. Anakainosis Volume five, No. 4: Rank and Worth
• Wolters, A. Anakainosis Volume Six, No. 1: Ground-Motive
• Wolters, A. Anakainosis Volume Six, No. 3: These on "Word of God"
• Zuidema, S.U. Common Grace and Christian Action in Abraham Kuyper
• Zuidema, S.U. Existentialistic Communication
• Zuidema, S.U. Modern Thinkers Series: Satre
• Zylstra, B. Z. Hegal, Marcuse, and the New Left

Abraham Kuyper's Common Grace - a new translation project

The Acton Institute and Kuyper College are collaborating to bring for the first time to English-language audiences a foundational text from the pen of the Dutch theologian and statesman, Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper’s three-volume work, Common Grace (De gemeene gratie) appeared during his tenure as prime minister in the Netherlands, from 1901 to 1905.

These works are based on a series of newspaper editorials intended to equip common citizens and laypersons with the tools they needed to effectively enter public life. The doctrine of common grace is, as Kuyper puts it, “the root conviction for all Reformed people.”
“If the believer’s God is at work in this world,” says Kuyper, “then in this world the believer’s hand must take hold of the plow, and the name of the Lord must be glorified in that activity as well.”
Dr. Stephen Grabill, director of programs at the Acton Institute, serves as general editor of the project, and he points to the contemporary need to understand Kuyper’s comprehensive and cohesive vision for Christian social engagement. “There are a host of current attempts to try to describe how evangelicals should be at work in the world. Kuyper’s articulation of the project of common grace shows how these efforts must be grounded in and flow naturally from sound doctrine.”
The translation and publication project will cover a two year period, and the three volumes total over 1,700 pages in the original. Dr. Nelson Kloosterman of Worldview Resources International and translator of numerous Dutch texts serves will oversee the translation of the texts. The completed translation will be published by Christian’s Library Press, the recently acquired imprint of the Acton Institute. Volume one of Common Grace is scheduled to appear in the fall of 2012.

For more details see here

Contours of the Neo-Calvinist Tradition

An updated version is now here.

Contours of the Neo-Calvinist Tradition

Mike Goheen and Craig Bartholomew

22 February 2011

1. Neocalvinism begins with Christ and this focus opens up into a full Trinitarian faith.
2. Christ is rendered to us truly in Scripture, which is fully trustworthy as God’s Word.
3. Christ stands at the centre of the biblical story and the good news he proclaimed is about the kingdom as the goal of history—God restoring his rule over the whole of human life and creation.
4. Since Christ has revealed and accomplished the end of history the Scriptures have a storied shape, and as such tell the true story of the whole world.
5. A central theme in the biblical story is God’s election of a people to embody the kingdom, to be a preview of the goal of history, and thus to bear witness to Christ’s rule over all of life – this constitutes mission.
6. The comprehensive gospel of the kingdom has been narrowed and consigned to a very minor place within the dominant Western humanist worldview, and this calls for a conscious articulation of a biblical worldview in relation to the cultural worldview to enable the church to recover the all-embracing scope of the good news.
7. The good news reveals the restoration of the creation from sin, and thus a neocalvinist worldview insists on a comprehensive and integrated understanding of creation, fall and restoration.
8. The fundamental backdrop of God’s drama of restoration is creation and thus neocalvinism articulates a rich doctrine of creation including its good and dynamic creation order and humanity’s place within it.
9. History is part of God’s order for creation and thus neocalvinism affirms the historical development or differentiation of creation.
10. The implication of the fall is that the power of sin and evil now radically twists every part of creation, and while the structures of creation remain good the distorting power of sin means they have been radically misdirected.
11. The Bible tells the story of restoration centred in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which is the recovery of God’s originally good purposes for the whole of his creation and all of human life.
12. Since God’s restorative power is at work in the creation by the Spirit, and the forces of evil remains at work in the creation, neocalvinism recognizes an ultimate religious conflict in the whole of human life.
13. God is at work leading his creation to its destiny of a new heavens and a new earth, and only then will the kingdom finally come. Until then the church is called to participate in God’s redemptive mission—the missio Dei—as witnesses to his victory, but since we await the final victory there is no room for triumphalism in neocalvinism.

My thanks to Mike Goheen for permission to post this.

Mike Goheen's paraphrase of the disciples' prayer (Mt 6:9-13)

May your kingdom come so that your name may be hallowed throughout the earth as prophets have promised.
May your kingdom come so that your will is accomplished on earth.
May your kingdom come so that the earth may again abound in prosperity, the hungry may be fed, and the needs of people met.
May your kingdom come so that the world might be liberated from sin, and that forgiveness might wash over the earth.
May your kingdom come; and when it encounters powerful resistance, keep us from succumbing to the temptation and trial, to the power of the evil one.
May your kingdom come fully one day - and may there be signs and evidences of its power even now.

Mike Goheen A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story p. 97.

Kuyper sightings!

I have spotted the following works by Abraham Kuyper on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library:

The Mystery of Islam
You Can Do Greater things Than Christ
Calvinism: The Stone Lectures

A Light to the Nations by Mike Goheen

Mike Goheen's new book, A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Society is now out - I've recently got my copy and am working my way through it. A review will come shorlty. Suffice to say it is brilliant!

