I think I've figure this out:
AIDS = The poor. Therefore, who cares?
Malaria = The poor. Therefore, who cares?
Swine Flu = Could be us. Better get on this one!
"If God is sovereign, then his lordship must extend over all of life, and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the church or within the Christian orbit." Abraham Kuyper Common Grace 1.1.
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
AIDS, malaria and swine flu
Mike Todd's hit the mark:
Monday, 18 May 2009
Angels and Demons: revisited
Dan Brown's Angels and Demons has recently been released as a film.
Thomas Hibbs provides a helpful review here.
The release of the film gives me the opportunity to recycle this post on the book:
Dan Brown is a publishing phenomenon. At present he has four books in the bestsellers list, including The Da Vinci Code at number one.
He has hit on a winning formula: short chapters that end with a hook, a conspiracy theory and an international media event such as the election of a US president, or the election of a new pope.
The Da Vinci Code has caused much stir among Christians. Though many seem to forget that Brown – despite what he says in the ‘FACT’ section at the front of the book – is writing fiction. It’s easy to confuse genres, something that postmodernism seems to encourage. Much less has been written about his other books.
What concerns me most about his Angels and Demons is his view of science and religion and how they relate – not least in one of the characters: Maximillian Kohler, the ‘director general of CERN’. Kohler has a totally out-dated positivistic view of science. It is a view not unlike that of the two evangelistic atheists Richard Dawkins and Peter Atkins. For Kohler science is the angel and religion the demon.
Brown’s Kohler talks with the 'hero' Robert Langdon:
…Langdon added, ‘the unification of science and religion was not what the church wanted.’
‘Of course not,’ Kohler interrupted. ‘The union would have nullified the church’s claim to be the sole vessel through which man [sic] could understand God. So the church tried Galileo as a heretic, found him guilty, and put him under house arrest. …
As well as repeating the god-of-the gaps fallacy and the Galileo myth, Brown’s Kohler is advocating a conflict model of science and religion. This idea that science conflicts with religion and thus makes religion redundant has its historical roots, at least in a popular form, in the writings of John Draper and subsequently by Andrew Dickson White's (1832-1918) two volumed book A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1897)Historians of science, such as Lindberg and Numbers, John Hedley Brooke, and Colin Russell have shown that the main thesis of White’s and Draper’s work was based on misinformation and half-truths, and have exposed the naivety of the conflict category. Nevertheless, the conflict metaphor is still prevalent. It provides a pertinent example of how worldview colours perception of reality. The combatants in the conflicts that did exist were not science and Christianity; rather the combatants were, as Brooke notes, the adherents of the new science and the adherents of the
sanctified science of the previous generation. Science and religion are not in conflict, neither are they totally independent.
The fallacious view of science as objective and value-free, and faith as subjective and value-laden, has long been demolished by philosophers of science. Unfortunately, these views are still propounded by the popular media. Faith is integral to the scientific enterprise. It is this that Brown’s Kohler misses.
Thomas Hibbs provides a helpful review here.
The release of the film gives me the opportunity to recycle this post on the book:
Dan Brown is a publishing phenomenon. At present he has four books in the bestsellers list, including The Da Vinci Code at number one.
He has hit on a winning formula: short chapters that end with a hook, a conspiracy theory and an international media event such as the election of a US president, or the election of a new pope.
The Da Vinci Code has caused much stir among Christians. Though many seem to forget that Brown – despite what he says in the ‘FACT’ section at the front of the book – is writing fiction. It’s easy to confuse genres, something that postmodernism seems to encourage. Much less has been written about his other books.
What concerns me most about his Angels and Demons is his view of science and religion and how they relate – not least in one of the characters: Maximillian Kohler, the ‘director general of CERN’. Kohler has a totally out-dated positivistic view of science. It is a view not unlike that of the two evangelistic atheists Richard Dawkins and Peter Atkins. For Kohler science is the angel and religion the demon.
Brown’s Kohler talks with the 'hero' Robert Langdon:
'The men and women of CERN are here to find answers to the same
questions man has been asking since the beginning of time. Where did we
come from? What are we made of?’
‘And these answers are in a physics lab?’
‘You sound surprised’
‘I am. The questions seem spiritual.’
‘Mr Langdon, all questions were once spiritual. Since the beginning of time spirituality and religion have been called on to fill in the gaps that science did not understand. The rising and setting of the sun was once attributed to Helios and a flaming chariot. Earthquakes and tidal waves were the wrath of Poseidon. Science has now proven those gods to be false idols. Soon all Gods will be proven to be false idols. Science has now provided answers to almost every question man [sic] can ask. There are only a few questions left, and they are the esoteric ones. Where do we come from? What are we doing here? What is the meaning of life and the universe?’
