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On March 27, 2017 By In Books, Culture, Family and Children, Interviews, Theology, Wisdom

Teaching Redemption Redemptively: Theological Educators in Dialog

athens

Aside from actually teaching, nothing has aided my growth as an educator more than talking with experienced, respected teachers; particularly those in my discipline: theology/worldview. It’s hard to think of two living teachers more esteemed in the field than Dan Kunkle and Dan Ribera.

Mr. Kunkle has been the longtime worldview teacher at Phil-Mont Christian Academy in Philadelphia, PA (to learn more about Kunkle, check this out). And on the other coast, Dr. Ribera teaches bible at Bellevue Christian School just outside of Seattle, WA (to learn more about Ribera, check this out). Together, they have close to 80 years of teaching experience.

I recently engaged in some shoptalk with the Dans (Dani?). While I had high expectations for the exchange, I couldn’t have anticipated just how rich their insights would be. With permission, that conversation is reproduced below: (more…)

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On December 6, 2016 By In Books

Review of the True Saint Nicholas by Bill Bennett

There are too many unknown facts, as Bill Bennett rightly asserts. Much of the historical data is purely speculative except a few references, poems, and prayers in honor of Saint Nicholas. The Roman Catholic tradition has largely exorcised ol’ St. Nicholas from the Church, while the Eastern Orthodox tradition continues to celebrate his life every December 6th.

Bennett provides a pleasant read filled with fantastical stories and a delightful context to the Bishop of Myra.

The records at the very least seem to concur with the general perception that the Saint Nicholas that existed in the days of Constantine (yes, he most likely slapped Arius!) was indeed filled with generosity and abounding in love for all sorts of people.

Bennett illustrates that Saint Nicholas, the Bishop, had become commercialized only a few centuries after his death. The entrepreneurial spirit was alive and well in those days. The life of Saint Nicholas was being used to sell and to attract business. This commercialization is no different than the Americanized Santa Claus (invented much later in the 20th century).

At the same time, it is important to note that abuses are always prone to happen and that simply doing away with the figure to avoid the tough questions is no way to handle the matter. Rather, there is a legitimate way to use the history of Saint Nicholas, and its subsequent re-adaptation–with all its colors and jolly-ness–to draw us and our children’s attention to those rare gifts and virtues of the Christian faith.

Bill Bennett connects the new Santa Claus with the faithful Bishop who suffered and lived for the sake of his Lord. The connection provides us with a sound knowledge of the origins of this delightfully rotund figure loved by many whose history is frequently forgotten. The book offered a portrait of an ancient figure whose life was dedicated to the giving of gifts and to relieving the suffering of many. For this reason, Saint Nicholas is to be celebrated and remembered.

 

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On October 27, 2016 By In Books, Theology

Antimodern Presbyterianism: Challenging the Spirit of the Age

dabney-2

After writing my piece comparing Mercersburg Theology with Neo Calvinism, my online-friend Gregory Baus pointed out that the tenets I was describing can be found in the best, if not the whole, of the Presbyterian tradition. As an example, he pointed to Sean Michael Lucas’ definitive biography of Robert Lewis Dabney, specifically his chapter dealing with Dabney’s public theology. Below is a short excerpt from that chapter, of interest to those Presbyterians concerned with cultivating an ancient, “antimodern” faith:

dabney“Dabney’s strong adherence to an older faith placed him closer to antimodernists, who were discovering ancient religions such as Buddhism or rediscovering Catholicism, than to New South Presbyterians, who downplayed their creeds in order to influence Southern Culture….

In a gilded age that made the seemingly impossible possible though unprecedented technological manipulation, antimodernists sought a refuge in otherworldly faiths, which proclaimed a transcendent deity who was shrouded in mystery.

Though most scholars have failed to recognize the possibility that Old School Calvinism—as maintained at Princeton Seminary or defended by Dabney—could be as antimodern as Buddhism or Anglo-Catholicism, for Dabney it appeared that the older faith in a transcendent, sovereign deity both put him out of step with the prevailing modernist spirit of the age and provided resources to challenge the modern age of the Spirit.”