A website to accompany the book will be launched soon:

Seerveld on Bible and creation

While we as God's people necessarily go first to the Bible (Ephesians 6:4) for the Lord's disciplining and setting our consciousness straight: while we search the gospels, proverbs, Psalm 19, the prophets and epistles to be convicted in depth of the reality of creation, the historicity of sin, the lordship of Yahweh revealed in Jesus Christ and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit among his people until the Lord finally returns: that is, while we go first of all to Holy Scripture to get biblical eyesight, biblical insight, and to receive the fear of the Lord which is the headstart of wisdom, then we who become adopted children of God and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit must needs go search creation for drafting our fallible, christian solutions to the problems facing us in our sin-cursed world and society-which still belongs to the Lord and us!


That's nothing new. But I'm saying with the authority of God's written Word, Psalm 19, that no follower of Jesus Christ need be uneasy about whether study of biology, psychology or aesthetics is full-time kingdom service for the Lord. According to Psalm 19 creation is a revelation of God's will; so if you are humbly studying plant creation, emotional or artistic creatureliness, and are busy trying to discern the will of God there to foster obedience and the blessing it brings, what more can one ask for a kingdom mission and full-time christian service? Of course, if your biological theory is Lamarckian or Teilhard de Chardinian and your psychology is soft-Skinnerian or Jungian, and your aesthetics is Crocean or a mixture of Hume and Dewey, you should be very uneasy as a Christian, because your study is supposed to be christian! (intrinsically doxological) scientific analysis. Otherwise you perjure: the plants, the emotional and artistic reality whose tongue-talk God finds good and wants translated into a true, praiseworthy interpretation.

We must not succumb to the temptation to use the Bible as an answer sheet to check out our biological taxonomy, as a chart of personality types, or like a Ouija board to determine "what now is art and music?” That would be a cheap misuse of the Bible and express an illegitimate, Immature desire for a ready-made, instant christian culture that shoves off on god what he entrusts us to do historically, generations mindful of the generations still to come. What we need is a richer grasp of creation in our christian philosophy and evangelical theology, and a new, urgent sense of doing scholarship as a community of saints, so that we can live with the spill-over of Christ's promise in John 14-17 that the Holy Spirit will indeed lead us who are faithful to the end in the way of Truth (of. especially 16:12-15).

Calvin Seerveld Rainbows for the Fallen World ch 1.

What is a trader?

[HT gore and glory]

D H Th Vollenhoven Isagoge Philosophie (ed. by A. Tol)

D. H. Th. Vollenhoven
Isagoge Philosophiae 1930-1945: 
Tekstkritische uitgave 
Filosophie in die traditie van de Reformatie
Anthony Tol (editor)
VU Uitgeverij, Amsterdam, 2010
ISBN 978 90 8659 441 2; pp. 466; pbk

Vollenhoven's Isagoge, has gone through many versions and translations. Tol, as part of his doctoral dissertation, has assembled here the ultimate critical edition. He has complied and edited together all Vollehoven's many version to provide the definitive text-critical edition in Dutch. This is a monumental work. All we need now is an English version!

More details in Dutch here.

The Great Divide by Mark Greene

The Great Divide
Mark Greene
LICC: London, 2010. £2.95, 30pp
ISBN 978-0-903-452-43-4

This colourful short booklet takes a look at major disease that has gripped the church: SSD.

SSD takes many forms and has many symptoms: not least praying for people to go on short-term mission abroad, but neglecting to pray for them when at work; thinking that full-time Christian ministry only takes place in church-related activities; a failure to help students enagage with their studies from a Christian perspective; I could go on ... SSD is the sacred-secular divide. The body of Christ is a unity, there can be no splits. All Christians are in full-time Christian ministry - there are no part-time Christians; we don't take off our Christianity when we go into the office, classroom or work place. Christianity should be a full-time activity, sadly, we often make it a leisure-time activity. The first two chapters examine the issue and the symptoms. Greene helpfully documents it with much anecdotal evidence, such as the businessman who said, 'The church appreciates my tithe but not the enterprise that gives rise to it', or the student who claimed: 'The CU completely ignored why we were at university'.

This SSD is a dualism is pernicious and it is prevalent. It is also 'the greatest missiological challenge facing the church' (p. 16). In the final three chapters some of the ways in which SSD can be healed are examined. Rightly, the emphasis on on taking a whole-life view of Christianity. In chapter 4 he asks the question: how shall we move ahead? and makes some helpful suggestions. The final section entitled next steps looks at some of the resources produced by LICC.

This is an accessible and much needed booklet. As Greene points out none of us are immune to SSD, but forewarned is forearmed. This booklet does a great job in forewarning.


Some resources for tackling SSD are found here.

200 years that changed the world

Florence Nightingale on Statistics

"

"To understand God's thoughts, we must study statistics for these are the measure of His purpose" Florence Nightingale

Nightingale was the originator of the polar area diagram - the forerunner of the pie chart.

Redeeming Law by Michael P. Schutt

Redeeming Law
Christian Calling and the Legal Profession
By Michael P. Schutt
IVP, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-0-8308-2599-8
290 pp, pbk, £14.82

This is a superb book. Michael Schutt has put Christian lawyers in his debt. This is a must-read book for all Christian lawyers and perhaps more importantly for their pastors.

He shows that a Christian lawyer, contrary to popular opinion, is not an oxymoron.