Langdon was amazed. ‘And these are questions CERN is trying to answer?’
‘Correction. These are questions we are answering.’
Demons and Angels Corgi edition, 2001 p. 43
…Langdon added, ‘the unification of science and religion was not what the church wanted.’
‘Of course not,’ Kohler interrupted. ‘The union would have nullified the church’s claim to be the sole vessel through which man [sic] could understand God. So the church tried Galileo as a heretic, found him guilty, and put him under house arrest. …
Demons and Angels Corgi edition, 2001 p. 51-2
As well as repeating the god-of-the gaps fallacy and the Galileo myth, Brown’s Kohler is advocating a conflict model of science and religion. This idea that science conflicts with religion and thus makes religion redundant has its historical roots, at least in a popular form, in the writings of John Draper and subsequently by Andrew Dickson White's (1832-1918) two volumed book A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1897)Historians of science, such as Lindberg and Numbers, John Hedley Brooke, and Colin Russell have shown that the main thesis of White’s and Draper’s work was based on misinformation and half-truths, and have exposed the naivety of the conflict category. Nevertheless, the conflict metaphor is still prevalent. It provides a pertinent example of how worldview colours perception of reality. The combatants in the conflicts that did exist were not science and Christianity; rather the combatants were, as Brooke notes, the adherents of the new science and the adherents of the
sanctified science of the previous generation. Science and religion are not in conflict, neither are they totally independent.
The fallacious view of science as objective and value-free, and faith as subjective and value-laden, has long been demolished by philosophers of science. Unfortunately, these views are still propounded by the popular media. Faith is integral to the scientific enterprise. It is this that Brown’s Kohler misses.
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Henry Van Til's Calvinistic Concept of culture
Henry Van Til's Calvinistic Concept of Culture is now available here. It has a chapter on Kuyper and one on Schilder's view of culture.
The Calvin is Tic Concept of Culture
The Calvin is Tic Concept of Culture
Saturday, 16 May 2009
Anakainosis: a journal for reformational thought
Anakainosis the journal for reformational thought is now starting to be placed on line at allofliferedeemed.
It began publication in September 1978 and ceased in 1986. It was published by the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship in Toronto under the editorship of Al Wolters. It contained articles by Robert Knudsen, Danie Strauss, Roy Clouser, Herman Dooyeweerd, Andre Troost, Bennie van der Walt, Doug Blomberg, Henk Hart, Bernie Zylstra and many others.
At present volume 1 issues 1-4 and volume 2 issues 1, 2 and 4 are up. More will be added over the next few months.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Plantinga's Warranted Christian Belief - now on-line
Alvin Plantinga's Warranted Christian Belief is now on-line at CCEL.
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Odds and sods
Tom Wright talks about his book Justification
Refwrite highligts a new book from the Pascal centre: Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions
Trevin Wax discusses how to preach the Sermon on the mount from memory!
15 useful Firefox extensions for bloogers
Dan Lambert shows good practice for dealing with an atheist's book
An interesting book on Christ and culture looking at it from an historical perspective: The Road to Eden [HT Between two worlds]
A Bruce Cockburn weekend with Brian Walsh
Kevin DeYoung on why he is a Calvinist
Refwrite highligts a new book from the Pascal centre: Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions
Trevin Wax discusses how to preach the Sermon on the mount from memory!
15 useful Firefox extensions for bloogers
Dan Lambert shows good practice for dealing with an atheist's book
An interesting book on Christ and culture looking at it from an historical perspective: The Road to Eden [HT Between two worlds]
A Bruce Cockburn weekend with Brian Walsh
Kevin DeYoung on why he is a Calvinist
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
CPJ's new President
Gideon Strauss is to be the new President for the Center for Public Justice, succeeding Jim Skillen. Gideon writes:
I am grateful that I will not be doing this work on my own, or out of nothing! CPJ is built on rock, and has a rich legacy, a reliable constituency of partners and supporters, and a fabulous board (my best interview experience ever — and I have had some really great interview experiences!). In addition, Jim and Doreen Skillen are not abandoning ship but are instead remaining on board for the foreseeable future, to my great relief and delight. And in the deepest sense, none of us at the Center are doing this work of equiping citizens, developing leaders, and shaping policy on our own, because we know that we are not our own, but belong to our faithful saviour, Jesus Christ.