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The Walls Children

On June 8, 2016 By In Books, Culture, Family and Children

The Glass Castle: How to “Skedaddle” Through Life

Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls

 

The Glass Castle is the compelling memoir of Jeannette Walls. Written in 2005, The Glass Castle follows the various exploits of a family’s drunken father and free-spirit mother. As of last month, Lionsgate began filming a Hollywood adaption of the book. The movie is anticipated for release in 2017 featuring Brie Larson (who also starred in the critically acclaimed “Room” in 2015), Naomi Watts, and Woody Harrelson. The book exposes the cultural challenges of the post-modern family and the vulnerabilities of a family outside of the Christian Church. The morality of “independence” is challenged as the memoir painfully connects “free spirit” parenting to neglected, abused, and resentful children. (more…)

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On May 23, 2016 By In Books

A Review of Joseph Loconte’s A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918

Guest Post by Tom Robertson

The little knots of friends who turn their backs on the ‘World’ are those who really transform it. -C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Joseph Loconte gives needed attention to the part played by the Great War – the “cataclysm of 1914-1918,” as he calls it – in helping to shape the men we would come to know, simply as Tolkien and Lewis. This horrific experience, far from killing the imaginations of these beloved men, and far from causing them to retreat from the world, provided a context for friendship and imagination. Rather than extinguishing the idea of heroism and of true friendship, as it did for many of their contemporaries, their imaginations were aflame with deep fellowships, enduring love, ultimate sacrifice, and epic valor.

Loconte has managed to capture the spirit of the rapidly changing culture that existed both before and after World War I while presenting Tolkien and Lewis as valiant men in their own right, who not only resisted the lure of “the myth of progress,” which helped to usher in the Great War, but emerged to become hopeful, prolific, influential men even after the myth was shattered. One is presented with two men who, against all odds, helped one another swim against the stream of pessimism, pacifism, and realism that flooded the literary imaginations of postwar Europe as the great myth burst. And they did this in the most heroic fashion. Loconte says although “the Great War produced many cynics and pacifists” who found “nothing heroic about the folly of war, yet, as veterans of this conflict, Tolkien and Lewis chose to remember not only its horrors and sorrows: they wanted to recall the courage, sacrifice, and the friendships that made it endurable.” These two, with the encouragement of their little knot of friends – ‘The Inklings’, as they called themselves – provided a little rivulet of their own.

Their hopeful stories, filled with heartbreaking tragedy, acts of valor, and happy endings, provide a spring of cool fresh water for many thirsty would-be Hobbits and Narnians. They are the kind of stories that are seeded in the experience of pain and watered by joy. “It is a good bet,” says Loconte, “that only men who…experienced [friendships] on the field of combat…could write passages of such compassion, grit, and courage.” The Inklings, says Loconte, was their attempt “to recapture something like the camaraderie that sustained them during” the Great War. “It is a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” In A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, And A Great War, Loconte has given us a book which may very well serve to inspire the next “little knot of friends” to enter into the “dangerous business…of going out your door,” and to “turn their back’s on the ‘World.'” For they, like Lewis and Tolkien, may one day be “those who really transform it.”

Tom Robertson leads a weekly gathering of future military aviators centering around the writings of C.S. Lewis. Debbie and he will have been married 30 years in June of this year. They have two children, Jourdan and Andrew.

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On April 4, 2016 By In Books

How to read smarter: the 90-10 rule

A friend of mine linked to an article by Peter Bregman in the Harvard Business Review recently about how to read more and faster. At least a book a week, the article says. There a fair amount of useful stuff in there. But I think it’s missing something – partly because of the premise of the article, “How to read more“. It seems to me that this is missing the point.

Over the years, I’ve noticed what I now call The 90-10 Rule. It’s simple. Roughly speaking, around 10% of the books I pick up give me around 90% of the benefit of all the books I read. Most books are simply not very good, or they might be good for someone else but not particularly good for me (too hard, too simple, too technical, not about something I’m interested in, etc).If you stop to think about it, I bet the same is true for you, too.