The book is in three main parts: the lost lawyer; integrity; and integrity in practice. In the first Schutt exposes the jettosoning of the law's moorings in the Christian faith to be replaced by a form of instrumentalism . No longer is law transcendent but it has become a social construct that knows nothing of its religious roots and presuppositions. He also shows how the church's neglect of the concept of vocation has served to secularise law.

This first section is an excellent overview of secularisation in general and how it applies to law and lawyers in particular. The result has been an emphasis on personal piety to the exclusion of transformational aspects of faith: 'Personal piety alone is insufficient to the task of bringing one's law practice under the headship of Christ' (p. 82).

Part two looks at ways of becoming more integrated and whole in the approach to faith and law. It focuses on the lawyer. It provides tools and insights for combatting the influence of dualism. He rightly places an emphasis on community and accountability. We cannot be lone disciples. It is good to read of the importance of 'spiritual disciplines' in the context of a transformational approach. We need to be who God wants us to be so that we can do what God wants us to do (p. 175). As the church restores and recaptures  vocational thinking then it really can become the place where 'lawyers can learn how to love God as lawyers' (p. 129). Discipleship and worldview can embrace.

The final part looks at the law in practice - here he draws upon the work of Scott Pryor who develops a 'paradigm for integrated thinking', a biblical-theological integration in the law. This provides a good foundation in which to develop a Christian perspective on the role of lawyer as advocate and as consellor, which Schutt does here.  In an appendix he examines: the doctrine of the atonement as it relates to theories of punishment; biblical perspectives on contract consideration in the common law; and the Sermon on the Mount as it illuminates the criminal law. These provide excellent models of law-faith integration.

At the end of each chapter are excellent questions that promote self-reflection and would be ideal for group debate and discussion.

Schutt draws upon a wide range of resources including  Kuyper, Richard Foster, Newbigin, William Blackstone and natural law. I'm more agnostic about natural law than Schutt, but much of what he says about natural law isn't much different to the common grace perspective.

The book also provides a model for other professions - not only lawyers will benefit  from this book, but anyone involved in a vocation (and that includes us all!). It will provide much food for thought and a much needed challenge to integrate faith and career; it will certainly help bridge the sacred-secualr and private-public divide that has stunted much of Christian discipleship.

I originally started to read this book on my kindle - it was so good I had to get a hard copy so that I could lend it out. If I was a law maker I would create a new law to make this compulsory reading for all lawyers. If you are a pastor with a lawyer in the congregation, I humbly suggest that, this should be mandatory reading.


Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part I. The Lost Lawyer
1. The Lost Lawyer
2. The American Law School Experience
3. Vocation and the Local Church
4. Thinking about Lawyering

Part II. Integrity
5. Integrity
6. Unity and the Integrated Lawyer
7. Community and Trinitarian Lawyering
8. Truth and the Integrated Lawyer
9. Integrity in Practice: Spiritual Disciplines

Part III. Integrity in Practice
10. Professional Identity, Integrity and Modernity
11. Lawyers' Vices--Lawyers' Virtues
12. Law and Truth

Conclusion
Appendix
Author and Subject Index
Scripture Index

G.O.S.P.E.L.

Nancy Pearcey on the sacred-secualr split

The Wilderness and the Desert of the Real - Geoff Hall

The Wilderness and the Desert of the Real
Part 1 of 4 in Spiritual Direction in a Postmodern Landscape
Geoff Hall
Upptackka Press
ISBN 978-0-9568034-0-5
pbk, 59pp, £

What is Christian art? How does spirituality and art relate? What does it mean to be a Christian artist?

Is it more than painting biblical scenes or painting a sheep in each picture?  Geoff Hall maintains that it is more than that. In this, the first of four books, he looks at the calling of the Christian artist. A calling that involves desert and wilderness: 'between the Call and its realisation, comes The Wilderness!' p. 14. In the wilderness God can create a depth of character and experience that will help shape the artists work - and hopefully move beyond painting sheep in the picture!

Hall is not advocating an interaction of art and spirituality, an icing of spirituality on the cake of art he is seeking a robust integration of spirituality and art, of art and spirituality. Neither is he wanting an art through theology approach, as he rightly observes 'art is not theology' (p 33).

This is a great brief book; it can be read in less than an hour but will take hours to digest and meditate on the wisdom and insight it contains.

Contents

Introduction                                   10
Cast of Characters                         13
Direction through a Weary Land   17
At Work in the Digital Babel         21
The Desert of the Real                   25
Synthetic Spirituality                     31
Notebook                                       34
Also in this series                          52
About the author                           54



Arts Mentoring Group
Upptacka

Available from
Lulu
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Book depository

Rob Bell interviewed by Martin Bashir

Music for a Sunday morning

The Sketch Show UK - Phobias Workshop

[HT Robin Parry]

Odds and sods

2K or not-2K [HT Gregory Baus via google reader] - argues that VanDrunen's 'clarification .. only serves to reinforce the problem'
Newbigin study guides - courtesy of Tony Stiff
Paul Copan on his recent interaction with Richard Dawkins
Tell publishers why you didn't buy a book
How to discuss Rob Bell without killing each other