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Seerveld on worldview
A Christian world-and-life vision like a biblical way of life, does not just drop out of heaven ready-made (p. 67).
[A] Christian world-and-life vision is a thetical orientation and not a judgmental condemnation, a program for doing good for the commonweal and not a plan of attack on enemies (p. 71).
Calvin Seerveld in After Worldview (Dordt College Press, 2009)
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Ray Pennings on neo-calvinism and neo-puritanism
Ray Pennings is interviewed by David Murray on neo-calvinism and neo-puritanism.
Neo-Calvinism and Neo-Puritanism from Puritan Reformed on Vimeo.
Odds and sods
Scott McKnight starts to look at Wright and Piper's takes on the New perspective
Monegism has a list of complementarian resources - and the provocative statement that
Mike Wittmer on Luther and swine flu
Monegism has a list of complementarian resources - and the provocative statement that
The denial of complementarianism undermines the church's practical embrace of the authority of Scripture (thus eventually and inevitably harming the church's witness to the Gospel)Peter Enns has a review of Paul Seely's book Inerrant Wisdom. I don't know the book but I have a lot of time for Seely's development of Calvin's accommodationaist approach to Genesis.
Mike Wittmer on Luther and swine flu
Al Wolters on allofliferedeemed
I've recently added to the Al Wolters pages at allofliferedeemed the following papers:
1989. “On the Idea of Worldview and Its Relation to Philosophy,” in Paul A. Marshall, et al., eds., Stained Glass: Worldview and Social Science (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1989), 14-25
1989. “On the Idea of Worldview and Its Relation to Philosophy,” in Paul A. Marshall, et al., eds., Stained Glass: Worldview and Social Science (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1989), 14-25
1987. “Worldview and Textual Criticism in 2 Peter 3:10,” Westminster Theological Journal 49 (1987) 405-413.
1985. “The Intellectual Milieu of Herman Dooyeweerd,” in C.T. McIntire, ed., The Legacy of Herman Dooyeweerd (New York: University Press of America, 1985) 1-19
1983. “Dutch Neo-Calvinism: Worldview, Philosophy and Rationality,” in H. Hart et al., eds., Rationality in the Calvinian Tradition (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1983) 113-131
1978/ 1999 “The Foundational Command: ‘Subdue the Earth!’” in Year of Jubilee, Cultural Mandate, Worldview (Study Pamphlet No. 382; ed. B. van der Walt; Potchefstroom: Institute for Reformational Studies, 1999) 27-34. [Previously available as ICS Academic Paper, 1978.]
1975/ 1987. "Ideas have legs" The Guide July. Also in A Christian Union in Labour's Wasteland, edited by Edward Vanderkloet
(Wedge Publishing, 1978). Republished by Institute for Christian Studies, 1987
Vanguard articles:
1979. Breaking out of the evangelical world-view: a review of John Stott's latest work'
1980. 'The centre and the circumference'
Anakainosis articles:
1978. In memoriam: Vollenhoven
1979. Vollenhoven on the 'word of God'
1983. 'Ground motives'
Monday, 4 May 2009
Keith Sewell in Leeds and Bristol
June 09 will see Keith Sewell in the UK. Keith is professor of History at Dordt College, Iowa. On the 5th and 6th June he will give the WYSOCS Summer lectures :
What are the shapers in the history of the church that produced what it is today?
And what shapes of today will gain a hearing tomorrow for the Gospel of the Kingdom of God?
| Lecture One | Friday 5th June at 8 pm. |
| The Idea of a Christian Society - from the Reformation to the present time. | |
| Lecture Two | Saturday 6th June at 10 am. |
| The Church of Today - the journey it took to arrive where we are. | |
| Lecture Three | Saturday 6th June at 12 noon. |
| The Church of Tomorrow - new possibilities for bringers of transformation. | |
After Worldview part II
Part II: Concern and critiques, comprises essays by George N. Pierson, Aron Reppman, and Calvin Seerveld.
Pierson in a particularly insightful piece examines the worldview confusion among evangelicals. He argues, convincingly, that many evangelical scholars 'have misunderstood and, therefore, misuse the concept of worldview' (p. 29).
He sees four problem areas:
1. The failure to distinguish between theoretical and pre-theoretical thought
2. the failure to recognise the distinction between structure and direction
3. the failure to recognise the religious nature of all of life; and
4. the failure to distinguish between normativity and morality.