The key issue with reading, therefore, is not to read more books. It’s to work out what those 10% of books are, and to spend your valuable time on them, and (with a few necessary exceptions) them alone.

This means that when you first get to a new book, one of the first tasks is to work out whether you’re even going to bother spending more than a few minutes with it. That’s where the tips in the HBR article are very useful. But the best thing to do with a book that doesn’t grab you is to stop reading it altogether and spend your time doing something more productive.

So, for example, in the last year, I’ve been blown away by Richard Hays, Reading Backwards; James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom; Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death; and a couple of others. The year before, the list included Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos and Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow. A few years ago, it was Tom Weinandy, Does God Suffer; and a couple of years before that it was Stanley Fish, The Trouble with Principle. Alongside these, there are some old favourites that I go back to frequently, like Calvin’s Institutes and Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics.

I’ve read each of these several times, trying to soak them up, inhabit their world, take them on board, be really changed by them. And with each of them there has been a wonderful moment in the first few minutes of reading it when I’ve suddenly realised, I’ve got one! I’ve found one of the 10%!

I don’t think reading more books should really be the aim of the exercise. Reading more good books is the key – along with having the courage to put the bad ones down.

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On February 20, 2016 By In Books, Culture, Politics

Political Theology From a Field Hospital

The books of William T. Cavanaugh, Professor of Catholic studies at DePaul University, have a unifying feature: they challenge common assumptions. Just try reading The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict or Theopolitical Imagination: Christian Practices of Space and Time without questioning something you previously assumed.

This week week Eerdmans released his newest book, Field Hospital: The Church’s Engagement with a Wounded World. While the book (which Matthew Levering calls “Richly instructive”) is made up of a number of essays and lectures developed over several years, the work holds together as a cohesive argument, summed up in Pope Francis’ famous metaphor of the church as a field hospital. Says Cavanaugh:

“The image of field hospital pictures the church not simply lobbying but taking risks, refusing to accept ‘the political system’ or ‘the economy’ as is, but rather creating new mobile and improvised spaces where different kinds of politics or economic practices can take root.”

While there’s plenty within the pages with which to quibble (the distinguishing quality of any good book!), the book represents the mature, thoughtful thinking of one of the most creative Political Theologians working today. In keeping with Cavanaugh’s overall project, that which is “earthly” is revealed to be incredibly “heavenly,” and vice versa. For a taste, watch the following interview between Cavanaugh and Rachel Bomberger:

 

 

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On January 21, 2016 By In Books, Scribblings

Recycled Protestant Liberalism

Here is a quote from Os Guinness’ book Fool’s Talk  about how the evangelical world is filled with theological liberalism:

Full blown revisionism was once the natural preserve of extreme Protestant liberalism, and its proponents still lead the field by miles. But they no longer run alone. “Emergent Evangelicals” have emerged and aged until now only nostalgia or denial allows them to claim that they are emergent. But as their emergent sell-by date has passed, they demonstrate the effects of being weaned on the diet of their day-postmodern uncertainties, a relentless rage for relevance and a burning desire to be always seen as “innovative” and “thinking outside the box.” Not surprisingly, the result in the extreme cases is an Evangelical revisionism that is a recycled Protestant liberalism with the same feeble hold on the Bible and truth, nonchalance about authority, a patronizing stance towards tradition and the church catholic, and a naive idea of their own importance as heralds of newer, fresher gospels, and an uncritical stance towards the future.

Guinness’ description is spot on. Much of what passes for evangelical today is nothing of the sort. The assumptions of many evangelicals line up nicely with those we saw during liberalism’s great day in the late 19th and early 20th century. In particular, their “feeble hold on the Bible and truth.” Evangelical denominations, conferences, seminaries, and publishing houses are full of those who shave Scripture to fit their agenda, deny Scripture’s inerrancy, or blatantly ignore the plain teaching of the Bible.  Evangelical pastors are not much better. And perhaps the worst part is we don’t even know we have been gutted. We walk along, whistling merrily, believing we are alive when we are just a carcass.