Reformed academic reviews of Calvin and culture - update

Reformed Academic are posting a series of reviews of each the chapters of David W. Hall and Marvin Padgett, Calvin and Culture: Exploring a Worldview (P&R, 2010). I mentioned this before - but it's such a great series it's worth mentioning again, particularly as two more chapter reviews have been posted:

Chapter 1 History
Chapter 2 Law
Chapter 3 Art
Chapter 4 Economics
Chapter 5 Literature
Chapter 6 Philosophy
Chapter 7 Politics
Chapter 8 Science

Music for a Sunday morning

Defiant Joy by Kevin Belmonte - a review

Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life and Impact of G. K. Chesterton
Kevin Belmonte
Thomas Nelson, 2010
336 pp; £10.99; pbk
978-1595552013

Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936) is a multi-faceted character. He is a detective writer, a biographer, an apologist, a poet, a cultural critic among many other things. He has been called an 'apostle of common sense' (Dale Ahlquist), 'a theologian' (Aidan Nichols) and 'a prophet for the twentieth century' (Aidan Mackey). Numerous biographies have been written about him. So why the interest in him and why another biography? Particularly as a major biography is soon to be released in 2011 by Ian Ker published by OUP.

What makes this book by Belmonte, stand out? This is not a biography in the normal sense of the word - its first chapters are biographical covering the period form his birth through his 'dark night of the soul' while at the Slade school of Art, his marriage to Frances Blogg and his career as a journalist and writer (chapters 1-4). The rest of the book looks at Chesterton's key work in chronological order and uses them to look at the man and, as the subtitle suggests, his impact. Thus it provides an interesting slant on a biography and we get a fuller look at Chesterton's work than we would in a traditional biography.

Belmonte makes good use of secondary sources - he utilises at least ten other biographies. He also draws upon contemporary reviews and criticisms of Chesterton's work; this serves well to place Chesterton's work in its cultural milieu. It is fascinating to read what H L Mencken, G B Shaw and T S Elliott made of Chesterton.

There is a helpful timeline and bibliography, there are 29 pages of notes, but, unfortunately, no index.

This is a great starting book for those who want to get to know better the life and works of G K Chesterton.



Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Reformed academic reviews of Calvin and culture

Reformed Academic are posting a series of reviews of each the chapters of David W. Hall and Marvin Padgett, Calvin and Culture: Exploring a Worldview (P&R, 2010)

Chapter 1 History
Chapter 2 Law
Chapter 3 Art
Chapter 4 Economics
Chapter 5 Literature
Chapter 6 Philosophy

Other chapters will no doubt follow.

Clifford Stoll on computers in school

Jamie K A Smith - The Spirit of Knowledge

Tim Challies: The Next Story - coming soon

Available soon from amazon.co.uk

John Lennox and Peter Atkins - debate

Is intelligent design a lazy option? Or does science increase the evidence for design?
God and science or God or science?

2 Corinthians 7: joy and encouragement

Here are my slides for last night's talk:

2 Corinthians 7

View more presentations from Steve Bishop.

Music for a Sunday morning

[HT RefWrite]

Music for a Sunday morning

Creativity and cultural power - Andy Crouch

Herman Dooyewerd's Collected Works

The Reformational Publishing Project and Paideia Press are working hard to get out the Collected works of Herman Dooyeweerd out at an affordable price.


Crisis in de Humanistische Staatsleer has been translated and recently published at £7. More details here.

Also forthcoming are the following.
(Thanks to Danie Strauss for providing the contents of each one)


  The Historical and two Systematic Volumes of the Encyclopedia of the Science of Law contents

  The collection of Essays on Time, Law and History contents

  Essays on the Transcendental Criticism

  Volume II of Reformation and Scholasticism in Philosophy: An Introduction to the anthropology of the philosophy of the cosmonomic idea contents

  Volume III of Reformation and Scholasticism: Philosophy of nature and philosophical anthropology

contents

  Dooyeweerd’s Inaugural Address contents

  Philosophy and theology

Mark Roques on Pemier radio

This week on Unbelievable : Human Value & Subversive Stories

Off-duty policemen in Bogota, Columbia shoot street children because they consider them to be "disposables". Using stories such as this Mark Roques asks whether value in human life can be found anywhere other than our being made "In the image of God". Atheist Paul Thompson argues that we don't need a supernatural explanation for the value we place on human beings. They discuss the issue of where human value comes from and Mark's "Subversive Questions and storytelling" method of apologetics.

via premier.org.uk

 

Music for a Sunday morning

prayer

Good morning, Lord! What are You up to today? Can I be a part of it? Thank You. Amen.

Norman Grubb

Great news on Dooyeweerd publications - they will now be affordable!

Kerry Hollingsworth of Reformatonal Publishing Project recently announced on thinknet:

The Reformational Publishing Project and Paideia Press are very pleased to announce that we will be publishing new translations of major writings in The Collected Works of Herman Dooyeweerd as well as republishing older volumes that have already appeared under the Mellon imprint. The first new work, The Crisis In Humanist Political Theory, 214 pages, $9.00 is published and is now available at Amazon immediately.

The next volume to appear will be the publication of the second volume of Reformation and Scholasticism in Philosophy which we hope will be available in the early Summer. Subsequent volumes will include the third volume of Reformation and Scholasticism in Philosophy, as well as titles from the five volume The Encyclopedia of the Science of Law.