This diagnosis is spot on. It remains to be seen how evangelicals respond to this.
Aron Repman addresses the question: 'Does promoting a Christian worldview fulfill the mandate of Christian education?' His answers is yes and no! Yes in that some aspects have been remarkably fruitful and no in that aspects of worldview have not (yet) been fully recognised and developed. Again he comes back to the misunderstanding of the pre-theoretical. Worldview is a way of framing the question rather than a recipie for finding pre-packaged answers - 'a place to stand ... rather than a 'rocking-chair on which to sit' (p.51).
Seerveld looks at 'the damages of a Christian worldview'. He provides a timely reminder that a Christian world-and-life vision can become idolised and a shibboleth to determine who's in and who's out. He stresses that a Christian world-and-life view is not a 'cut and dried paradigm you can be cocksure about - one size fits all feet; it is also not just a tentative guess about what you should be duly hesitant' (p. 71).
Pierson in a particularly insightful piece examines the worldview confusion among evangelicals. He argues, convincingly, that many evangelical scholars 'have misunderstood and, therefore, misuse the concept of worldview' (p. 29).
He sees four problem areas:
1. The failure to distinguish between theoretical and pre-theoretical thought
2. the failure to recognise the distinction between structure and direction
3. the failure to recognise the religious nature of all of life; and
4. the failure to distinguish between normativity and morality.
This diagnosis is spot on. It remains to be seen how evangelicals respond to this.
Aron Repman addresses the question: 'Does promoting a Christian worldview fulfill the mandate of Christian education?' His answers is yes and no! Yes in that some aspects have been remarkably fruitful and no in that aspects of worldview have not (yet) been fully recognised and developed. Again he comes back to the misunderstanding of the pre-theoretical. Worldview is a way of framing the question rather than a recipie for finding pre-packaged answers - 'a place to stand ... rather than a 'rocking-chair on which to sit' (p.51).
Seerveld looks at 'the damages of a Christian worldview'. He provides a timely reminder that a Christian world-and-life vision can become idolised and a shibboleth to determine who's in and who's out. He stresses that a Christian world-and-life view is not a 'cut and dried paradigm you can be cocksure about - one size fits all feet; it is also not just a tentative guess about what you should be duly hesitant' (p. 71).
Sunday, 3 May 2009
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Last April 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008
April 2005
Introduced Paul Robinson's blog and his New Critique website
April 2006
Looked at evidences for Jesus' resurrection
A brief biography of reformational scholar E L Hebden Taylor
It included links to:
April 2007
On hell as annihilation
Rocky's favourite questions to ask atheists
Leonard Euler
Palm Sunday - why were the crowds so fickle?
There was also parts of my series on Why Christians are reluctant greens:
April 2008
Book reviews:
The kingdom as jubilee
Links to Dooyeweerd study guides
April 2009
Introduced Paul Robinson's blog and his New Critique website
April 2006
Looked at evidences for Jesus' resurrection
A brief biography of reformational scholar E L Hebden Taylor
It included links to:
- Kenn Hermanns's essay on teaching history backwards
- Albert Gedratis's reformational journalism project
April 2007
On hell as annihilation
Rocky's favourite questions to ask atheists
Leonard Euler
Palm Sunday - why were the crowds so fickle?
There was also parts of my series on Why Christians are reluctant greens:
- Introduction
- 1. A failure to grasp the full implications of the cross
- 2. Misunderstanding the message of the gospel of the kingdom
- 3. The size of the problems
- 4. Dualism
- 5. The New Age movement
- 6. Jesus didn't get involved in environmental issues
- 7. A defective eschatology
- 8. A failure to develop a Christian worldview
April 2008
Book reviews:
- Faith and Force by Clough and Stiltner
- Science and Grace by Morris and Petcher
- Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind by B J van der Walt
The kingdom as jubilee
Links to Dooyeweerd study guides
April 2009
Friday, 1 May 2009
Odds and sods
Philosophy to the max: Andrew Basden's new extreme philosophy website
Robert Minto has an interesting discussion of Bavinck's and Vollenhoven's view of faith.
Here's some more resources on Herman Bavinck
A new editionof Themelios is now on-line
Stanley Jaki physicist and theologian has died
Calvin's commentaries available for download for the e-sword
Robert Minto has an interesting discussion of Bavinck's and Vollenhoven's view of faith.
Here's some more resources on Herman Bavinck
A new editionof Themelios is now on-line
Stanley Jaki physicist and theologian has died
Calvin's commentaries available for download for the e-sword
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