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On January 12, 2016 By In Books

Book Review: The Way of Holiness: The Study in Christian Growth

Prior, Kenneth. The Way of Holiness: The Study in Christian Growth. InterVarsity Press, 1982

The book functions as a systematic overview of the Christian’s journey from salvation (justification) to glorification. With pastoral care, Prior engages the reader in a study of the way life works through the operation of the Holy Spirit. The Christian life is far from a mechanical model, but a dynamic model that undergoes various stages. The author leads the reader towards the goal of holiness. Holiness is not an immediate status achieved, but a status worked out by the Christian.

While providing a few helpful illustrations (33 & 95), a useful overview of the work of the Spirit, a valid critique of perfectionism, the author, in the reviewer’s estimation, fails the consistency test. Though the author discusses quietism and pietism (130) and offers helpful refutations of both models, Prior seems to fall into one category or another throughout the book. Perhaps he was seeking to avoid both extremes, but the language used throughout implies a variation of pietism and quietism inherent in his discussion of holiness. Simply put, the author does not distance himself enough from those categories. Quoting Keswick authors on two separate occasions, he seems to downplay the redemption of Christ’s work in the world after his Ascension. He treats passages that have a particular first-century context as universal for all times and all places. While Paul says the devil was the god of this age, can we make that statement universal in light of Jesus’ enthronement. Such language may imply a form of despair with this world’s status and plunge the Christian into forms of quietism or pietism precisely what the author wants the reader to avoid. (more…)

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On January 9, 2016 By In Books

Book Review: Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal

Lovelace, Richard. Dynamics of Spiritual Life, An Evangelical Theology of Renewal, IVP Academic, 1979

Lovelace’s book “is a manual of spiritual theology (11).” The book is a historical and a sociological overview of major renewal movements in the last few hundred years. Not only does Lovelace offer a rewarding analysis of each movement, but he also theologizes expertly in each of them giving even the most ardent critic an appreciation for the author’s labors.

Lovelace offers us a way towards revival, but also alerts the reader to the consequences of spiritual decline, what he calls “a destructive enculturation (184).” Gleaning from an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the ecclesiastical landscape, the author surveys different renewal movements and provides the good, the bad, and the ugly of each.

Most salient, it seems, is his critique of pastoral elitism (225). He concludes that the “elimination of pastoral elitism is…the principal reason for the growth of Pentecostalism…in the third world (225).” The democratization of the laity is an incentive to carry on the kingdom’s work without the over-dependence on a sole authority figure, he argues. The activism of the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches and their propensity to lead by prayer rather than by organization is what makes these movements a force in the revivalistic tradition.

Lovelace is not guilty of false prophecy since he spoke as a man of his time writing in the 1970’s. However, he would have been shocked to see the level of stardom attributed to modern day leaders in the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements of the 21st century. These churches, in this reviewer’s estimation, no longer thrive via the decentralization of congregations, but through the forceful and “charismatic” personalities of its leaders who have used the naivete of their laity to bring in millions of dollars through ungodly methods.

While this critique is unfair, since the author has not (to my knowledge) addressed this matter, it is perhaps a form of cyclical inevitability that decentralized congregations eventually fall under some hierarchical structure for good or ill.

This reviewer is inclined to see Lovelace’s analysis of cycles in various renewal movements as a way of reading current movements in the Church and perhaps offering some prophetic pronouncements to an age that has abandoned the work of the Spirit in exchange for a few crumbs under the intellectual table of pagans. The book offers a way forward, but the reader will have to digest the profound insights and biblical answers for a modern revitalization of the church of our Lord.

The author’s constant exhortation to pursue prayer as a means of bringing about change offers all of us, especially in pastoral ministry, a fresh account of the need to seek God in times of plenty or want.

Best Quote:

“History teaches us the danger and futility of fighting and separating over the ceremony that is supposed to unite us instead of living the reality it embodies.” (170)

 

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