After these works we will begin to republish all of the titles that have already been published but in a standard six by nine format with paper cover. It is presently our aim to produce all of these several volumes for under twenty dollars. Most volumes should appear in the nine dollar to fifteen dollar range. The Works of Dooyeweerd will now be available in professionally produced editions but at completely affordable prices.

We are presently planning for the publication of twenty five volumes. They will appear in the same series setup already established by the general editor Danie Strauss, namely an A, B, and C series.

My copy of The Crisis in Humanist Political Thought has just arrived.

The book was originally published [in Dutch] in 1931. In the preface Dooyeweerd writes: "For the time being this book may serve a more systematic account of the fundamentals of the theory of knowledge and the view of reality I have worked out at length in my forthcoming book De Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee."

The crisis mentioned in the title is 'best described as one of "a theory of the state without a state"' (p. 1)

Contents
Editor's Foreword
Author's Preface

Part I
The crisis in humanist political theory and modern attempts to resolve it

Introduction
1 Origin and nature of the crisis in humanist political theory
2. The humanist view of reality and epistemologv behind the crisis of humanist political theory
3. Nominalistic individualism and the elimination of meaning-individual structural differences of temporal reality as a result of this view of reality and its epistemologv. Its manifestation in modern humanist political theory
4 The crisis of the humanist personality ideal beneath the crisis of
humanist political theory
5. The modern reaction to the crisis in humanist political theory. Attempts to reconstruct it on the basis of a dialectical phenomenology. The Berlin School and the Integration Theory. The new humanist view of reality and epistemologv in this theory.

Part II
A Calvinist view of the state versus the crisis in humanist political theory

1. The meaning-structure of cosmic reality in light of the Christian idea of law and subject
2. The meaning-individual thing-structure of organized human communities. The refutation of the reasoning of dialectical phenomenology. A critical examination of the theory of organized communities as advanced by Gierke and Preuss
3. The relation between political theory, the discipline of constitutional law and sociology in the light of our Calvinist cosmology. Political theory as a cosmological theory of the structure of the state. The cosmological principle of sphere-sovereignty as applied to the question of juridical competence. Rejection of pluralist (syndicalist) theories

Appendix A-F
Works Cited
Index of Names
Index of Subjects

Jan Lever (1922-2010)

The biologist Jan Lever died at the age of 88 on 23 November 2010. He was the professor of zoology at the Free University (VU) of Amsterdam from 1952 until 1986. For most of his life he pondered how the biblical narratives and science could interact. It was fitting that the day after his death Een Bioloog Leest de Bijbel [A biologist reads the Bible] was published.

He was born on 20 July 1922 in Groningen, aged 2 he moved to Den Helder, where his father was the head of a school. He was always fascinated by creation. In 1939 he studied biology at Utrecht and studied  evolution. He refused to sign the Nazi loyalty oath so in 1942 he had to go into hiding. It was during that time he studied Dooyeweerd's Wijsbegeerte der Wetside (philosophy of the law idea) and explored ways his faith and science could work together. He also continued to work on his thesis.

He obtained his doctorate in 1950. In 1952 he joined faculty of the VU. In his inaugural lecture he presented his belief in God's creation with the evolutionary process as the means by which God created. He developed this much more in his book Creation and Evolution (1956 - English translation 1958).

A series of radio talks were published as Where are we? A Christian Perspective on Evolution were published in Dutch in 1969 and in English in 1970. After his retirement in 1986 he wrote and published a book on trees.


Ab Filipse Dec 2010 In Memoriam prof. dr. Jan Lever (1922-2010)
Een bioloog leest de bijbel (2010)

Christ Has No Online Presence but Yours

Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours,
Yours are the tweets through which love touches this world,
Yours are the posts through which the Gospel is shared,
Yours are the updates through which hope is revealed.
Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours.

From dotMagis [via Susie Bishop]

All of life redeemed update

Several new additions have made there way onto the allofliferedeemed website:

Added four more papers to the Andrew Basden pages (thanks to Andrew):

2011.
 Towards a Kleinian integration of interpretivist and critical-social
IS research: The contribution of Dooyeweerd's philosophy

2010.  How Dooyeweerd Can Engage With Extant Thought: Expanding Kleinian Principles in Information Systems Use Today

2010.  Towards lifeworld-orientated information systems development

2010.  Diversity in Cognitive Models


Added the Johan van der Hoeven pages (thanks to Rudi Hayward and Chris van Haeften)
Including his 1964 lectures: The Rise and Development of the Phenomenological Movement. Hamilton, Ontario, ARSS

Added the Alan Storkey pages (thnaks to Alan)
Including Foundational epistemologies in consumption theory (Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1993)

Reformational Thought in Canada: Essays in Honour of Theodore Plantinga

Reformational Thought in Canada
Essays in Honour of Theodore Plantinga
edited by Jason Zuidema
Clements Publishing
208 pp. £12.00
ISBN 978-1894667814
Available from amazon.co.uk
amazon.com
book depository
eden.co.uk

Dooyeweerd: The Crisis in Humanist Political Theory Collected works vol 7 now out!

The Crisis in Humanist Political Theory
Collected Works Volume 7
Herman Dooyeweerd
Paideia Press / Reformational Publishing Project
228 pp; £7.00/ US$ 9.00
ISBN 978-0888152121
Available at amazon.co.uk
amazon.com

Damned Lies and Statistics - Joel Best

Damned Lies and Statistics
Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians and Activists
Joel Best
Hbk, 199 pp, £14.95,
ISBN: 9780520219786
University of California Press, 2001

Statistics are constructed not discovered. It is people that create statistics, consequently statistics are coloured by the worldview of the constructor. There is no such thing as a neutral statistic. This book provides ample evidence that statistics are the products of social activity. Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice, has produced a readable and informative book. He draws upon statistics from many walks of life to illustrate his points.

Those who create statistics want to prove something. Best, shows how by asking key questions we can help expose these underlying perspectives:

Who created the statistic?
Why was this statistic created?
How was the statistic created?

Best deals with key issues such as the source of bad statistics: bad guesses, descriptive definitions, confusing questions and biased samples; mutant statistics: the ways in which good statistics can be mangled, misused and misunderstood; and the problems of statistical comparison. It requires no background in maths or statistics. It will help readers be more critical in their acceptance of statistical data.

Music for a Sunday morning

Beyond atheism - James K A Smith

Beyond Atheism: Postmodernity and the Future of God - James K.A. Smith from David Robinson on Vimeo.

Letters to a Young Calvinist - James K A Smith

Letters to a Young Calvinist
An Invitation to the Reformed Tradition
James K. A. Smith
Brazos Press, 2010
ISBN 978-1-58743-294-1
160 pp; pbk; US $14.99

Publisher's websiste

In The Devil Reads Derrida Jamie Smith offers an apologia for writing popular works: he sees it as 'a responsibility to function as public intellectuals for the church as "public"'. This popular book does just that - it serves the church; it provides an accessible and erudite introduction to the Reformed faith in an epistolatory format.

He has traveled from Plymouth Brethren to Pentecostal and Reformed. He knows popular evangelicalism. This book provides, in part, insights from the journey. As one who has traveled to neocalvinism from traditional anglicanism to free church to house church charismatics I appreciated Smith's helpful advice. As one unfamiliar with the different streams of Reformed in the US I found this a helpful and insightful guide. I particularly appreciated his comments on the different 'Reformed confessions' (Letters XX-XII). He also has some useful comments about the justification 'debate' and Tom Wright.

Thankfully Smith doesn't focus on TULIP, election and predestination - not that they aren't important issues - but there are other issues: 'I have a hard time believing that the denial of limited atonement is the most pressing matter of discipleship right now. We should be more worried about Walmat' (p. 91).

He draws upon Augustine, Calvin and Kuyper and makes an excellent case for the virtues and strengths of the Calvinist position. Calvinism he sees as: 'a lens that magnifies a persistent theme in the narrative of God;s self-revelation: that everything depends on God (p. 14); as an 'Augustinian renewal movement within the church catholic' (p. 40); as a '"region" of Reformed theology' (p. 44); as a counter to 'the rampant gnosticism that characterises North American evangelicalism' (p. 103); it's 'an entire "complex" or "world- and life-view"' (p. 110). This is a broad and fully biblical view.

There are many introductory books to Reformed thought, but most are dry and dull; this one is full of wit, warmth and wisdom. Buy it, read it and then buy another to give away.

Contents
Introduction
Letter 1 - Welcome to the Family
Letter 2 - On Religious Pride
Letter 3 - Proud to Be a Calvinist?
Letter 4 - Grace All the Way Down
Letter 5 - God Owes Us Nothing
Letter 6 - God Doesn't Even Owe Us an Answer
Letter 7 - Semper Reformanda
Postcard from Geneva
Letter 8 - A Historical Tour of Reformed Theology
Letter 9 - Augustine, Patron Saint of the Reformers
Postcard from Princeton
Letter 10 - To be Reformed Is to Be Catholic
Letter 11 - On Being "Confessional"
Letter 12 - Beyond Westminster
Letter 13 - God's "Social" Gospel
Letter 14 - Our Promise-Keeping God
Postcard from Amsterdam
Letter 15 - Elected to Love
Letter 16 - Church Matters
Letter 17 - Too Reformed for Church?
Postcard from Seoul
Letter 18 - On Grumpy Speculations
Letter 19 - Wide-Angle Calvinism
Letter 20 - Far as the Curse Is Found
Letter 21 - What Are We Saved For?
Letter 22 - Bibliographical Providence
Letter 23 - Enjoying God by Enjoying Creation

Reasons for my Hope - Benno van den Toren

Reasons for my Hope: Responding to Non-Christian Friends
Benno van den Toren
Monarch, 2010
ISBN 978 1 85424 863 3
175 pp, pbk, £7.99

Publisher's webpage here
Eden.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk
Book depository
Amazon.com


It is the Holy Spirit who brings conviction of sin and regeneration. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit uses us to reach others and this book will enable us to be more faithful and reasoned witnesses.

Van den Toren looks not only at answers to difficult questions such as suffering, relativism, the uniqueness of Christ and belief and knowledge, he provides keys to understand where people are coming from. He looks behind the questions to the motivating force behind them. This is important - we need to know why and just what people are asking. For example, the tough question: 'How can we believe in a loving God when there is so much suffering?' Is it an intellectual question; is it a desire to understand or make sense of one's personal suffering, or it it a 'dog's bone' question - one to gnaw upon to distract from the real issues? The approach and response for each will be very different.

He doesn't provide pat answers, but helps the reader think through the issues. His aim is to provoke and enable true dialogue between Christians and non-Christians. This is no manual for propaganda or advertising of the Christian faith.

Each chapter explores a key question and has brief summary points interspersed with questions for group discussion at the end of each chapter.

The book concludes with a list of further reading - there were some notable omissions, eg Roy Clouser's Knowing with the Heart and Tim Keller's The Reason for God.

There are many books on apologetics, but this, to my mind, is one of the best.

Three great reasons to get a kindle

Philosophical Frameworks for Understanding IS by Andrew Basden

Andrew Basden has posted online the chapters of his book Philosophical Frameworks for Understanding Information Systems:

• contents with approximate page numbers
  
• preface
  
• chapter 1, introduction
  
• chapter 2, overview of Dooyeweerd's philosophy
  
• chapter 3, portions of Dooyeweerd's positive philosophy
  
• chapter 4, framework for understanding computer use
  
• chapter 5, framework for understanding nature of computers
  
• chapter 6, framework for understanding IS development
  
• chapter 7, framework for understanding basic technological resources
  
• chapter 8, framework for understanding ICT as ecology
  
• chapter 9, reflections
  
• glossary
  

 Published by IGI Global 2008. To order it with 30% discount, download the flyer (500k pdf)

The Sacred Meal by Nora Gallagher

The Sacred Meal
Nora Gallagher
Thomas Nelson, 2009
(Ancient Practices Series ed. Phyllis Tickle)
ISBN 978-0-8499-4606-6


This book is part of the eight book Ancient Practices series under the general editorship of Phyllis Tickle.

The sacred meal in question here has been described in many different ways: communion, breaking of bread, mass, eucharist, Lord's meal, etc. Many doctrinal differences surround it: transubstantiation, who may partake, who may serve it; is it merely a memorial, the real; presence of Christ or something else?

Nora Gallagher writes from a Episcopal standpoint. It is this perspective that shapes her ideas and views about breaking of bread. This is very much a personal perspective. The only time she steps out of her seeming denominational bounds are when she asserts that there should be no rules as to who can take it and who cannot.

She writes very well and the book is full of literary allusions and epigraphs. The strength of the book is its narrative format, but that is also its weakness. There is little historical, cultural or theological reflection on the subject; the only exception is the brief chapter 9, 'A history in brief' - unfortunately the chapter is too brief. I would have liked to have seen this chapter developed more. The book is part of the Ancient Practices - but there is seemingly no link between the 'Sacred' meal that Gallagher describes and the ancient i.e. New Testament practice.



Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Dooyeweerd's Opbouw papers

Glenn Friesen has added his translations of three of Dooyeweerd's papers originally published in the journal Opbouw to his website:

“A Lay Person's Thoughts on Richard Wagner and his Tristan,”
a translation of “Leekengedachten over Richard Wagner en zijn
Tristan,”Opbouw: Maandschrift in dienst der Christ. Levens-en
wereldbeschouwing, van en voor jongeren (1914) 5-10; 66-68.

“The Disconsolateness of Wagnerianism,” a translation of “De
Troosteloosheid van het Wagnerianisme,” Opbouw: Maandschrift
in dienst der Christ. Levens-en wereldbeschouwing, van en voor jongeren
(1915) 97-112

“An Old Debt to a Pariah,” translation of “Een oude schuld
aan een paria,” Opbouw: Maandschrift in dienst der Christ.
Levens-en wereldbeschouwing, van en voor jongeren (1916) 161-180

Fasting - Scot McKnight

Scot McKnight
Fasting: fasting as Body Talk in the Christian Tradition
The Ancient Practices Series (Phylis Tickle series editor)
315 KB mobi edition
176 pages
Thomas Nelson, 2009
ISBN 978-0-8499-0108-9


Fasting isn’t a popular spiritual discipline. It’s not the sort of thing people get excited about: feasting, yes; but fasting, no. Particularly at this time of year!
This excellent book by Scot McKnight, part of The Ancient Practices Series under the general editorship of Phyllis Tickle, takes a fresh look at fasting.
Is fasting a form of trying to twist God’s arm? Is it a way of showing God how serious we are? No. McKnight stresses that fasting isn’t a manipulative tool that guarantees results. Indeed results are not important. This approach is refreshingly contrary to many other books on fasting that focus on the benefits and rewards of fasting. McKnight rightly stress that fasting is a response - a response to a grievous 'sacred moment'. These moments include death, grief, impending or actual disaster, the absence of justice, a lack of holiness and so on.

The book is in two main parts: Spirituality and fasting and Wisdom and fasting. The first looks at different aspects of fasting as ...  the second at fasting and... . He notes that fasting is not something we should do lightly as it is potentially damaging to the body. The first part looks at the theology of fasting and the second the practice of fasting.

For many fasting is a way of denying the body so they can focus on the so-called ‘spiritual’; it is for many an outworking of a nature/ grace dualism. However, McKnight contends that that fasting is not popular because we have exiled the body from spirituality. He is wanting an embodied form of spirituality. A spirit/ body dualism has denied the body and so fasting, a bodily function, has been ignored. Rather than denying the body, the kind of fasting that McKnight stresses is one that embraces the body.

There is a brief study guide and a list of recommended reading.
This is certainly the best book I've read on fasting.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

Santa exposed!

HT Stuff Fundies Like

The biblical story - a concept map

Biblical story concept map

View more presentations from Steve Bishop.

Odds and sods

Video excerpts from Jamie Smith's University of Ottawa lecture
Berkouwer and Barth on universalism
BBC iPlayer downloader
18 peer reviewed science papers listed
Why is worldview important?

The ethics of climate change with Stephen Bouma-Prediger

Philosophy in the Making by Anthony Tol

Philosophy in the Making
D. H. Th. Vollenhoven and the Emergence of Reformed Philosophy
Anthony Tol
Dordt College Press, 2010
ISBN 978-0-932914-86-6
549+vi pp; pbk; US$30
Available from:
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com

Recent years have seen a number of works by and on Vollenhoven. This by Tony Tol is the result of his PhD promoted by A. P. Bos from the Free University (VU). It looks at the development of a neo-calvinist philosophy. Tol pays particular attention to the part played by Vollenhoven in this development.

The book started life as a project to edit Vollenhoven’s seminal work the Isagoge Philosophiae a text Vollenhoven was continually changing and revising; there about a dozen different versions of the text! This book then traces Vollenhoven’s thought as it changed and evolved.

This is a welcome addition to the burgeoning interest in reformational philosophy. Vollenhoven’s work is often dense and opaque. Tol has done much of the hard work in helping us understand Vollenhoven and his ideas better.

Contents
1. Vollenhoven’s principled program
2. A bold beginning: theistic and metalogical intuitionism
3. Reforming revisions: from monadology to law-spheres
4. Embarking within bounds of law: the initial definite platform

Building a Worldwide Network: IAPCHE 1975-2002

Building a Worldwide Network: IAPCHE 1975-2002
John B. Hulst
Dordt College Press, 2009
9787770065187
US$10, 64 pp, pbk
Available here







The International Association for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education (IAPCHE) exists to promote Christian higher education worldwide. This slim booklet provides a brief overview and highlights of its fascinating and turbulent history.

John Hulst was involved with the organisation from its beginnings in 1975 until his retirement as its executive secretary in 2002 and so is well paced to write this inspiring book. The book has its origins as a series of articles in Contact, IAPCHE’s newsletter.

The twelve short chapters take us from proto-IAPCHE in 1973 when the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (PUforCHE) initiated the idea of a conference in 1975 to examine ‘Reformed Higher Educational Institutions as a Bulwark for the Kingdom of God’. As a result of that conference the seeds for the development of IAPCHE were sown. However, during this time there was conflict between two major Christian Universities, the Free University and the PU for CHE over apartheid. This in part prevented the full development of an international organisation sooner. It wasn’t until 1981 that an organisation, then named the International Council for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education (ICICHE) was formalised. It was in 1992 that the present IAPCHE name was adopted.

Initially rather than an association of organisations it was an organisation of Christian scholars and educators ‘supported by institutions of Christian higher education’. This enabled IAPCHE to maintain ‘its reformational rootage’ and reach out to other s in the broader Christian academic network.

One thing that IAPCHE and its members have stood for is the idea that Christian higher education is about theology and theological schools. Christian education is about all the disciplines coming under the lordship of Christ and being directed by ‘a kingdom of God perspective’.

This is an inspiring read; it narrates the trails and tribulations, the joys and encouragements of establishing an organisation to promote distinctly Christian education. It shows what can be done in the Lord’s strength and with determined, committed and visionary labourers such as John Hulst, Peter Schrotenboer, John VanderStelt, Bennie van der Walt, and many others. Long may it continue!

Music for a Sunday morning

Keith Jarrett's Koln concert

Bob Robinson on God's mission and the Church's mission of reconciliation

Bob at Vanguard Church blog has started an excellent series on God's mission and the Church's mission of reconciliation; posts so far include:

What is the creation? What is God redeemeing?
Entrusted with the ministry of the reconciliation of all things
The holistic mission of reconciliation

This post includes two great diagrams contasting dualistic and a non-dualistic spirituality:

Check out the series - your life will be richer for it!

Reality Bites: Cannibals

Odds and sods

jonny baker: your kingdom come
WWF doc format - no printing allowed
Interview with Paul Copan on his new book: Is God a Moral Monster? - more details on the book here.
Why do we confess 'he descended into hell'?
Trevor Cooling on Doing God in Education.
Derek Melleby reviews Jamie Smith's latest book - it's on my Christmas list.
Tim Keller on politics and culture

A rap on the Heidelberg Catechism:

Christmas tree

Our Christmas tree - hand made by my wife from driftwood.

Unthanks sing Robert Wyatt

What do we want?

HT Bradley Wright

Interview with James K A Smith

Odds and sods

Gregory Baus takes apart the neo-two-kingdoms view: Sanctifying the common - well worth the read.
Refwite takes a look at the UK reformational scene and the I'm not ashamed campaign
Derek Melleby on Jamie Smith's new book - this book is on my Christmas list
Jamie Smith on the secularisation of thanksgiving and the sacralisation of the military
Do atheists ever become Christians? Holly Ordway and Stephen Notman give their perspectives (mp3) [HT Apologetics 315]
An excellent reformational history bargain from Paul Otto
Mike Wittmer on Tom Wright
A chart on denominations
God and the Genocide slides

I am not ashamed